Alpha (2018)

Set 20,000 years ago in what would eventually be called Europe, Alpha tells the story of a young man named Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee.) Keda’s father, Tau (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) proudly takes his son on his first buffalo hunt. The hunt is a rite of passage for the young men of their hunter-gatherer tribe. Keda’s mother, Rho (Natassia Malthe,) worries that Keda lacks the heart of a true hunter and fears for his safety. Tau promises her that both men will return from the hunt alive.

When the hunting party eventually encounter the buffalo, the hunt goes well. However, Keda is chased by the leader of the buffalo herd and is thrown off the edge of a cliff. Keda clings to a narrow outcropping, but loses his grip and slides down the sharp wall before finally landing on a ledge. He breaks his ankle in the fall and is knocked unconscious. Tau and the others cannot reach him. Tau stays by the cliff’s edge and yells Keda’s name, hoping he’ll respond. Eventually, the hunters have to return to the village with the food obtained from the hunt. Tau reluctantly presumes Keda dead and leaves with them.

Keda awakens and finds himself stranded on the cliff wall, alone. The remainder of the movie chronicles his attempt to make it back to his village. Along the way, Keda befriends an injured wolf that he names Alpha. The unlikely pair form a bond and help each other through Keda’s difficult journey home. They must evade packs of hyenas, survive treacherous weather, and, above all, Keda needs to learn to hunt for food.

While Alpha is a live action film, the camera moves through the environment as if it was animated. And, to be frank, much of the film’s lush background and colorful scenery was created on a computer. The animals Keda and Alpha encounter in their travels are computer generated. In some scenes, even Alpha is made of pixels. And, while the CGI isn’t bad; it’s just not quite realistic enough to escape detection. It’s hard to for a filmmaker to create suspense if the audience never feels that the protagonists face any real threat.

The actors have their work cut out for them as they all speak a fictional language created specifically for the movie. Delivering lines in an effective way while speaking a language that doesn’t exist has to be a challenge. But, the cast — especially Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson — do a remarkable job creating believable characters under these conditions. (And, yes, there are subtitles so you can follow the dialogue.)

If you can ignore the artifice of the production and focus on the story, Alpha remains an engaging action/adventure movie. The bond between Keda and Alpha provides enough emotional fuel to make the journey worth your time. When compared to the similarly-themed 10,000 B.C., Alpha is a decidedly better movie in all aspects. As I was watching the film, I wondered who the filmmakers intended as the target audience. At first, based on the subject matter, I thought that it would make an excellent family film. That is, if it weren’t rated PG13 for some intense peril. And didn’t feature a rather gruesome buffalo hunt. And wasn’t subtitled.

As it is, Alpha should surely appeal to the tween market without seeming overtly kid-friendly.