Psycho's Movie Reviews #322: ALPHA (2018)

Alpha is a 2018 American prehistorical adventure film directed by Albert Hughes and written by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt, from a story by Hughes. The film stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as a young hunter who encounters and befriends an injured wolf during the last ice age, with Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as his father. The wolf Alpha is played by Chuck, a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog.

Principal photography began in February 2016 in Canada and lasted through that April. The film was delayed several times, before being released in the United States on August 17, 2018, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It grossed over $99 million worldwide and received generally favourable reviews from critics, who praised the performances and cinematography.

Plot

In Upper Paleolithic Europe 20,000 years ago, a small tribe of hunter-gatherers prepare for a hunting expedition to hunt for the coming winter's food. Tau, its chief, trains his teenage son Keda, accepting him and Keda's friend Kappa to join the hunting party. His wife Rho worries that Keda is not ready, but Tau believes he is and the hunters set out.

Tau tests Keda by having him kill a wild boar they've caught, but Keda hesitates. One night, the party's fire draws the attention of a large cave lion, which lunges through their circle, snatching Kappa before anyone can do anything. Hearing the fatal struggle in the darkness, the tribe gives him up for dead. Kappa is given a memorial service in the form of a cairn to symbolize the passing of one's spirit to the afterlife.

The hunters eventually reach a herd of steppe bison, which they attempt to stampede off a cliff with relative success. Amidst the chaos, the bull rushes towards Keda and tosses him over the edge, leaving him gripping the rough cliff edge with his hand. Keda loses his grip and plummets to a further ledge where he appears to break his leg and is knocked unconscious. Tau attempts to climb down to him, but he is stopped by fellow hunter Sigma who assures him in good faith that Keda is dead and there would be no way to reach him anyway. The tribe leaves and Tau performs another funeral ritual, stricken with grief.

Keda is awoken by a vulture who mistakes him for dead. He kills the bird by wringing its neck and tries to climb the rest of the way down the cliff. A sudden heavy rainfall causes the ravine below to flood. Losing his grip, Keda falls into the water. He survives and splints his injured foot before returning to the top of the cliff. Seeing the memorial cairn left by his tribe, he realizes he must travel back to the village by himself.

Keda is later attacked and chased by a pack of ferocious wolves, but escapes up a tree and wounds one of the pack members which the others leave behind. Keda takes pity on it and cares for its injury. Gradually gaining the wolf's trust, he gives it water and then food, establishing himself as dominant by feeding himself first. He sets out for the village without the wolf, but it follows him. Their relationship grows, and they learn to hunt animals together. Along the way, Keda names the wolf Alpha.

One night, they are approached menacingly by a pack of wolves. Upon seeing Alpha, who steps forward to greet them, they recognize Keda's companion. The pack run off and with Keda's blessing, Alpha joins them. Keda continues his journey alone as the season changes into winter. On a frozen lake, he encounters a pack of wolves feeding on a carcass. Recognizing Alpha, he runs to them, but the ice breaks and he falls through. Alpha helps rescue him and they are reunited.

Continuing the journey together, they find a man who has frozen to death outside his tent and scavenge a bow and arrow from it. Later, they take refuge from a pack of cave hyenas inside a cave. However, inside they are confronted and attacked by another cave lion, causing Alpha to violently fight the animal. Keda saves Alpha by using the bow to kill the lion with the arrow, although Alpha is badly wounded in the fight and now travels with difficulty. Meanwhile, an equally injured Keda begins to cough up blood. When Alpha finally cannot walk, Keda carries the wolf.

Keda eventually finds the village while nearly passing out from exhaustion and reunites happily with his shocked, but relieved parents, who are both amazed and proud of him. As the village healer tends to both Keda and Alpha's wounds, Alpha delivers a litter of puppies much to Keda's surprise as Alpha is revealed to be female. Alpha and her pups are formally welcomed into the tribe and grow up in the care of Alpha and Keda. The final image of the film shows the tribe and their domesticated wolves, hunting together.

Production

The film was first announced in September 2015 as The Solutrean, with Albert Hughes as director, produced by Studio 8. The film uses the IMAX 3D format. Kodi Smit-McPhee was confirmed as its star in November 2015, and other casting was finalized the following February.

The film's dialogue is in constructed languages ('conlangs') created by Christine Schreyer, an anthropology professor at UBC Okanagan. The main language, which Schreyer calls Beama and is spoken in two dialects, was inspired by Proto-Nostratic, Proto-Eurasiatic, and Proto-Dené–Caucasian. Schreyer also created a Neanderthal language for one scene.

Filming took place in Drumheller, Burnaby, and Vancouver, where a large set was built in Boundary Road near East Kent Avenue. Filming in Vancouver took place from February to May 2016, and at Dinosaur Provincial Park near Patricia, Alberta in April 2016, and in Iceland.

The production was investigated after five Alberta bison were allegedly killed in the making of the film. Following an investigation, the American Humane Association denied its "No Animals Were Harmed" end-credit certification to the production. Two days before the film's release, PETA called for a boycott of the film.

