Currently the movie 10,000 B.C. holds a humble average user score of 4.9 on Metacritic and an abysmal 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The "historical epic" 10,000 B.C. was marketed as a prehistoric adventure, taking place around the time when ancient civilizations were still hunting mammoths. Most user reviews focus on just how historically inaccurate the film is and how the title 10,000 B.C. is misleading since a lot of the now extinct animals portrayed in the film did not exist around 10,000 B.C..
While these are valid points I feel like these movie goers really missed the point when it came to how they approached watching this film. I mean this movie was directed by Roland Emmerich who in the past was more well known for over the top disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow and more famously, Independence Day. I think its pretty safe to assume that Mr. Emmerich never sought to be even remotely historically accurate to the time but rather to entertain audiences by bringing to life various popular prehistoric icons in a adventure film that really was unique in concept and delivered an adventure story that we don't get to see that often anymore.
The Story
Upon reexamining the story, I find it to be a interesting blend between pseudo history and fantasy. See, there are these fantasy elements like fictional countries and wise women with mystic powers and there is even a prophesied hero, a common trope of epic fantasy tales.
The film starts off strong with a scene where two mammoth hunters return to their village with a girl whose own village was massacred by raiders. The wise woman of the hunters' village, upon meeting the girl, prophesies that one day she would marry a great hunter who would rise during the time of the last mammoth hunt.
Pretty great start. I mean really one of the most basic story telling things to do in order to engage your audience is to make it clear from the start what is at stake, and make promises to them if you will.
The girl the hunters rescued, Evolette, has blue eyes which I guess could be an eye roller for some but again this is supposed to be a fantasy caveman movie not some National Geographic documentary. I mean really where were all these critical people when Gladiator rolled around. I doubt anyone really lost it when they found out that the main character Maximus wasn't even a real historical figure. A really corny and mindless action movie like the Expendables 2 has a pretty solid 68% on Rotten Tomatoes and the acting in that movie is just so bad and the action so inconsequential that you really begin to question if the critics really know what they're doing at all.
I won't bore you to death with every plot detail but the journey the main characters go on takes them through jungles inhabited by vicious terror birds, deserts patrolled by saber tooth tigers, and desert nations constructing golden pyramids.
Now, when it comes to the characters they are surprisingly well developed. The main character D'leh starts off as a young boy who selfishly puts his love for Evolet above everything else, and his rival and childhood bully Ka'Ren eventually becomes D'leh's treasured travelling companion and friend. As a sucker for romance stories this one certainly hit all the right high notes, really given the audience proper time to understand the attraction and bond that develops between D'leh and Evolet as well as the tragic pasts from which they are molded from.
The Soundtrack
I think the one thing that sold me more than the concept and story was in fact the music, which I cannot praise enough. I was pleased to see that most people on the internet who have seen the film at the very least shared the sentiment, praising the work of the three composers who worked on the score Harald Kloser, Thomas Wander, and Thomas Schobel.
The two standout pieces from the soundtrack to me were, Sea of Sand and Evolet, the former really capturing the spirit of adventure on the epic scope of the protagonists journey in a way that even rivals even, dare I say, The Lord of The Rings. I will let the score speak for itself but regardless of your impressions or feeling on the film itself, I would highly encourage any fan of instrumental film scores to give the soundtrack a chance. It really upsets me that the phenomenal works of so many brilliant but lesser known composers receive no recognition because of the critical panning of the film their work is tied to.
Visuals
The cinematography is quite simply fantastic in this film, as are the costumes and makeup. If someone had told me that the production team had hired indigenous tribal warriors to participate in their film, I would have believed it. I remember reading somewhere that a whole new language was developed specifically for this film, which even as a writer of fantasy fiction myself, seems like a monumental task.
While the CG saber tooth didn't convince me as much as I would like, the mammoths do look fairly photo realistic and the landscape shots are gorgeous.
Closing Thoughts
At the end of the day 10,000 B.C. is no masterpiece. Its run-time is a actually a little too short for a story of this scale and the attention to character arcs towards the end could be have better but at the end of the day I truly believe this film to be a real standout among B action movies. Its setting is unique and the lore a lot more thought out than most mindless action films that are released these days. It's really a shame that this ended up as just one of many critical failures in a sea of many critically panned fantasy films, especially when this film in particular has what all those cheaply made and thought out fantasy films failed to include, a soul.
My Personal Score: 8.5/10
Soundtrack: 10/10 :)
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