Synopsis
In the prehistoric past, Keda, a young and inexperienced hunter, struggles to return home after being separated from his tribe when bison hunting goes awry. On his way back he will find an unexpected ally.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Kodi Smit-McPheeKeda
- Jóhannes Haukur JóhannessonTau
- Marcin KowalczykSigma
- Jens HulténXi
- Natassia MaltheRho
- Spencer BogaertKappa
- Mercedes de la ZerdaNu
- Leonor VarelaShaman Woman
- Priya RajaratnamHuntress (uncredited)
- Nashon DouglasLion Tribe #3 (uncredited)
- 70
Variety
Alpha, a spectacular prehistoric eye-candy survival yarn, is enthralling in a square and slightly stolid way. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Enjoyably old-fashioned in its narrative but crisply modern in technique, it is engaging enough even for those of us with no soft spot for pets. - 70
Rolling Stone
Alpha is not a perfect movie, and it is occasionally a way-too-pumped-up pulpy one relying on big-budget bulk. But it is most certainly a tonic in an age when every blockbuster film feels like part of some endless multiverse-cum-marketing scheme. - 70
IGN
Alpha (think Bear Grylls’ meets The Incredible Journey: Ice Age Edition) is a welcome end of summer surprise that will tug at the heartstrings and delivers a visual spectacle that will wow. It’s just a shame that it tips more towards spectacle over substance. - 67
The A.V. Club
Alpha has been sold, to some degree, as a family-friendly film, and while it’s too violent and perhaps too heavily subtitled for young kids (or, for that matter, some adults, who may notice how superfluous much of the dialogue is), it’s easy to picture some 10-year-olds taking to its exciting, cornball charms. - 67
Film Journal International
The movie...is a visual feast, one of the rare 3D films which was clearly designed with that extra dimension in mind. - 63
Movie Nation
Alpha has to stand as one of the pleasant surprises of the cinematic summer, a gritty yet sentimental fantasy about that first Ice Age boy to fall for a dog. - 63
Boston Globe
The stylishly crafted film mostly succeeds in its engaging (and tagline-ready) ambition to chronicle “how mankind discovered man’s best friend,” even if its naturalistic strengths are swapped out for an exaggeratedly epic tone in the later going.