Reviewed: Alpha and Omega
Shipped away from their home by rangers, two wolves brave the wilderness to make it back to their pack.
Alright, where do I begin with this one... Well for starters, I recall seeing the preview ages ago when I went to see a movie in the theaters. I forget which movie I was seeing at the time, but chances are it was overall much better then this movie. I decided to watch it as I was out with some friends at a Wegmans, and saw it in the RedBox and decided to check it out. My friend said he saw it with his girlfriend, and it was okay. So I was like, meh.. why not.
I mean, okay, I am after all "Roadwolf" so I have some respect for the wolven social structure, and know a decent amount about how wolf packs operate and behave. Some may even go as far as calling me a "furry" as I do occasionally roleplay in wolven form online in chats. I also have a few friends who are much more into the "furry" aspect of being a "furry", and who tend to roleplay in real life as wolves. So I have seen some interesting human / wolf scenarios played out in fictional settings, some of which were quite entertaining.
To be quite honest, the plot and script of this movie reminded me of a really cheesy furry roleplaying session in which all the participants were drunk or high in the process of playing it out. Quite honestly, I have created improv roleplaying sessions / plot lines which are a lot more original and entertaining then this movie was. The movie was predictable, and the slapstick comedy was very much out of place. The extremely high amount of sexual innuendos made this seem like I was in a public roleplaying room at furaffinity or something.
All in all however, it made me laugh, and there were a few "what the fuck" moments which made my eyes tear up in laughter at how silly it was. The wolf social and behaviour was nothing even close to how packs really operate. At least in movies like The Lion King, Disney made a good attempt to recreate how a Lion pack operates. Apparently in this movie, there are many Alphas? While poly-alpha-ism does occur in the wild, it usually involves the top breeding pairs, or one male and several breeding females. In wolf pack culture, other males and females are usually not allowed to breed. The pack is unrealistically huge too.
The French Canadian Goose, and the English Duck were also interesting comedic relief partners, and tended to show their heads at odd intervals during the film. Somehow these animals picked up the hobby of Golfing? I am unsure what that is all about, but I guess it is after all a kids movie. I mean, I am sure if I saw something like Disney's Robin Hood done today, I would probably be quite picky about it.
Graphically I thought it was alright, for a low budget film. No, it wasn't Disney or Pixar, but it was decent for what it was. I did not see it in 3D, but I am sure that was kind of interesting.
Personally I was disappointed. I was hoping for a much more involved plot and characters I could kind of idolize as a wolf enthusiast. But now I know that it is probably best for me to stick to my improv wolf roleplaying sessions. It would likely be alright for a kid however.
Overall, it wasn't completely horrible. So I give it a 5 out of 10.