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Review: 10,000 BC
Mayhem meister Roland Emmerich, who uncaged the no-brainer Godzilla and ravaged Manhattan with a tidal wave in The Day After Tomorrow, now takes us back to prehistoric times for an effects-afflicted extravaganza, writes Rashid Irani.
10,000 BC
Cast :
Steven Strait, Camilla Belle
Direction :
Roland Emmerich
Rating :
**
Exhausting is the word. Mayhem meister Roland Emmerich, who uncaged the no-brainer
Godzilla
and ravaged Manhattan with a tidal wave in
The Day After Tomorrow
, now takes us back to prehistoric times for an effects-afflicted extravaganza.
A curious remix of
Jurassic Park
and
Apocalypto
,
10,000 BC
subjects its characters, as well as the viewer, to ceaseless calamities. The outcome is not only miscalculated but also messy.
Looking ever so indifferent, a young hunter (Strait) treks through harsh, uncharted terrain to rescue his childhood love (Belle) from a band of warlords.
Displaying macho heroics, the braveheart fends off a stampeding herd of woolly beasties, decimates a battalion of tyrants, besides saving the life of a trapped tiger. An example of the film’s consistently daft dialogue finds the hunter pleading with the colossal carnivore, “If I help you, please don’t kill me.”
Techno-tricks of every conceivable kind are on display. Of course, the story, or whatever there is of it, is not to be taken seriously at all.
Admittedly, some of the landscapes are stunning with wide-open locations in New Zealand standing in for the pre-civilisation era. As for the largely unknown actors, the less bemoaned the better. In fact, without being present visibly, Omar Sharif steals the show with his masterly narration.
This Stone Age shenanigans can be safely skipped.
