10,000 B.C. (2008)

10,000 B.C. Film review. Whilst watching this film, i can't help myself but to compare this film with Apocalypto. And whenever i started to compare things, with a clear conscience of which was superior than the other, it usually won't do justice to the film being compared. But like i said, i can't help myself to compare because simply the inevitable facts that made me started to unconsciously compared these films were prominent.

At best, 10,000 B.C. is an AT BEST, a second-rate Apocalypto that albeit made more recently with i believe, a much much more budget than what Mel Gibson has choked up on his, failed miserably on every account. It was less acted, less tension, less passionate, and less violent. The only aspect that is not-less was that this film was more civilized (of course, one would only need to look for a rating of this film which is a tame PG-13) which strikes me as odd because really, in 10,000 B.C? Civilized tribe? I don't count too much on it. There should be many human-sacrifice thingies in this film, especially when we're talking about the bickering between two different tribes. I mean come on, even today, 12,000+ years after this film was supposedly sets, there still many societies whom still distinguished people by their race and lineage. The tribes in this film should be very very violent to tribes other than theirs. Hence, i found that the lack of violence on this film didn't really made the film to worked on me.

The main content of this film also responsible in making myself couldn't help but to compare this film with Apocalypto. There's 'this' tribe who speaks English, and there's 'that' tribe who speaks gibberish but apparently much much more educated-slash-civilized than 'this' tribe. 'This' tribe profess in hunting to stay alive. The idea of crop plantation hadn't really touched home. 'That' tribe roams the land, and capturing many of 'this' tribe and made them into slaves. If this story doesn't remind you of Apocalypto, then i don't know what is. And to put icing on the cake, this film has a protagonist (read: the one that is lucky enough for not being in his village when the raid happened but yet, too close to the proximity that for him to get ignored would means that the tribe doing the raid was blind, deaf, and dumb) and prophesied as "the one who speaks with spear-tooth" whereas in Apocalypto, our protagonist was prophesied as "the one who runs with Jaguar". Up to this point, i was ready to indulge the film as a mere popcorn-film, ones that Hollywood marketed through an eye-catching trailer that was translated into a mere minutes single sequence in the film, ones that the producers felt not confident enough with the film and therefore needed to put something like "From the director of " on its poster. I tell you this, i've always in an opinion that if a film was marketed as something from this director or this writer or this producer of another film, then you could safely bet that the film won't be good. Or at least, won't be as good as ones that they had put on the poster. But, of course they won't stop there. The film decided to put this super-lame final scenes where had you sit in a close proximity with me, you'd hear me mutter and probably saw my exasperated sigh and rolled eyes, "Oh, shit! They really did that!".

I had said that this film is a second-rate Apocalypto at best. But, of course, it was actually an over-statement, one that did Apocalypto unjustice by comparing it with this excuse of a film. The film was overlong, lame, with an ending sequence that screams "cheeeesyyyyy", with actors and actresses that was as cold as snowmen or robots that i was actually expecting them to melt or to speaks in mechanical voice a la C3P0, and believe me, if you had seen the trailer for this film, awed by it, and decided to go to theater to see more, then you'd be disappointed. Because if you'd seen the trailer, you'd seen everything. The overhyped CGI wasn't really that good anyway. Or at least, didn't offer anything new nor breath-taking.

Finally, an advice from me (take it or scoffs it, your choice), that if you seen a film poster that embalzoned with words "From the director of and ", or anything similar, rest assured that you'd be in for a treat that was quality-wise less than or . Consider yourself warned.