User Reviews

Expectations were through the roof after seeing this movie advertised for over a year. It lived up to about 70-70% of the hype

My whole family watched (14 & 16 yo included). Everyone loved it and rallied around the protagonist's journey and plights.

Subtitle driven, but not so much that it distracted from enjoying the movie. Movie almost did not require dialogue, but was a nice inclusion. And this is coming from a guy that avoids anything that gets Emmy awards or Sundance film festival recognition, as I like to enjoy my movies, not analyze them as if I was a movie critic trying to impress my peers. Basically my long winded way of saying, put the phone app down and go watch it.

This prehistoric European film about a young man who is presumed lost while his tribe is on a hunt. Kodi Smit-McPhee stars as the young man in a primitive world who makes his way back to his family with the aid of a new best friend he's made, a wild dog whom he patched up and the two develop a co-dependency on each other in this first boy and a dog story.

Beautifully photographed in some stark vistas in British Columbia, the most amazing thing about this film that even with some cheating subtitles young Smit-McPhee with primeval grunts and gibberish to pass for caveman language conveys all the emotion of pages of dialog.

This one is a winner, highly recommended.

Rating 8.3/10 The characters of Keda and Wolves in this movie is very good. Friendship between animals and humans is inserted in this movie. Amazing movie, it was very beautiful and definitely made me cry. Worth a watch !!

Alpha is epic in scale but simple in plot. It perfectly captures how the Earth would feel and look like 20,000 years ago with stunning cinematography. This is a story of how a boy and a wolf fought together to survive.

I actually enjoyed this, it kept me guessing for quite a bit and as no major stars your not sure who's going to make it. Special effects and scenery were good and enjoyable to the end. I would say one of the best movies I've seen this year that's not superstar budget. Reminded me a bit of Apocalypto, that sort of movie

Wow what an actual surprise. This movie was delayed many times. Originally scheduled to release in September 2017 it was pushed to March 2018 then to September 2018 then back a month to August 2018 ultimately. The reason for these delays? I'm not even quite sure. The first trailers showed a very dark story (which it kinda is), but then newer trailers showed off a bit more of a family friendly "kid gets prehistoric dog" sort of story. The story takes place 20,000 years ago in Europe following a young man named Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee). who has finally joined his father Chief Tau (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) on their tribes yearly hunt. First off this movie is shot beautifully. Some of the best cinematography I've seen for any movie in 2018. It does a great job even in the opening sequence of hunting the bison of just getting color palettes down and giving a sense of dread. The performances are also something that excels in this movie. Johannesson as Chief Tau is just great. He has such a believable love for his son and their chemistry is great. Smit-McPhee as well is excellent and he really grows as a character here. They even created a language they use but even with it being non english the emotions run high in this one. I loved Alpha as well the wolf has a lot of emotions shown through its actions and some slight use of CG. My one gripe here is the last ten minutes get just a bit too Hollywood for me and although there's a twist to the entire story I still wanted it to change it slightly, but without spoiling it it actually makes sense it's just personal preference. Overall, solid movie that suffered from some really bad marketing. I would say if you missed this one to begin with definitely give it a look!

I'm giving this movie an 8 for story, casting and acting of the main actor and a 6 for all the CGI pervading the film, so a 7 in total. As others have noted, this is a beautiful story in its endearing simplicity, and the main actor plays it all very well. Yet, I'm not a fan of all the CGI used by the moviemakers. All these computerised images really do taint the enjoyment of a movie such as this one.

I adore when people from Gravettian period 20.000 years ago have the mimics and emotional expressions like modern humans, and also ware the industrial knitted fur and boots as their outfit. Melodrama with different backdrop, but still not far from the mainstream popcorn.

I simply do not understand the bad reviews on this movie. I feel like I saw a totally different movie. I fell in love with it from the beginning. Slow but incredibly touching with such a deep perspective to life and loyalty. The end was unpredictable and left me with a great state of mind. I would recommend this movie to everybody!

