Steven Strait stars as young D’Leh and does an amazing job as the outcast boy turned leader. I said it after the very first time I interviewed him and I’m even more convinced of it now than I ever was, he’s going to be a huge star. Sure, he has the model good looks and thanks to a rigorous work out routine and really strict diet an even more ridiculous body in this film than he’s had in the past, but over and above all of that he has this childlike twinkle behind his eyes that even in the heat of battle comes through as very human vulnerability. You can honestly feel how much he loves this woman, but also how unsure of himself he is as man. You can’t ask for more than that in a Hollywood screen hero.

Given somewhat less to work with, co-star Camilla Belle does a good job of keeping up with Strait’s intensity and thanks to a very modern script is able to kick a little ass herself from time to time and show that it wasn’t just the men making things happen in history.

As I mentioned before the scenery is nothing short of spectacular, in fact at times you’ll probably assume they CGI’d some of these breath taking landscapes; but they didn’t. What they did CGI are some amazing animals including the mammoths, the saber toothed tiger and some strange pissed off cross between a dinosaur and an ostrich. All of it looks great. Improvements have definitely been made since the awkwardly created dinosaur stampede in Peter Jackson’s King Kong.

As much as I enjoyed this film, and I will definitely be seeing it again, there are inconsistencies in it that nit pickers will tear into. So it’s important to keep in mind that if you go into this film with a critical eye you are going to be disappointed. Of course they wouldn’t be speaking English and of course there’s no way to be sure exactly how the pissed off dinosaur / ostrich hybrid would run and attack its prey… It was 12,000 years ago folks, I don’t think they were trying for pinpoint accuracy here. What they were going for was an exciting, fast paced adventure with the heart and soul of a true love story; and that’s just what they deliver.

Movie Grade: B+

Synopsis:

It was a time when man and beast were untamed and the mighty mammoth roamed the earth. A time when ideas and beliefs were born that forever shaped mankind. 10,000 B.C. follows a young hunter on his quest to lead an army across a vast desert, battling saber tooth tigers and prehistoric predators as he unearths a lost civilization and attempts to rescue the woman he loves from an evil warlord determined to possess her.