Alpha (3.5 out of 5 stars).

Alpha is a visually stunning historical adventure film that is about courage and survival. This film has some great cinematography camera shots of the setting and showing a young boy's journey over this Paleolithic Europe landscape. And the visual effects are amazing; it sure does capture a lot of sunset in the background for a scene.

The plot follows Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who joins his father Tau (Johannes Kaukur Johannesson) and a group of hunters to go out on an expedition to hunt for bison before the winter comes. Keda always feeling like a disappointment to his father's eyes cause he could not finish killing an animal or he could not start a fire. His survival skills were still not ready to be alone. When they come across a herd of bison and Keda is separated by his father and his tribe. An injured Keda is going to have to self recover, learn how to start a fire, and figure out how to defend himself from the wild. Keda comes across a pack of wolves which he chases away. But helps the alpha wolf recover. He trained the wolf to listen on command. And he continues to go on a hundred or so mile journey to get back home.

Alpha is a beautiful shot film. And it may not be for everyone while some may find it boring. It has a survival adventure plot of a young boy learning to redeem himself as others have looked down at him. He restraint his broken ankle, he learns to start a fire, he eats what he can find such as worms, maggots, and he trained a wolf which accompanies him during this journey.

The camera work in the film is incredible. The landscapes are beautiful. The shots with the sun in the background is like looking at a screensaver with a story. The visual effects are also good too. Sure, there are some questionable cgi with some animals not looking believable.

Kodi Smit-McPhee was incredible. It was a subtitle film trying to be a little close to having characters speak a prehistoric language. But it is not distracting or a frustrating film to follow. There is less dialogue in the movie but more body language with characters actions.

The film starts out great as Keda is going on an expedition with his father and the tribe. And coming across another tribe to prepare for the hunt. The film does slow the pace down in the second act when Keda comes across the wolf and they spend some time in the cave. Trying to recover from his leg and the dog is trying to recover from a stab wound. Keda is trying to teach the wolf to have patience when it comes to food. It does slow down a little bit. Before it picks up the pace when Keda is trying to get home before the snow arrives. And another dislike I have with the movie is the sense of conflict. There is not much of a conflict Keda comes across during this journey. Everything was easily resolved. He comes across trying to stay warm during a snow storm, comes across hyena's and a tiger of some kind. The climax of the movie is Keda trying to survive to get to his tribe. You are left wondering if that was it. And apparently it is.

Overall, Alpha is a pretty fair film. The visual effects and direction is beautifully done. It does give you a sense of an adventure. The acting was good. The music score by Joseph S. DeBeasi was also beautiful. The cinematography was great. The film just suffers from a second act slow pace and less conflict with the plot.