I loved the premise of this film, and was excited to view it with my 7 year-old, as the previews appealed to his sense of adventure and love of dogs. We were disappointed to find that it was subtitled throughout the entire film. Staying faithful to an aboriginal/"prehistoric" language was an unnecessary device,in my opinion, as we all have the understanding that our forebears did not speak modern English as we do. It detracted from an otherwise beautiful film, and was a barrier to a child with only early-reading skills as far as enjoying the film.

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library. The characters speak in a made-up language and the movie has subtitles in English.

This is your basic coming of age story, set about 20,000 years ago. A boy is growing into a man, his father is the leader of the tribe. They go on a hunt some distance away, the boy is to show his skills at catching and killing wildlife.

But things go very wrong for the boy, he ends up down a cliff, unreachable, and after considerable parental angst is presumed dead and they go on without him.

The boy does in fact survive, badly injured, and is able to begin his difficult trek to find his home, aided by night sky navigation his father taught him. Along the way he encounters a wounded wolf, the two eventually bond, and help each other as winter snows begin to fall. He names the wolf "Alpha."

The only "new" thing here is the setting long ago, the story of survival and a boy and his "dog" has been told before, but this is a nice, clean movie and for the most part entertaining to see the difficulties they encounter along the way back home.

The closing credits states Alberta, Canada was a primary filming location. And I was amazed at how many technicians were needed to do the post production work to finish the movie.

It's 20,000 year ago in Europe. Tau is the chief of a small hunter gatherer tribe. He brings along his inexperienced son Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) for his first hunting expedition. Keda falls off a cliff and is presumed dead. He manages to survive and fights off a pack of wolves. He injures one of the wolves and brings her back to health.

This is a nice prehistoric epic adventure. It's got good production value and good visual. It's got good characters. Taming a wild animal is questionable. A more reasonable move would be battling a mama wolf and raising the resulting orphan pups. Overall, this is a solid survival story with good thrills and follows a good character.

A movie about dogs is always a mixed bag... hey wait a minute, did I start this review last week like this? Robbie K here and bringing you another analysis of the latest film to grace the silver screen. While not a full dog movie, tonight's feature goes back in time to explore the origins of how we got man's best friend. What looks part survival film and part pet movie, led me to wonder what was in store, in hopes it would be the next epic film to break the box office. What lies in store? Robbie K here to give you another writing of opinions as I review:

Movie: Alpha (2018)

Director: Albert Hughes Writers: Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt (screenplay by), Albert Hughes (story by) Stars: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Natassia Malthe, Leonor Varela

LIKES:

Quick Run Time: A movie about survival, especially with one human character, can be long and drawn out if not careful. Alpha keeps the film rolling, not taking too long of pauses as the journey transverses from one part of the frontier to the other. The entire span of the journey is just over 90 minutes and it does a nice job trying to cram everything into a nice concise package.

Impressive CGI: The movie is all about recreating the primal world of the wondering nomads, which involves a lot of imagination, design, and CGI to bring it to life. The movie gets props from me because they accomplished the recreation in a very detailed manner. First the environments and natural phenomena are dazzling, fun, and furious as the special effects combine to unleash the nightmares that disasters hold. Second the animals of the world are also nicely animated, from the rugged texture of the skin, to the fluid movement of their grazing, hunting, and fleeing. Sure, it hits moments where it crosses into the fake looking zone, but overall a nice display indeed.

Costumes: Tribal costumes require a lot of detail, coordination, and study to deliver the most accurate display of that part of history. Though I'm no historian, Alpha's tribesman have all the knick-knacks of the what a plains hunter would normally have that not only serves as a fashion statement, but holds the functionality that these ancient beings attempted to use. The lead's attire will get the most attention, but when combined as a tribe, each nuance of the costumes comes out a little more.

