10,000 BC

The posters were very impressive. man facing a huge saber tooth tiger baring its menacing fangs (is that what they are called?) on the edge of a cliff. A man's trying to spear a mammoth which, standing on its hind legs, is trying to crush him. These were very promising and I was expecting to enjoy 110 mins of CGI generated action flick.

I did enjoy the movie. However, you'll never see the first scene; the saber tooth appears for may be 5 mins in the movie. The mammoth are too woolly and not at all scary. Although the visual effects are not too stunning, they are believable.

I missed the first 15 mins owing to Bangalore traffic (certain somebody might say I didn't plan properly :P); the only regret is that I missed the trailers. The plot goes like this: the leader of the tribe abandons it to go in search of better food sources. The tribe is dependent solely dependent on mammoth meat and the leader, like a true project manager, wants to build in some contingency into the supply chain. The tribesman only see him abandoning them and could not fathom the purpose. The son now has to bear the burden of a maligned father and always reminded of it by his mates^[1].(All this, of course, is my interpretation of the missed 15 mins; the actual story is something else.. hehehe)

Enter, a little girl with the cutest blue eyes^[2] and our man makes all the right promises that a guy trying to get hooked is supposed to. I know, I know, they are just little kids, shouldn't be so harsh on them; but you should really listen to what he says. God, I cant imagine me saying even at my age. (Ladies, do not interpret this as me being unromantic. I've got better tricks up my sleeve ;-)... )

They both grow up to be the perfect specimens for the tribe, the blue eyes of Camilla Belle, playing (not acting) the part of Evolet, really stand out. The mammoth hunting season is on and the new kids are all excited. Reason: whoever kills the bull will be given the white spear (with a beautifully crafted sheath) and gets to choose any suitable lady to be his wife. Karen, son of current white spear holder, chief Tic'Tic (fascinating name, isn't it?), is the favourite. All the men gather for the hunt, for the pack and go after the mammoth herd. But our man, D'Leh, wants to win Evolet, abandons the team and tries to go at it alone. He fails and almost gets killed in the process. The pack manages to trap the bull mammoth into a huge net made of thick rope, Karen tries to spear it and fails. The mammoth manages to pull the net away from its anchors and the pack pounces on the net to try hold the mammoth. The mammoth, still trapped in the net, starts running away and the pounces on the net to try hold the mammoth. This is actually a very funny scene with the men sort of dune surfing behind the mammoth. When it gets too much to handle Tic'Tic orders them to leave the net and let the mammoth go. D'Leh, who joined back into the pack when the mammoth broke away, conveniently gets his hand stuck in the net and does not let go; and accidentally gets labelled as the hero who did not let go. The mammoth stops when it reaches a cliff and there is nowhere to run. It then starts attacking D'Leh and accidentally runs into his spear. Although there was no courage or bravery shown, D'Leh wins the white spear and his lady.

I should probably stop the lengthy desciptions here and ask you to watch Apocalypto and some (very little) of Egyptian history, coz the rest of the movie is just these two put together. Overall, I would rate this 3/5 (same as TOI). Watch it if you nothing fruitful to do and with close friends so that you can make fun of the storyline.

Interesting trivia from IMDB: D'Leh is spelled "Held" backwards, "Held" being the German word for "hero". Roland Emmerich,the director, chose this name as an easteregg.


1. I had used 'peers' first. Changed it after contemplating the thrashing I'd get from the IT crowd :D
2. Truth is I don't remember the little girl's eye colour. But I imagine they should be based on they look like when she grows up in the movie.

List of unusual deaths

Have you ever come across this list on Wikipedia? The latest (source article) in the list is from India!