Director: Roland Emmerich

Srarring: Steven Strait, Camilla Belle, Cliff Curtis, Mona Hammond, Joel Virgel, Omar Sharif (narrator)

Classification: 12A

The simple Nordic folk from the snow-covered mountains ally themselves with the more evolved darker people of the plains – who have been waiting only for their leadership - against their common oppressors, slave-driving pyramid builders whose leader claims to be the supreme being. Unlike the good guys, the slavers don’t speak English. Some disturbing themes here, perhaps, but I could be reading too much into director Roland Emmerich’s Weltanschauung.

And 10,000 BC really isn’t a film to be taken seriously. There are many mammoths, a sabre-toothed tiger, huge flightless birds of prey and a host of men and boys. As well as just two iconic women, the hapless but perfectly coiffed and fragrant orphan Evolet (Camilla Belle) and the ageless matriarch of the Yagahl tribe, Old Mother (Mona Hammond), who both inspire the heroic D'Leh (Steven Strait).

Sometimes the high-speed pace that such a movie demands slackens a little. You would expect the characters to be wooden, and they certainly are. But I felt a guilty pleasure in enjoying this film, and revelling in CGI effects which may have been done before but are well done here.

This film is really aimed at boys a little below the 12A of the classification – it seems rather unfair that they will need adult accompaniment to see it.

3/5