The Wolf: When the live animal is on screen, the wolf was the stealer of the scene. Cute eyes, the whimpering moans, and the wise gazes are certainly the opener for this pooch, but the action scenes that require training were impressive displays to say the least.

The Cinematography: Let's face it, the real selling pint though is the beautiful visuals of the film. Alpha's scenery is gorgeous to say the least, with vivid waterfalls, beautiful night skies, and desolate plains that harbor doom. Sunrise and sunsets are majestic as they promise the start and end of new days, and the colors are dazzling as they blend into a mosaic of fantastic sequences. Throw in the CGI and the world just gets more vivid, making for an impressive setting to become involved with.

DISLIKES:

Animal Torture: I know, times were tough back then and it was either be hunters or be dead. Still, I didn't like to see the suffering of animals in this film. Alpha does not go down the quick finishes, but tries to capture the full moment of a spear hunter taking steps to secure his life. Some of the more merciful finishes I appreciate, but those torturous moments are not something I want to see in dragged out details. So, animal activists with bleeding hearts beware, you are in for a treat that will hurt your aortic pumps at times.

Lackluster Dialogue: It's a good thing that the visuals are so stunning as they are the strongest components to telling their story. As for the dialogues, well... primal grunts and language with subtitles doesn't have the best ring. Accurate? Potentially, however Alpha's dialogue doesn't have the unique, movie magic quality that it probably needed. It's nice to have realism, but the conversations were almost pointless in the manner they presented this film in.

Limited characters: The main character and his four-legged friend are the stars of this show, but they try to introduce other characters in the first thirty minutes. It's nice to establish the family tree web of the group, but given the worthless dialogue and short screen time, it almost pointless to go into introductions of the characters if they were not going to use them more. The father in general has a few dream sequences, but they did not do much to expand on his thoughts after the big event... so not the best casting.

The Patchy Story: It's a story about getting back home, so there isn't much story components to expand upon. However, Alpha feels patchy to me as the shots blend together in a very rushed presentation. Things suddenly happen, there is little fluid buildup during transitions, and the predictable plot devices sort of fall into place too fast. I could see a lot of the places were cuts were made and while it led to faster pace, it would have been nice to see some more entertaining components to piece it together, but still not too bad.

THE VERDICT:

Alpha is good in regards to the beautiful visual spectacle that it is. The primal world is alive in all of the amazing details that the big studios can make, and the even better it is in a nice concise 90 minutes to get you out quick. Alpha's adorable wolf (whether CGI or real) steals the show and will be the factor you want to bet on compared to the lead. Yes, the story is not the most unique, and is quite predictable thanks to the trailers, but it's patchy, linear story will be easier to follow. No, there is some suspense into this movie at times, but overall it's a pretty lax adventure movie, with the exception of the mad props to having to survive in the wilds of the past. Worth a trip to the theater? For visuals yes, but movie overall I cannot recommend it. In addition, I do not recommend 3-D viewing, because there is little to warrant the headache inducing effects this movie has.

My scores are:

Adventure/Drama/Family: 6.5 Movie Overall:: 6.0

Let me first say that I love early human history and this was the main reason why I watched this movie (and continued to watch it after being dissapointed). Ok, I'm not that much into canines, I'm more of a feline fan, but I like animals and the human-animal friendship is always a good story for me. Therefore, this movie scored high in my view ... but only from the above angles.

As for the rest, it was very dissapointing - and the main reason was the missing factual accuracy and historical credibility. Although the movie made some efforts - that I do appreciate - to simulate historical accuracy (e.g. realistic scenery, good cinematography, not too much talking, accurate stone tools and appropriate - although way too uniform - costumes), Alpha was for the rest higly inaccurate and not at all believable (I don't think the things in the list below are actual spoilers, as they don't specifically reveal the plot, but if you're really paranoid, you can skip some):

