ALPHA (2018)

Genre: Action/ Adventure
Director: Albert Hughes
Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jóhannes Haukur Johannesson
RunTime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: PG (Some Intense Sequences)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 16August 2018

Synopsis: An epic adventure set in the last Ice Age. Europe, 20,000 years ago. While on his first hunt with his tribe’s most elite group, a young man is injured and left for dead. Awakening to find himself broken and alone -- he must learn to survive and navigate the harsh and unforgiving wilderness. Reluctantly taming a lone wolf abandoned by its pack, the pair learn to rely on each other and become unlikely allies, enduring countless dangers and overwhelming odds in order to find their way home before the deadly winter arrives.

Movie Review:

‘Alpha’ is so named because it is about how the bond between man and dog came to be forged some 20,000 years ago, but those expecting a compelling yarn would probably be left cold.

As envisioned by its director Albert Hughes, this history lesson is also a coming-of-age Ice Age survival story which sees a young hunter stranded in the wilderness befriend a wolf that becomes his loyal companion and defender.

It is an awfully simple, even simplistic, story, jazzed up by stunning vistas of craggy cliffs, lightning-split skylines, endless snowy tundras, impossibly green forests and eye-popping auroras. Oh yes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’re watching a National Geographic documentary, not least because the stunning landscapes are much more captivating than the narrative, which feels as drawn-out as the hunter’s trek back to his tribe itself.

Ironically, it starts off with probably its most exciting sequence: a row of hunters crawling on all fours towards a herd of bison grazing on a plain, who on command, charge ahead towards the herd, throw their spears to form a fence, and spread out towards the ends to corner its confused and scattered members. It is during this annual great hunt that our young protagonist Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is thrown off a cliff by one of the angry bison, and duty towards the other members of his tribe compels that Keda’s father Tau (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhanneson) leave Keda for dead on the ledge thousands of feet above ground.

At that point, the movie rewinds one week earlier to offer some backstory on Keda. Having proven his skill at making spear points, his father Tau thinks he may be ready to join the adult males for the annual bison hunt before the winter. Keda’s mother is doubtful. “He leads with his heart, not his spear,” she says. True enough, on the trek, Keda proves unable to finish off a wounded animal. That same hesitation is also why he ends up being gored by one of the stampeding bison in the opening hunt.

By the time we return to Keda in the present, it is already a good half-hour into the movie, so those expecting to see the titular character should know that it does take a while to show up. When it eventually does, it is with his hungry pack, and Keda knifes the alpha in order to force the others to disperse.

Instead of simply leaving the abandoned wolf or killing it, Keda decides to nurse it back to health, and in so doing, begins a symbiotic relationship between the pair that is demonstrated over a couple of ensuing scenes: chasing away random wild animals, fishing in lakes, and hunting for food. There is at least some rhythm to these early scenes, including one where Keda teaches Alpha how to share food, another where they tag-team to hunt their prey and another where Alpha unconsciously demonstrates the game of ‘fetch’.

Alas, as the journey between man and wolf progresses, it gets gradually jumpier, messier and more random. As riveting as it may be to watch Alpha jump in slo-mo over the ice while Keda uses his knife to pierce the surface from underneath, that scene calculated more for spectacle than for any genuine narrative purpose; and the same can be said of another in a iridescent cave where they are suddenly attacked by a giant bear.

It is clear by the hour-mark that Hughes and his screenwriter Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt don’t quite know how to sustain a feature-length film with what is essentially a straightforward tale of devoted companionship and mutual support. And that in turn is reflected in McPhee’s indistinct performance, which hardly brings out just how his character’s arduous journey back to his own tribe becomes a life-changing event for himself. What does Alpha teach Keda about himself? How does the bond between Alpha and Keda change Keda? These remain frustratingly ambiguous by the time the movie concludes with the silhouettes of Alpha and Keda.  

So really as pretty as the movie looks, ‘Alpha’ is disappointingly dull and monotonous. Once the bond between Alpha and Keda is established, the movie just becomes a tedious slog to that inevitable happily-ever-after finish. Worse, as minimal as the dialogue of invented early European language may be, the subtitles suggest that it is corny as hell, comprised of the sort of vague aphorisms about how life is for the strong and needs to be earned. Ultimately, it is a middling story of the bond between man and dog, and even if you’re a sucker for such tales, there are much better ones out there you should seek out.. 

Movie Rating:

(Unless you're looking to watch a NatGeo doc of the prehistoric Ice Age on the big screen, the epic vistas won't quite make up for a less than compelling tale of man and dog's first bond)

Review by Gabriel Chong