ALPHA REVIEWED
“Alpha” follows a teenage boy during the last Ice Age. His father takes him on a group hunt that causes him to become separated from the tribe. While trying to figure out how to return home, the teen means a stray wolf. Together, the furball and the human meatsicle have to find a way to get back home. I never would have thought that one of the Hughes Brothers would have directed a movie like this. But, why is this movie finally getting a release after being delayed by SONY multiple times since its intended release date of September 2017?
August usually becomes a dumping ground now, as the summer movie system seems to begin in April anymore. While kids return to school earlier and earlier, there is a need to put out family friendly fare. Films featuring Bison being driven off cliffs isn’t normally something that your four year old and grandmother want to see together. Yet, it seems to evoke the kind of family films that existed in the 1970s and early 80s. An era where you can hang mature stories on the barely superficial kid oriented tales.
There is nothing new here, but director Albert Hughes handles the film in a way that evokes long-forgotten family cinema. Hell, he even picks up the cinematographer from Goodnight, Mommy to produce this spectacular dark painterly feel to the imagery that almost makes the film feel like a long-forgotten dream. Honestly, I don’t believe that modern kids deserve a film to be this beautiful. But, I’m glad that it exists in a marketplace flush with cotton candy colored garbage.
If you want to see it, I recommend seeing it fast. It’s not going to flop, but it’s going to be squeezed out by bigger movies in smaller markets.
FILM STATS
- 1 hr and 36 mins
- PG-13
- Columbia