Alpha 2018 Movie Review

Poster for the movie.

Ever wanted to watch a prehistoric story about a primitive human going on an adventure with a dog-like animal that doesn’t go anachronistic with dinosaurs? Well that’s what Alpha has to offer in this epic tale about a teenage hunter getting separated from his tribe and lost out in the ice age wilderness where he finds himself forming a companionship with a hurt wolf as the two try to brave the forces of nature while they make their effortful journey back home.

The film’s depiction of the ice age is portrayed beautifully with well-shot footage of the scenery that come from real-life areas, the stars amazingly filling up the sky at night to a breathtakingly eye-catching degree and the aurora borealis scenes are executed extraordinarily well that will make you feel like you’ve transported back to this era in prehistoric times. The soundtrack also helps the world feel more primitive and untamed as well. 

I also find the development of the boy’s bond with the wolf that started off as rather on edge due to them being different species who naturally compete in the wild, but the two eventually learned to fully trust each other over time and form a relationship that came off as heartfelt and epic as they teamed up together against all kinds of fierce animals trying to kill them in their harsh environment. 

But the main problem I had with this movie was its fictional language didn’t have subtitles presented within the movie itself and when I watched this film on Netflix, I had to turn the captions on to understand what the characters were meaning to say to each other. Now there were some other issues regarding certain scientific inaccuracies for the time period such as the “alpha wolf” idea that’s been long dead, both genders of Paleolithic people not not cooperating on hunts together and certain animals not being portrayed correctly, but they honestly didn’t have a negative impact on the storyline itself. 

It's a shame that this movie didn't do so well at the box office because I’d recommend this to anybody curious enough and give it an 8/10.