{"id":371,"date":"2019-01-27T21:42:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T21:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/?p=371"},"modified":"2019-01-27T22:01:40","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T22:01:40","slug":"alpha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/survival\/alpha\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uIxnTi4GmCo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Set in Europe some 20,000 years ago (yes, roughly the age Brexiteers would like to return us to), this stylised account of the domestication of dogs has its fair share of stunning visuals. The mixture of animatronics, CGI and real animals doesn&#8217;t quite avoid wonkiness in some places though. And while, a sabre toothed tiger is cool, it&#8217;s never quite a T-Rex is it, so that mere mismatch by humans and dinosaurs by several million years is a cinematic inconvenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On that note though, Alpha attempts to have a more authentic representation of Stone Age man, there is no Raquel Welch in designer fur bikini in this movie. It is subtitled throughout in a fictional but realistic language. While I\u2019m sure any anthropologist with even a passing knowledge of this period was weeping, considering this is from director of decidedly modern urban films such as Dead Presidents, this desire to give a reasonable, if too good looking feel is admirable. This has been aided no doubt by the popularity of Game of Thrones, which has seen every script featuring a snowbound tribe getting green-lighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The film centres on Keda, the chief&#8217;s son. He&#8217;s a form of  prehistoric snowflake, who doesn&#8217;t even want to kill an animal &#8211; an Emo Homo Erectus. He goes on a hunt with the tribe in order to prove himself, and it doesn&#8217;t go well. An angry bison tosses him over a cliff where he bounces off a couple of shelves, before landing on a ledge. Left to his fate, he must now survive the oncoming winter and find his way back to his family.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When he is chased by a wolf pack he stabs and wounds one. Keda then nurses it back to health and the fledgling relationship between humans and dogs develops. His softness is his strength &#8211; he didn\u2019t want to kill an animals and now he saves one who saves him. See, dad, we don&#8217;t all have to be macho spear throwers, God *exaggerated eye roll*.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I must confess, I don\u2019t really understand who this movie&#8217;s intended audience is &#8211; it&#8217;s not really a family movie (perhaps hipster parents who refuse to buy their kids any plastic toys or take them to marvel films?), it&#8217;s not gory enough for the Netflix crowd and it&#8217;s not thrilling enough for general audience, plus there are those pesky subtitles.&nbsp;As someone who\u2019s main friend group is drawn from the species, Canis familiaris, maybe I am its key demographic &#8211; mad, old, dog men need to be catered to as well you know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plot is fairly conventional &#8211; from this sketch I would hazard you could fill in every scene. However, given that, it does speak to the deep bond between our species. I watched it with my labrador, Teilo. He approved, and gave respect to his ancestors who suffered so he could enjoy soft sofa luxury while being fed morsels of toasted hot cross bun. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Set in Europe some 20,000 years ago (yes, roughly the age Brexiteers would like to return us to), this stylised account of the domestication of dogs has its fair share of stunning visuals. The mixture of animatronics, CGI and real animals doesn&#8217;t quite avoid wonkiness in some places though. And&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/survival\/alpha\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","category-survival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}