Respond to these rapid questions in our Alpha quiz and we will tell you which Alpha character you are. Play it now.
With the exception that the dog is a wolf, and the story takes place twenty-thousand years ago, “Alpha” is your standard “boy and his dog” tale. This is being marketed as a documentary about the “origins of man’s best friend,” but if you ask me, it’s more of an advertisement designed to guilt you into purchasing a wolf for your children. After watching “Alpha,” they’ll want one as well. In fact, the film’s title should have been “PUH-PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE The reason for this is that, based on the oohing and aahing that accompanied my IMAX 3D screening, people were all too eager to project their own warm and fuzzy domesticated canine feelings onto a wild animal that would devour them without a second thought.
But, let’s face it, we’ve been dealt a bad hand. The young boy, Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), is first seen with his tribe, bison hunting with them. In his people, he is the son of Tau (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), who is known as the “alpha” of the tribe. Keda is expected to be great, but he is also a sensitive young man who has a hard time with the idea of killing the animals. “Life is for the strong!” Keda’s father exclaims after his son fails to finish off a wounded animal with his sword. “You have to work for it!” After being bested by his prey during a hunt, which is the first of many well-staged and visually arresting set pieces, Keda’s hesitation causes him to fall over a precipice and into the water below.
As Keda is about to fall, “Alpha” suddenly flashes back to a week earlier. However, while we assume Keda’s fall is related to the story’s conclusion, it is actually the catalyst that sets the story in motion. During a quiet moment in the flashback, Tau informs Keda of the existence of the alpha wolf, the animal who serves as the pack’s leader and to whom the other wolves are subordinate. In addition, we learn about some of the tribe’s rituals, which will later serve as important pieces of shorthand. In order to return us to Keda’s seemingly fatal plunge, director Albert Hughes and his editor Sandra Granovsky employ a nice flurry of quick cuts from the opening hunting sequence, which is shot in the first person.
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Due to the distance between Tau and the cliffside ledge where Keda has landed, Tau has no choice but to mourn his son and move on with life. The situation appears hopeless at first glance—any attempt to climb in either direction results in almost certain death—but screenwriter Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt comes up with a solution that is at once gleefully unpredictable and completely absurd. Throughout “Alpha,” there are more scenes like this, moments where faith and suspension of disbelief are the only things that will get you through, but the pacing is quick enough to prevent our heroes from getting caught up in too much thought before the next danger strikes.
Alpha Quiz
In this story, Keda’s inability to kill turns out to be a positive for the wolf. Keda is being pursued by wolves while he is splinting the gruesome injury that resulted from his cliff-jumping adventure. Wolves find wounded prey to be particularly tasty. After injuring the alpha wolf of the pack, Keda decides to nurse the wolf back to health rather than pursuing vengeance. Alpha is the name he gives to it. Slowly, but steadily, the two begin to put their trust in one another. Keda takes on the characteristics of an alpha wolf, and Alpha takes on the characteristics of a lupine Rin-Tin-Tin.
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“Alpha” has a pleasantly nostalgic, old-fashioned feel to it. It functions in a similar way to a Disneynature film, but with sharper edges, a little more grime, and a complete lack of the English language in the dialogue. That’s right, Sony is concealing the fact that this film is subtitled from you, which is not only deceptive, but also insulting to subtitles themselves. The language Keda and his tribe speak is interesting in that it does not always appear to correspond to the translation in some cases. At one point, a character appears to be truly enthralled and inspired, and he or she speaks for an extended period of time. As a result, there are three subtitled words. Nonetheless, the filmmakers deserve praise for staying true to a period in which English would not have been widely spoken.
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The imagery in “Alpha,” which is absolutely stunning in IMAX, is the film’s most impressive feature. As a result of the collaboration between Hughes and cinematographer Martin Gschlacht, as well as the visual effects team, they have created a world that is both beautiful and dangerous, frequently framing the characters in the middle of a vast, almost endless landscape. The water here is an unnaturally clear blue, the sky is ablaze with stars, and the ground is unforgiving, whether it is covered in desert sand or ice-cold ice-cold snow. The most intense scene in the film shows Keda trapped beneath a frozen lake, swimming furiously while Alpha hunts him down from the sky above. The images in this sequence have a majestic quality to them that is breath-taking. Once it is no longer available for general release, it could be shown in museums indefinitely.
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Smit-McPhee gives a strong performance in this film, demonstrating the development of his character without the use of much dialogue. He has a genuine connection with whoever or whatever is playing the role of Alpha. (Is the wolf real, or is it a Memorex, I mean computer-generated image?) The film will appeal to children over the age of eight, as well as their parents, because “Alpha” is a credible adventure film with a slightly gooey undercurrent of sentiment. It will be more enjoyable for dog lovers than for cat lovers. This is the story of a beta boy who learns to be an alpha wolf, and of an alpha wolf who learns to be a beta boy’s pet and becomes his subordinate. It is, without a doubt, a charming story. Unless you’re a wolf, of course.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Commuter Quiz.
