10,000 BC (The Movie)

[thulsa]

Just saw this movie today... The setting is very interesting (you know, the Hyborian Age is supposed to be around 10,000 BC...).

According to Wikipedia,

At the 2008 Wondercon, Emmerich mentioned the fiction of Robert E. Howard as a primary influence for the film's setting.

I can easily see that, it is not a big stretch to imagine that you are watching Hyperboreans, Kushites, Stygians, etc. in this movie.

As is usual with big Hollywood movies, this one has great visuals (landscapes, buildings, costumes, CGI, etc), but the plot is very simple and could use more work. Plenty of opportunity to embroil the heroes with the bad guys (especially the main villain) is wasted, and the final battle rather anti-climactic. I won't spoil the end, but it is very predictable.

The film does not use any famous actors, which I find positive as it helps believing in the setting; however, in this case, the actors are not very skilled and the film suffers from it. For some reason, the main characters speak English with a strange, broken accent, which did not work for me at all and made the dialogue feel even more stilted (all other races in the movie speak their native language, or some evil-sounding fantasy language in the case of the bad guys).

That said, there is plenty of inspiration for the Conan RPG here. Also cool is the fact that the movie gives a nod to pyramid and Atlantis lore, hinting that the bad guys "came from the stars, or from across the sea", and touches upon the "Orion Correlation Theory" as put forth by Graham Hancock and others.

Has anyone else seen it? Your thoughts?

- thulsa

 

[Aholibamah]

I've been thinking of checking it out but might have to go by myself--we'll see.

 

[Hervé]

I've not seen it yet, but I plan to do it, mostly because of the obvious Howard influence. However, I must admit that I'm rather cautious about Emmerich movies. Universal Soldier, Independance Day, Stargate Godzilla and The Day After were so lame thet I don't wait much from 10.000.
The visual effects look astounding but I fear there's nothing else to salvage from the movie. But who knows, I may be wrong this time...

 

[Flashman]

I didn't think it was a very good movie. The gorgeous cinematography, though, would have been great in a Hyboria movie. If only.

 

[Krushnak]

I enjoyed it and there was definately lots of good Conan inspiration in it. Saw it with the 3 dudes i play Conan with and they all came out itching to play.

 

[The King]

Isn't it a movie a la Scorpion King?

 

[Krushnak]

It's alot better than the scorpion king, no annoying rock music for one.

 

[thulsa]

Isn't it a movie a la Scorpion King?

Sort of, although 10,000 BC takes itself a lot more seriously (which would work in its favor if the writing and acting was better...).

Still, this is the closest we get to a "Conan" movie this year, so go see it. For its flaws, it's still worth a few bucks to watch.

- thulsa

 

[The King]

Isn't it a movie a la Scorpion King?

Sort of, although 10,000 BC takes itself a lot more seriously (which would work in its favor if the writing and acting was better...).

Still, this is the closest we get to a "Conan" movie this year, so go see it. For its flaws, it's still worth a few bucks to watch.

- thulsa

This is the problem with Hollywood. With their imperative to touch a large area they loose their objectivity and creativity.

On the other side, I like the approach of Emmerich in The Day After where the sudden climatic change is due to the massive alteration of the water currents.

 

[Spectator]

I watched it last night.
I want 2 hours and $7.50 back.

I thought the corny ending was way too lame.

Great visuals though!

 

[UberDog]

7.50! Wow, Florida has good prices for movies.

My problem with films like these is that they generally lack ambition in the proper places. Roland Emerrich is notorious for this. he and Dean Devlin are very adroit at putting together very large, very loud movies that have no heart, no central soul, no compelling characters.

They came out of the Indiana Jones school, as did many, without realizing that the primary success of those films was the character himself coupled with top notch film making.

But what Devlin and Co. do is take lesser known actors, flat characters and a mediocre script and then cram it with special effects as if stuffing it with enough eye-candy will compensate.

At the box office, sadly, it often does. This film performed poorly, but Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow did well.

I believe both successes have more to do with marketing than film making, but that would be a whole separate thread.

 

[Hervé]

I totally agree with UberDog. Emmerich sucks, as do many of today's Hollywood movie directors. The parallel with Indy is nice, although I fear IJ4
will be more in the vein of the current Hollywood productions...

 

[The King]

First and above all it all depends on the scenario.

 

[thulsa]

I watched it last night.
I want 2 hours and $7.50 back.

I thought the corny ending was way too lame.

Great visuals though!

Well, where I live, movie tickets cost the equivalent of $18... :-(

Agree about the lame ending, though. Why couldn't a movie have a non-happy ending for once?

- thulsa

 

[The King]

Agree about the lame ending, though. Why couldn't a movie have a non-happy ending for once?

- thulsa

The only such movie I remember isn't actually a movie but a video game with some real actors and it was Phantasmagoria (the first one) with a somewhat Lovecraftan ending.

 

[The King]

The plot is very similar to Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (which was an excellent movie BTW)

 

[Fernando]

Maybe 10,000 BC be a post-Hyborian Age Movie, as Red Sonja in the wonderful Kintire's post at http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/v...sc&start=30

I bet D'leh's people was Shemite/Amazons' descendants and Caananites's ancestors. Evolet (Camilla Belle) could be the last survival of a Cimmerian tribe (she's black-haired and blue-eyed). Some Egyptians (like the ones who raided D'leh's clan and kidnapped Evolet) has Europeans features, but dark eyes and hair; they must be half-Stygian, half-Vanir, 'cause their hair were no longer red. The only exaggeration I saw in that movie was the huge number of mammoths in the world 2,000 years before their extinction - and they could never survive in a place like the more and more dry Egypt. :lol:

But it's a good movie, and, after I had seen it, I'm already waiting its DVD to be for sale.

 

[slaughterj]

It was alright, but:
1. Had too much narration.
2. Didn't explain how one goes from frigid mountain tribes of caucasians through jungles to get to black tribes and then on to deserts to get to quasi-Atlanteans / Egyptians. I just can't picture it geographically at all.

 

[Spectator]

Phonenetically D'leh's name equals "delay" which is very appropriate to the length of the stupidity that should have been over in mere minutes instead of hours.