Alpha

20,000 years ago on the European tundra, Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is on his first hunt.  He has proven to be squeamish and lacking persistence.  Hunters from two tribes crawl toward a herd of buffalo.  Then Keda's father yells 'Go!'  The hunters leap to their feet and charge the buffalo, herding them off a cliff.  Unfortunately, Keda performs badly in his first hunt and goes over the cliff.  Apparently dead and unreachable on a ledge half way down the cliff, hunters mourn him and leave.  Keda awakens when a buzzard pecks at him.  After climbing down/falling off the cliff, Keda finds himself hunted by a pack of wolves.  He seriously injures one before escaping up a tree.  In the morning, the pack is gone but the injured wolf remains.  Still too squeamish to kill, he binds its snout and nurses it to health in a cave.  He names the wolf Alpha.  Alpha becomes a member of Keda's pack and soon the wolf is chasing prey to Keda's spear.  Here is the origin story for man's best friend. 

 

As with other Stone Age movies (e.g. Quest for Fire, Clan of the Cave Bear), a prehistoric language was created.  Even the narration by Morgan Freeman is spoken in that language and translated with subtitles.  I didn't recognize his voice, which defeats the point of hiring Morgan Freeman to narrate.  The bonding between man and wolf is done well but the story is a bit too epic, involving too many death-defying challenges.

Good popcorn fun.