This may be called Alpha...But definitely more of a Beta film. Alpha Review

The wolf has beauty and grace ... A definite tear jerker

Hello guys and welcome back to my Scene it! Today's review is going to focus on the Wolf film Alpha.

Now when I saw the trailer for this film it turned out to be slightly different than what I expected; and I think the audience that I went with were in the same position. Now either I didn't pay attention in the trailer or the film was purposefully adapted to be a darker and grittier survival story than the warm friendship style theme I remember portrayed. It was sold to me as a story about how wolves evolved into man's best friend; however the film mostly centred around the survival of this hunter who frankly deserved what he got and eventually built a bond with this wolf he injured during an attack on him.

Two souls trapped together by unfavourable circumstances.

The story follows a young man who is the chief son about to go on his first hunt with his tribe and have to travel for what must be a few weeks to get to the hunting ground and hunt Bison. We're told that strength of arm is what is accepted in this tribe; and his mother explains he's strong of heart, which inevitably lands him in the situation he finds himself in. The story captures the brutality of life a few thousand years ago and how Europeans would have hunted animals as well as the type of weapons used.

The deadliness of winter is stressed repeatedly and as the story progresses the impact of the winter in isolation is reinforced in several examples. There are multiple ways to die even when hunting as a tribe and somehow the young chief's son lands up being flung off the cliff and left for dead on a ledge. As the tribe follows strength the chief is forced to prepare a burial for his son and collect the dead bison to take back to the tribe. After being attacked by vultures we find the antagonist is alive with a broken leg and conveniently escapes after a flash flood helps him off the ledge and resurfaces somewhere on the ground. We come across the pack as they go on to hunt the injured hunter and he climbs up a tree before stabbing the Alpha wolf and injuring it causing the rest of the pack to eventually disperse.

In the morning the wolf is barely alive and as foreshadowed by his mother rather than killing the wolf he wraps it up and tends until it is strong enough to be on it's own. He begins to teach the wolf he is the new Alpha and instinctively she begins to follow him until they come across her original pack later in the story. As he's a shoddy hunter she tries to assist in helping him hunt meat to eat and after a few attempts he becomes passable enough that they both can have food. I did find that she did all the work and he profited first; although this is how it would work in nature I still found it irritating but never mind that. As the weather gets colder food becomes more scarce and the realities of slow starvation become much more evident.

As an animal lover I knew I'd probably cry when he injured the wolf, but watching the time between protecting himself and leaving the wolf to almost bleed out was painful to watch. I had very little empathy for the main character and I'm not sure why I didn't make the connection required to care about his survival but I found that every time he was in danger, the wolf protected him and nearly got herself killed every time. I did find the ending very corny with the pack hunting with the new tribe; however I guess that was to be expected. I just found the delivery lacking.

I did quite like the relationship between the young hunter and his family; it was probably one of the highlights and only times I found myself caring about the main character.

The shooting style was very dynamic and captured the variety of dangers the main character would face; however I constantly found myself wanting to just focus on the wolf or her pack rather than what was happening with the humans.

I just found the pace lacking and don't know if I was really invested. Perhaps one that needs a second watch. If you get a chance to watch this please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

I would rate this film with a ★★☆☆☆

And as always Ciao for now!