• early human history was much more violent than portrayed in the movie (where there is 0 conflict within the tribe, almost like at a 21st century gala)
• perfectly shaved men had no place in this movie; ok, you can let some without a fully grown beard and such, but not that flawlessly shaved like the chief's advisor, for example - after all, they only had stone to cut their hair.
• both men and women were not effeminate like today: the tribe chief's wife wouldn't shed tears in public like that, and the chief of the tribe would DEFINITELY avoid at all costs crying like a girl in front of his own subjects / tribe members. Ok, these were not warriors, but even hunters like them confronted death each day and behaving so weakly as tribe leaders would have been unthinkable in those times.
• the chief favoring his son like that would have been challenged earlier (as opposed to never, like in this movie), but hilariously, the director makes the potential challenger ...erm... conveniently dissapear at some point in the story, probably sensing that it's too much unanswered stuff there.
• children those days would have had multiple brothers and sisters. Being the only child would have been possible, but highly unlikely.
• it's again highly unlikely that a teenager those days would be so shy and downright incompetent to not being able to kill a prey, especially knowing how it would embarass his father, who just happened to be the chief of a tribe of hunter-gatherers, go figure.
• hypothetically speaking, you are in a hunter group badly in need of food and you hunt a herd of {insert herbivore here} and most of the prey falls into a trap of some sort that's difficult to get to. What do you do? Try to reach that trap and collect the huge reward, right? What did the hunters in the movie do? Leave without even looking back, giving up food that would have fed them for MONTHS! You'll know what I'm talking about when (and if) you see the movie - I bet you'll agree with me that doing like they did was unbelievably stupid, and a waste they could not afford. They didn't even try!
• the hunting scenes of the main character were absolutely hilarious ... I mean ... a single canine chasing the prey exactly in the character's path from several yards away? Was that prey blind or what? Killing a rabbit with a stone thrown in his head, without the rabbit even moving? Was the rabbit sleeping or was it reading the newspaper? Come on now, gimme a break.
• the CGI on the animals was poor, like really poor. Ok, not every movie has a high budget, but still...it's not like they had to have spaceships there, right?
• the chief lost two tribe members in a single hunting expedition, and both losses were his own faults and avoidable. I don't know about you, but that's not a competent chief in my book.
• (POSSIBLE SPOILER?) I know this was of paramount importance for the story to work, but it bothered me the most: you do NOT, I repeat - NOT, domesticate a fully grown wild animal, to the point of bringing you food or helping you fight other beasts. Ask every wild animal trainer, domestication, if it more or less happens, works only if you raise the animal since it's a cub and you're imprinted in his memory as someone close to a 'parent' (or a 'pack leader' in case of highly social animals). I'm absolutely convinced that this was how humans domesticated animals to this day.

In my view, sure, the human-animal friendship story was nice and such, but this movie would have worked much better by letting the teenager become a man by himself out of the need to survive alone. This would have avoided most of the minuses above, if tweaked a little, and would have generated a similar, if not bigger impact on the viewers. Or, the other (and harder) option: hire someone with a clue about how life was likely to be 20000 years ago, not only visually, but socially as well. I'll give it a 6 just because I like these early human history movies, and the human-animal friendship is always a nice touch. I would love to see more movies like this, but better made.

I absolutely loved this movie. Beautiful cinematography. Incredibly acted. Touching. Heartwarming. Family friendly. It is just simply beautiful!

In the grand tradition of "10,000 B.C.", "Quest for Fire" and "Clan of the Cave Bear" comes a marvelous film that explores the origins of Man's Best Friend. to the film's credit though this had a fictional language and only has English subtitles throughout the movie and still okay since this takes place during the last Ice Age, the story looks decent and so are the characters since they look like it came out from an alternate version of "10,000 B.C." and yet the bond relationship between Keda and Alpha looks like the adult version of Disney and Pixar's "the Good Dinosaur" as well as Dreamworks' "How to Train your Dragon" and this is worth checking out if your a Dog lover or yet an Animal lover and still a generic popcorn flick as well.