It strikes me funny that the ad for the new prehistoric movie 10,000 BC boasts the same director of INDEPENDENCE DAY and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW though his name is not mentioned.  True, German born Emmerich directed these two blockbusters (very lame ones, in my opinion), but he also directed two huge flops GODZILLA and THE PATRIOT.  I did not expect much from 10,000 BC and that is exactly what I got from the screening – nothing much.

The story follows one hunter D’Leh (Steven Strait) traveling the lands to save his tribe from extinction.  In the process, his love, Evolet (Camilla Belle) is kidnapped by another tribe – a group of the most over-sized ugly baddies any casting agent has ever assembled.

Once the first human in the film speaks in English, the film falls apart in authenticity.  Later on, when other tribes also speak the same English (the weak excuse is D’Leh’s father teaching them the language)…….  Need I say more?
The film’s flaws are too just numerous.  This is like a film critic’s dream (to list them).  The main problem is that the film has not enough plot or story to interest the viewer throughout its almost 2 hour running length.  When there is some, the script by Emmerich and Kloser, is so coincidental in the facts such as that of prophecy or meetings of the characters.  The grouping of the different tribes to fight the baddies, the hike through the desert, the bonding of D’Leh with the saber-toothed tiger up to the narration by Omar Sharif all add to the questionable premise.  Sharif was probably chosen for the Egyptian slant of the film.  But the most laughable segments in the film is a toss up between ones with the ever suffering ‘old mother’ and the end of the movie crying scene with Evolet’s heavy Lindsay Lohan styled face make-up and mascara running down her face.

10,000 BC contains just two exciting segments – the hunting of the mammoths and the attack of the Phorusrhacids or terror birds.  But these are CGI effects that can no way be compared to old fashioned spectacle.

The ads also claim that this stuff is what legend is made of.  In my opinion, this stuff is also made up of what comes out of the mammoth’s bum.  10,000 BC should be long forgotten as prehistoric nonsense.  If only the filmmakers did not take the film this seriously and played it cheesy as did most of the other successful films (ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. or Canada’s own QUEST FOR FIRE) in the genre.