There are no surprises or twists here—Alpha is exactly as advertised. A premise set 20,000 years in the past, where a young hunter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) gets separated from his tribe and must make a long, treacherous journey back to his village alone. Only he’s not alone, as the young hunter befriends a wolf he names Alpha, who becomes his close companion as they journey together—seemingly beginning the bond between man and his best friend.
The problem with Alpha is how the film sets itself up as a more realistic setting towards ancient hunters living in a harsh, cruel world, but then also asks the audience to believe some pretty tall tales. For example, Alpha expects the audience to believe a young hunter can fully domesticate and train a full-grown wolf in less than a few months. Then there’s how the young hunter survives having been underwater, in freezing waters, during the winter, during a blizzard, for over a minute, by cuddling nude with his wolf companion near a small fire…while still in the thick of the blizzard with zero cover. Oh sure, he gets sick, but it’s not enough to prevent him from continuing the journey miles upon miles through the blizzard—at one point carrying the wolf who has no strength left to stand.
It’s a lot to take in and requires some mighty suspension of disbelief to not take one out of the drama—which, unfortunately, was not the case for me. Alpha also has a habit of not living up to its harsh, cruel setting. The young hunter’s dad and tribe’s leader (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) tells his son that one must be strong and level-headed to become the alpha of a group, lest others usurp the position. Yet when his son dies, the father immediately begins bawling and breaking down, so much so that he does not assist in the food gathering—instead opting to morn and scream his son’s name. I thought this would be the moment where another tribe member does exactly what the father foreshadowed, yet no one tries usurping the throne and instead, the tribe members show compassion towards the grieving father. There’s also a scene during a blizzard where the young warrior comes across a tent of a deceased, frozen man. With no food available, I expected the young warrior to make the difficult survival choice of cooking and eating the frozen body—possibly with the wolf initialing the decision by trying to eat the corpse—yet both hungry teen and wolf leave the body alone and go elsewhere to look for food in their dire situation.
Alpha’s setting is the feature’s most impressive aspect. There’s a bunch of lovely sweeping visuals complete with an eerie soundtrack to give the scenery a more mystical vibe. The CGI effects are solid enough and the hunting scenes are engaging bouts between man—and/or man’s best friend—vs beast. That said, there’s not much else to Alpha. It’s a minimalist premise and gives exactly what the trailers present. If you wish to see a straight-forward, coming-of-age story where a young man bonds with a wolf—complete with an imaginative setting—then Alpha may be worth a viewing. If you desire more from Alpha than you’re barking up the wrong tree.
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