The stars: Camilla Belle, Steven Strait, Cliff Curtis.
The story: In prehistoric times hunky D'Leh (Strait) is part of a tribe of mammoth hunters who wants to win the beautiful tribeswoman Evolet (Belle). Raiders attack their village and carry off Evolet, among others. D'Leh embarks on a dangerous quest to try to rescue her. His epic journey takes him into new and strange lands, sees him battle dangerous beasts and come into contact with a more advanced civilisation.
The verdict: There is something winningly innocent about 10,000 BC... it looks stunning and has all the elements of an epic prehistoric adventure, but at its heart it is just the story of a chap trying to get his girlfriend back. OK, so he has to battle mammoths, a sabre-toothed tiger and a whole lot of spear wielding bad guys, but then who said the path to true love was ever easy?
Director Roland Emmerich has delivered a thoroughly enjoyable epic. It is a real wide-screen adventure that might be lacking in terms of an original storyline, but still manages to win you over with its sheer verve, pace and moments of astonishing action.
On paper, the storyline sounds rather like Mel Gibson's equally epic Apocalypto, but there no real mammoth-stomping-on-badguy footage to speak of. The dreadlocked hunky hero is engagingly played by Steven Strait, while Camilla Belle is suitably entrancing as the blue-eyed Evolet.
But while his love for her is the main reason for the epic quest from the frozen uplands to endless deserts, the truth is that the film is really all about the stunning backdrops, impressive special effects and the presentation of an unseen world. The set-piece scenes are terrific - the hunters stalk a vast tribe of woolly mammoths, slave-labour constructs massive pyramids and red-sailed boats skim through a desert river - though there are moments which don't quite work.
Good old D'Leh decides to save the life of a snarling sabre-toothed tiger - but the animal CGI effects are less than effective, while early shots of the mammoths are less than convincing.
For some unknown reason, the mammoth-hunting tribe seems to be multi-ethnic - though all sport dreads, furs and dirty fingernails - while the evil priest figures who control the slaves are bald, well dressed and have extremely long painted fingernails!
There are a few hints that the mystical leaders might be aliens or from Atlantis, but in the end they get killed off rather easily in the climactic battle - which is rather hurried and lacking in any real sense of dramatic conclusion.
The film is impressively made and beautifully shot and I did enjoy it - but it still felt rather bland and lacking in tension and thrills, perhaps because it is aimed at a younger audience.
And just in case confusion might set in, there are no dinosaurs to battle here - that was in the hammy British film One Million Years BC, which starred Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.
FINAL CUT
Enjoyable epic prehistoric adventure.