Movie Review

‘10,000 B.C.’ leaves reviewers’ interest frozen in the cold

Plenty of moviegoers went back in time to see Warner Bros. “10,000 B.C.,” making it the No. 1 movie at the box office this weekend. The prehistoric journey film drew an estimated $36 million over the past three days. Legendary Omar Sharif narrates this tale about a young mammoth- hunting boy named D’Leh (Steven Strait), whose father left their tribe when he was younger. The tribal sons spend their days practicing in anticipation of getting to kill their first mammoth. They are told they will be rewarded with the White Spear, which will led the tribe. Once the herd of mammoths come across the land, the young men scurry along the desert, hidden by bushes. After the men attack the mammoth, it ends up being D’Leh who manages to kill a mammoth, although he feels it was more luck than skill. He is deemed to protect the tribe from extinction by the tribe’s mystic, known as Old Mother. She also predicts his future with the Blue-Eyed One, Evolet (Camilla Belle). Traveling slave-raiders, led by Warlord (Affif Ben Badra) ransack the tribe, capture Evolet, and taking half of the remaining tribe along with them. Soon enough Warlord actually takes a shine to Evolet, sparing her life on several occasions much to the dismay of his allies. Traveling across a wide variety of land, from frozen tundra to rainforest, D’Leh sets out to find his love while convincing other tribes along the way to help him in his search. Eventually D’Leh and his tribe mates cross the desert to reach a slave-fueled pyramid construction site. A battle ensues between the tribesmen and the slave-raiders, which leads to a final confrontation between Warlord and D’Leh. “10,000 B.C.” has so many things wrong with it that I won’t label them all here. First and foremost, there are pieces of history that are clearly in disarray to the point where even I had some questions. There are too many historical liberties that are taken here to the point that it’s laughable. Obviously if this was actually 10,000 B.C., there certainly wasn’t any pyramids at that time, and wooly mammoths wouldn’t be used to help build them. Some of the tribesmen had British accents, which was pretty obvious and peculiar. The make-up was horrific, which was made even worse with some of the men having sparkling white teeth. Plus there were just some scenes that simply dragged on and on. We know they had to walk a long way because Omar Sharif is telling us that. We don’t need to see them walking and walking over the same frozen tundra or desert sands. Unfortunately, you feel compelled to keep watching in the hopes of something exciting will happen, but nothing really does. The acting and dialogue was extremely stiff, like we needed to hear D’Leh yell out over and over to Evolet “I’m coming for you.” Director Roland Emmerich, while known for his work with “The Day After Tomorrow” and “Independence Day,” has lost his touch with “10,000 B.C.” With the feel of a live-action “Ice Age” film without the annoying Ray Romano voice, “10,000 B.C.” gets a less than mammoth two out of four stars. “10,000 B.C.” is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence. Running time is 1 hour, 49 minutes. For more information and show times, contact Regal Cinemas Marketplace 24, 180 Mill Road, Oaks, at 610-666-6697. Dennis J. Wright can be reached at dwright@phoenixvillenews.com.