10,000 B.C. (Blu-ray) (2008)

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "A good-looking, inventively clad cast interact among dizzying layers of CGI, visual and sound special effects to make a preposterous prehistoric adventure quest that is undeniably spectacular." 05/01/2008 p.44

Sight and Sound
"An early mammoth-hunting sequence...is genuinely impressive, with CGI attending to each wind-ruffled, pachydermic hair." 05/01/2008 p.88

Reel.com 6 of 10
You'd think that with mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and large, screeching birds you wouldn't need much more to deliver an entertaining romp through prehistoric times, but 10,000 B.C. proves that merely having an exotic setting won't compensate for a mundane plot and even more mundane characters...All of the ingredients are here for a solid, if routine, action epic, and, to be fair, the film does an adequate job of delivering said epic before getting increasingly silly towards the end. But that's the problem. When you have multimillion dollar special effects and the potential to watch humans vs. prehistoric beasts, "adequate" doesn't cut it. But that's all you get: adequate action sequences and adequate special effects. But that's all you get: adequate action sequences and adequate special effects...And for an "exotic" setting, 10,000 B.C. isn't all that exotic. A desert is still a desert, a jungle is still a jungle, and snow is still snow, even if you call it "white rain." Nothing in this film really makes you feel like you're transported back in time. If anything, the attempt to fuse ancient Egyptian lore, tribal warfare, and mammoths towards the end of the film is more confusing than engaging...Ultimately, though, the film's cardinal sin is to be boring...for all its attempted grandeur, 10,000 B.C. is about as slow and lumbering as a wounded mammoth. - David Thomas
 
Salon.com 6 of 10
If the great thrillmeister salesman William Castle were alive today, he'd know how to market "10,000 BC," the new epic -- I use the word loosely -- by Roland Emmerich: "No one will be admitted during the exciting woolly mammoth escape scene!" And watching the massive, oddly graceful beast scramble to escape the hunters who are hoping to capture it for their tribe's annual pancake breakfast is, I'll concede, exciting, at least for 30 seconds..."10,000 BC" would be much better if it allowed itself the freedom to be kitsch. A voice-over at the beginning -- coming from Omar Sharif, no less -- explains in fruity, educated tones how the Yagahl tribe, a simple, peace-loving people who kill only what they need to eat and have deep respect for the animals they consume, must wait and wait for the big herds of mammoths to come roaring through their landscape...There's a great deal of running around and spear chucking in "10,000 BC," as well as a mildly interesting scene in which D'Leh rescues, and charms, a saber-toothed tiger. But the picture, despite the grand panoramic scale Emmerich has tried to give it, is dopey and static. Its finest moments belong to the thundering herd of woolly mammoths who storm through the picture sometime in its first half-hour. With their spiraling tusks and scruffy, fun-fur flanks, they have an endearing, Snuffleupagus-like quality. - Stephanie Zacharek