Roland Emmerich’s latest magnum opus released in India today along with the rest of the World (with some countries having the release a day before on March 6, 2008) and coming as it does from the director of such releases as “Universal Soldier”, “Stargate”, “Independence Day”, “Godzilla”, “The Patriot” and “The Day After Tomorrow” expectations are certainly high for another big bonanza action epic.
A cursory glance in IMDB will in fact show that Mr. Emmerich has movies outlined till 2010 with “2012” set to release in 2009 and “Fantastic Voyage” set to release in 2010, which hopefully does a good job when compared to 1966’s “Fantastic Voyage”, which is one of my favorite movies and also path breaking among science fiction movies along with Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” and 1956’s “Forbidden Planet” which also is one of my favorite movies of all time and is a must watch for all movie aficionados as well as the general public alike.
I am not much of a Roland Emmerich fan and can honestly say I did not enjoy very much any of his movies with the exception of “The Patriot” mainly because of Mel Gibson and the late Heath Ledger. Independence Day among other things was mildly enjoyable at least to me mainly because of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. Anyway we ended up going to 10,000 B.C. for lack of any other big release and mainly since my wife wanted to step out.
Coming to the movie, one feels Emmerich has failed big time on all fronts and also this is execution of a studio executive’s idea and not one coming from Emmerich himself. Emmerich is one of those directors of present day who makes his movies big and I mean really big on a huge canvas. More than stars and A‑listers from Hollywood, his movies are instead filled with big bonanza special effects; even Stargate from way back in 1994, before CGI really took off, had some pretty nifty special FX. It is in this area surprisingly that 10,000 B.C. fails. The movie is mainly a mash up of Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto and 300, and in terms of special effects a little bit of Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park all of which offered a much better thrill ride to the viewer.
Coming to the story, we have a prehistoric tribe (remember 10,000 B.C.) that has the best hunters since they hunt and kill for meat gigantic wooly mammoths much like present day elephants, only they are huge and hairy. Another warrior prehistoric civilization invades and kills members of our hunters’ tribe and also they carry of lots of prisoners to sacrifice to their Gods and also to work as slaves building their cities. I am assuming this warrior civilization is the prehistoric Egyptian civilization since they are shown building pyramids and using slaves’ big time. Among the prisoners carried away from the prehistoric hunter tribe is Evolet played by newcomer Camilla Belle and she happens to be the woman of D’Leh played by newcomer Steven Strait who predictably enough sets out to rescue his woman (shades of Apocalypto). On the rescue mission everyone runs into giant Ostriches which hunt and kill people (shades of Jurassic Park). Also, in one of the beginning hunts of the wooly mammoths there is a stampede reminiscent of the dinosaur stampede in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. All of this is a very good idea to begin with, but the execution is lacking big time and all the aforementioned movies are so much better to watch and give you a thrill ride something lacking in 10,000 B.C. The main factors where 10,000 B.C. fails is it’s too mild for an action epic, in fact there is hardly any gore or blood visible at all in the movie. The other pillar where 10,000 B.C. fails is in the special FX category. There are hardly any epic scenes in the movie and the special FX are hardly worth mentioning in 10,000 B.C. Also it’s disappointing that all the prehistoric creatures are shown so little in the movie and the major chunk is hogged by D’Leh, Evolet and other characters played by Joel Virgel, Affif Ben Badra, and the only recognizable face of Nathanael Baring. It’s sad that the wooly mammoths are shown only in a couple of scenes, the Jurassic Park kind of hunt by the Ostriches in tall grass is too short and also a huge gigantic saber-toothed lion is also unfortunately shown only twice, once when D’Leh saves it and in another scene when the lion reciprocates by saving D’Leh.
10,000 B.C. the title and also the posters conjured images of gigantic prehistoric monsters in my mind as I am sure with other viewers, but sadly these very gigantic prehistoric monsters are lacking in the movie and instead it veers more towards trying to rip off or ape (take your pick) Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. For those still interested, all ends well with D’Leh rescuing Evolet and also spelling doom for the prehistoric Egyptian civilization just as Jaguar Paw spells doom for the Mayan civilization in Apocalypto. Funnily enough, D’Leh is touted as the savior by an ancient prophecy just along the lines of Apocalypto’s Jaguar Paw. 10,000 B.C. is worth a watch only if you have nothing better to do and are getting bored and want to step out for some mild entertainment.
So would I be correct in assuming that they took all the SFX scenes, spliced them together and came up with the trailer?
So would I be correct in assuming that they took all the SFX scenes, spliced them together and came up with the trailer?
Bang on! In fact you would be hard pressed to find more visuals or FX apart from those in the trailers. I was disappointed to the core.
Bang on! In fact you would be hard pressed to find more visuals or FX apart from those in the trailers. I was disappointed to the core.