Alpha review

ALPHA:

A FLAWED BUT GORGEOUS EPIC ABOUT A BOY AND HIS DOG, OR IN THIS CASE A WOLF!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Leaders are born from survival in Alpha

            From director, Albert Hughes (Menace II Society, From Hell, The Book of Eli) best known for his collaborations with his brother, Allen Hughes as the Hughes Brothers, comes the true story behind man’s best friend, Alpha. You know those movies that are decent in terms of storytelling, but the visuals and scope overshadow everything, you know like James Cameron’s Avatar? Alpha pretty much falls under the same category as a film that isn’t perfect, but its visuals and size make it worth experiencing, especially on IMAX.

            This is a gorgeous looking movie, from the production design, color and lighting, and the effects, it really feels like you’ve traveled back in time to the Ice Age. Plot wise the best way I can describe it is like a mix of How to Train Your Dragon, Life of Pi, and The Revenant, ever seen those movies? Congratulations you pretty much already know the premise of Alpha.

            Set 20,000 years ago in Europe during the last Ice Age, the film follows a young man named Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee-Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: Apocalypse) learning to become a hunter for his tribe and his father and tribe leader proud. When a Steppe bison hunting expedition goes wrong, Keda finds himself stranded in the wilderness, presumed dead.

            Keda befriends a wolf named Alpha and the two of them forge the tentative first bond between man and canine as they find their way home. These unlikely friends must make their way through packs of hyenas, snow, and thin ice in order to survive.

            The film also stars Leonor Varela (The Man in the Iron Mask, Blade II, Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach) as Shaman and Jens Hultén (Skyfall, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation) as Xi.

            Overall, Alpha is a decent story about a man and wolf fighting for survival made even better with its use of 3D and IMAX technology. You’re still getting a solid movie either way but unlike something like Hugo, if you took the 3D aspect out it probably wouldn’t be as engaging.

            Watching it on IMAX 3D really made the world of the film come alive and every time you get an aerial shot of the environments and mountain shots I was like “This is the return to legit IMAX filmmaking”. After all, isn’t that the purpose of watching a movie in IMAX? To feel like you’re really there in the action, well, Alpha reminded me why I love watching movies in that format.

            As mentioned before, the story isn’t very deep, but it has some exciting and touching moments with zero English speaking despite being an American film which I found very unique. I know it might be a turn-off point for some but I’m pretty sure you could still follow the story fine even without the subtitles.

            Sadly, the movie doesn’t quite do that great a job at establishing characters, don’t get me wrong it’s easy to get invested in someone who’s been stranded in the wilderness with only a lone wolf at his side. But we don’t really know the other people in the tribe or even his father who is the leader of the group, but we only see him in the beginning and a couple scenes near the end.

            It doesn’t ruin the movie for me, but I think it would have been a much stronger film if we got to know the characters before throwing us into the unknown with a wolf. If it was more along the lines of The Grey or Life of Pi it might have had a better shot.

            Alpha is a perfect decent story with thrills and moments of heart, but if you got an IMAX nearby or a giant-screen format, definitely catch it for the experience. I don’t see myself flooding back to the theater to watch it again but I’m glad I watched it in IMAX 3D, it isn’t perfect but it’s exciting and beautifully filmed, dog lovers and people looking for a larger than life cinema experience won’t be disappointed.