Alpha Movie Review

Alpha (2018)

Watch the trailer
Written by: Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt (screenplay by), Albert Hughes (story by)
Directed by: Albert Hughes
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Natassia Malthe, Leonor Varela
Rated: PG-13

Plot
In the prehistoric past, a young man struggles to return home after being separated from his tribe and presumed dead during a buffalo hunt. He befriends a wolf, beginning a friendship that would change humanity.

Verdict
With a great premise, the movie's second half becomes victim to more than a few tropes. I wish this had taken more risks instead of trying to be accessible to as broad of an audience as possible and deliver a happy ending. The danger never seems severe enough, and by the end I had no doubt he'd survive. While it certainly has more than a few touching scenes, it ended up being a bit too cute when I wanted something more harrowing. I wish the movie had taken a few risks.
It depends.

Review
This has a great opening scene as we jump right into the fateful buffalo hunt that separates Keda from his tribe. I liked the movie jumped right into it, but as I feared we then cut back to one week earlier.

Those scenes could have been flash backs during his journey. I really don't like the how we got here trope and when the movie gets back to this scene it shows an abridged version which didn't feel right. This movie is going to show me the same sequence twice? Really? The movie all but acknowledges that it copied the hunt scene just to make the beginning exciting.

This has some great moments, though I'm sure it helps that I have a dog. This is the origin story of how dogs became man's best friend.
This has some neat shots, though it frequently relies on a wide silhouette shot. I just wish this movie took more chances and pushed some limits. I like that the characters speak a different language. A lot of movies would just have them speak English, but I wish the movie didn't subtitle anything. Leave the viewer confused, having to decipher the intent through intonation and hand movements. Keep us guessing. We shouldn't fully understand their speech, and I thought their words would be a bit more broken English rather than complete sentences, at least per the subtitles.

The movie makes the journey feel a bit too easy. I was surprised exposure wasn't more of a problem. I never felt like he was starving or in real danger, save for a couple of animal run ins. I want movies like this to almost become a survival guide. This does a pretty good job of that, other than making it seem kind of easy. I thought about The Revenant while watching this, another tale of survival in harsh conditions. Survival and the hardships faced felt accurate in that.

I did wonder how much time had passed. At one point, Keda suddenly has a bit of fuzz on his upper lip, but after completing the movie it doesn't seem like a time jump. I thought initially he might live in the wild for a couple of years before returning and facial hair would be how we gauge time. Maybe it just signifies he's growing up.
At one point this seemed poised to deliver a very sad ending with a fake out thrown in too. This has a happy ending which is part of my problem with it. I get the movie needs a somewhat happy ending to get to the final scene, which is pretty cool, but I don't like how we got there. Where's the cost?
This is just too Hollywood. I wanted this to be more like Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising. That's a polarizing movie with nearly non-existent dialog, but it pushed the envelope. The first time I watched it, I didn't even know what I had seen. I wanted to watch it again to figure it out. Alpha doesn't and shouldn't be that difficult, but it should strive for more.

Alpha has a solid first half, but the second half is too predictable. While I questioned a few things in the beginning, a really solid ending could have helped this, but what we got, I just didn't buy it. That made me think about how I wasn't quite sold on Keda or the wolf's injury either as far as the damage and the recovery. I love the idea of telling the story of how dog and man first met, but this makes things too easy.