Alpha review

[Westside Steve]

Alpha
Sony
Pg-13.     96 min
Not sure why but it seems like I recall hearing someone say this is a film about Cro-Magnon man and their struggles with, whatever the hell Cro-Magnon men struggle with ; assuming that would be finding food, shelter  and getting laid; you know, surviving, pretty much the same crap we worry about today. But no. 
Actually it’s about European natives from 200,000 years ago, give or take a few weeks. European natives apparently operate quite similarly to American natives, in this case a lot of hunting European buffalo, except that they are Caucasian and more resemble the cast of SONS OF ANARCHY than HOW THEY WEST WAS WON. The Story begins with Chief dad, Tau (Johannes Haukur Johansson) his eldest son Keda  (Kodi Smit-McPhee on his first buffalo hunt which consists of stampeding the Buffalo toward a cliff and assumedly picking up the now tenderized beef from the rocks below. That’s when something goes horribly wrong. The Chiefs kid falls off the cliff to a stoney ledge below and presumed dead. But wait, there’s more. After dad and the tribe commiserate for a short period of time they go home leaving the corpse to the buzzards, but the joke is on the carrion birds when they find out the kid is still alive. Through a series of miraculous strokes of luck Junior is able to mend his leg and start on a perilous Journey on a seemingly impossible road home.  Keda is chased into a tree by a pack of hungry wolves who get bored of waiting and move on leaving one of their injured mates behind. This, then, is the real basis of the story as Keda and the Wolf who he names Alpha, bond and make the perilous Journey as a team. They learned to keep each other safe from predators, hunt as a team and become friends. I’m guessing the film would have been a lot better had there been more excitement, suspense or wi action but the heart-pounding moments only slightly elevated the blood pressure. Still it’s an enjoyable film and you will find yourself rooting for the boy and his wolf to make it home alright. I won’t tell you what happens at the end but just between you and me and the millions reading The Voice I was caught off-guard in a pleasant way. It’s not great but it is something different.
B-
WSS