I’m a prehistoric archaeologist that studies ancient humans and dogs!
Alright...So, I was pleasantly surprised.
They take a lot of liberties, but you kind of have to for a big budget movie. However, there is nothing that made me roll my eyes like I was expecting (was fearing 10,000 BC 2.0). Save for the improbable bison hunt which you can see in the commercial. Also the geology of the bison jump cliff is really odd for France, but hey.
Visually, it’s stunning. It’s not the Revenant or a Terrence Malik film, but the scenery and the CGI of the Ice Age fauna (which they did a good job incorporating) was pretty good. I saw it in IMAX 3-D too. Point being, the landscapes are dope!
There’s a few corny scenes that are in there for younger audiences and people that like action without logic. But hey.
The costume and set design was stellar. They must’ve consulted someone who knew their stuff. Also, they do a good job of showing stone tool bifacial reduction (no procurement tho..), foraging, and some aspects of Solutrean culture (again, a lot of it is artistic liberty, but it was believable).
They also, probably inadvertently, wrap multiple hypotheses of dog domestication into one - which has always been my theory. But, as all of the theories imply, you can’t just take a wolf out of the wild and call it a dog. Though the scenes of the boy and wolf hunting together are actually along the lines of what I picture in my head (based off stuff I read), so that was cool!
Anyway, this is probably the most pretentious thing I’ve ever written. But I’m fully supportive of archaeological narrative, so despite some Hollywood pitfalls, I’m happy to see a prehistoric story be somewhat accurate and believable! Emphasis on “somewhat”.
It’s worth seeing! But I might be biased in saying so because because I liked it.