Release/Reception/Box Office

In June 2017, the film's title was changed from The Solutrean to Alpha. Solutrean was an Upper Palaeolithic flint tool making style in Western Europe. The film was originally set a release date for September 15, 2017, it was pushed back from its original release date of September 15, 2017 to March 2, 2018. In December 2017, it was again pushed back, this time from March 2, 2018 to September 14, 2018. In April 2018, the release date was moved up from September 14, 2018 to August 17, 2018.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Alpha holds an approval rating of 80% based on 133 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Well-acted and beautifully filmed, Alpha offers a canine-assisted epic adventure that blends rousing action with an extra helping of canine charm." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Alpha grossed $35.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $62.3 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $98.2 million, against a production budget of $51 million.

In the United States and Canada, Alpha was released alongside Mile 22, and was projected to gross $7–9 million from 2,719 theatres in its opening weekend. It made $3.4 million on its first day, including $525,000 from Thursday night previews at 2,303 theatres. It went on to debut to $10.3 million, finishing fifth at the box office. In its second weekend the film dropped to seventh place, making $5.6 million.

Budget $51million

Box office $99.6million

My Review

Going into this movie, I didn't expect much since I have had my share of bad experiences with prehistoric epics like the awful 10,000 BC. Alpha turned out to be a relatively authentic documentary, moving drama and energetic survival adventure movie with many emotional highlights and a creative twist to finish on a high note.

There was a time in the '80s when this sub-genre of historical period films was popular; the "prehistoric survival-adventure drama / science-fantasy paleoanthropological fiction" genres. There was the highly-successful Quest for Fire (1981), the mostly-forgotten Iceman (1984), the fondly-remembered Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) and finally Missing Link (1988), which is the most obscure one out of the whole lot. And the less said about the intellectually-insulting 10,000 BC (2008), which pretty much butchered prehistory on a severe level, the better! This latest addition to the genre, Alpha (2018), is a narrative-driven film which has a leisurely-set pace, making for a nice laidback viewing experience to have while you stare in awe at the gorgeously stunning scenery of a raw and gritty wilderness.

In Albert Hughes' first solo project, he offers us a glimpse into the tough life of a young Cro-Magnon lad (convincingly played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) who tries to reunite with his kin by finding the right path back home to his tribal clan before the chilling onset of a bleak blizzard arrives, wandering a great distance through a marciless valley filled with many dangers which, considering the period in which this takes place, were abundantly lurking around every corner. Yes, it was a truly frightening time to be alive, when we were living among the more-recently-extinct "mega-beasts" (ginormous animals which we'll probably never get the chance to see with our own eyes, ever again). While travelling all alone on his perilous journey, he comes across an injured cave wolf (live-acted by a 5-year-old male Czechoslovakian Wolfdog named 'Chuck') that was abandoned by its pack. After the lone creature is nursed back to health, it then decides to accompany the adolescent hunter-gatherer for the rest of the way and this is what most likely led to the very first tentative bond that was initially formed between man and canine (so technically, it's kind of based on true-to-life-events, in a speculative sort of sense).

The film's plot about humanity's first interaction with "ancient dogs" is a premise which I find to be very fascinating. I'm surprised that it took them this long to do a movie centred around this subject matter; exploring the age-old question of how we turned a fierce, wild animal into our most loyal ally (a unique companionship which has lasted to this very day). Another reason why I'm so fond of this film is because its environment reminds me of Christmastime (my favourite holiday season). The beautiful picturesque scenes of snowy wintertime landscapes, along with a vast mountainous view in the far off background (with the primary setting being a forested area of woodland, typically situated near a completely frozen-over lake and grassy hill range covered with thick layers of icy cold snow), sure does make me think an awful lot about that most festive time of year. So on the whole, all of the real-life places they used as the shooting locations for their prehistoric ecosystem's varying habitats were really well-thought-out.

Aside the simple plot, I liked the scarcity of dialogues to focus on emotions, gestures and landscapes rather than unnecessary words. The acting performances are authentic and grounded and one can see the protagonist come to age throughout the film. The precise camera work, the epic soundtrack and the stunning settings enhance the movie's epic premise. It's also a film that will please both younger and older audiences because it teaches us about human values such as family, friendship, hope, loss and trust. Another positive point is the lack of overtly flashy special effects, unnecessary side stories and needless flashbacks that makes the film more authentic, credible and intense.

Just like in Quest for Fire, Alpha also uses the universal language of facial expressions and body movements to help convey the story it's telling (only this time, with a little extra help from the onscreen subtitles). I can certainly see some people finding it tediously boring to watch because you have to read your way through the film (nice touch, adding a fictionalised primitive language which was thought up by an actual linguistics expert to help make the movie feel more real). For me personally, I never encountered this problem because the sentences they speak are very few and far between (not loads and loads of subtitles occurring onscreen all at once), so it's easier for my mind to quickly read what's there before the text rapidly goes off screen, and I manage to catch up with the part of the story I'm currently at.

What I expected to be a mildly entertaining adventure movie turned out being one of the greatest films of the year. No matter of you prefer actions films, documentaries or dramas, Alpha offers something for every taste and is particularly balanced and focused in its genre mixture. Alpha is much deeper than you might expect and is a film you can watch with your parents, friends and even children.

In conclusion, this greatly enthralling film succeeded in painting a perfect picture of what life for our early European ancestors was presumably like and the entire filmmaking crew behind it did an excellent job at creating a cinematic representation of the Ice Age's last glacial cycle, capturing the perishingly cruel and harsh reality of 20,000 years ago in mankind's ancient past. 10/10!!!

{I just love these puppies, even if they are cgi, I still love them. I WANT ONE 😝🐺🐺🐺}