Movie Review: 10,000 B.C. / Warner Bros. Pictures / Starring: Cliff Curtis, Camilla Belle, Steven Strait/ Now Playing
The movie 10,000 B.C. opens with the narrator saying, “Only time can tell us what is truth and what is legend,” followed by foreboding, dark music and chanting. There is a lot of percussion and a view of snow topped mountain peaks. I was feeling a little uneasy that somehow this was not going to be the twenty-first century’s answer to the 1981 film Quest For Fire, which was a solid film that developed a cult following the year that it hit the big screens and in subsequent years. It is difficult to imagine that the movie 10,000 B.C. will experience anything other than a short run at the box office.
The Warner Bros. picture which was released on March 7th is a plodding affair, with a loose, tired storyline, about girl is captured by bad dudes, and the good guy, with his band of warriors sets off to rescue her. There are no castles in this story, the ancient Egyptians are the bad guys, and a prehistoric hunter named D’Leh (Steven Strait) is the hero. The object of his love, one of the few redeeming elements in this movie, is the beautiful blue-eyed Evolet, portrayed by actress Camilla Belle.
Amazingly, this movie begins with the D’Leh’s tribe speaking in clipped, chunky cave man style, something like this, ‘Me caveman, who you?’ However, as the film progresses they become amazingly eloquent in their speech. It must have been all those cold winter nights sitting up waiting for the mammoths to return, so they could hunt again. Another even more amazing event occurs when they meet up with another tribe, while in pursuit of the Egyptians, to reclaim Evolet, they encounter a man in that tribe who speaks their language perfectly.
Camilla Belle does well with limited material and a restricting script. Still only twenty-one years of age, Belle is already a veteran actress, with a starring role in the 2006 remake of the 1979 film, When a Stranger Calls, and in 2005, she worked opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in the movie The Ballad of Jack and Rose. Belle has numerous other film credits. Unfortunately, Steven Strait is not able to deliver a similar performance, but given how bad this script is, one should not judge him too harshly.
Kiwi actor Cliff Curtis, rises above this banal script and turns in the best acting performance, as the older, wiser Tic’ Tic. Curtis’ eyes, body language and facial expressions, more than compensate for unimaginative lines that is character is forced to speak. Curtis is best known for winning three New Zealand Film Awards, including one for Best Supporting Actor in Whale Rider. In 2007 Curtis appeared in the feature films, Live Free or Die Hard, Fracture and the science fiction thriller, Sunshine.
Roland Emmerich (Independence Day), who co-wrote the screenplay with Harald Kloser, also directed this movie, and he has definitely had better outings. Emmerich also produced this film, along with Michael Wimer and Mark Gordon.
This definitely is not a movie that you want to take young children to go see. It is filled with violent and frightening scenes throughout. While it would have been difficult to make a film like 10,000 B.C. without violence, it seems that this production crew was bent on gratuitous violence, creating mayhem and even threw in a few Jurassic Park like raptors for good measure.
The only crowd that I can see 10,000 B.C. appealing to is the same people who get their jollies from watching Ultimate Fighting and Roller Derby. Do you really want to be seen hanging out with that crowd?
Reviewed by Joe Montague
Reviewed March 2008
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