Parents' Guide to

10,000 B.C.

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Violent, poorly conceived prehistoric action.

Movie PG-13 2008 109 minutes
10,000 B.C. Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 12+

Based on 5 parent reviews

age 13+

absurdly inaccurate historically

The story is entertaining but very misleading. It is yet another example of movie producers who know nothing about history or geography and don't bother to do their research first. For the journey to make sense you would have to believe that they traveled from Siberia thru Egypt down into central Africa and then back to Egypt. On foot. By the time they did all that walking they would be elderly men. The pyramids were built much later than 10,000 BC and they never had a huge solid gold cap. Kids will watch this and think it's reasonable to believe this is consistent with history. Movie writers should learn some elementary history and geography before writing such scripts.
age 14+

Nothing to shout about.

10,000 B.C. was just...ok. Not much to the plot, very predictable. But there's no sex or bad language, just some violence....not for younger children. Although I'm not sure teenagers would be interested either. Overall, it's a pass.

This title has:

Too much violence

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5):
Kids say (15):

With its average plot, nondescript heroes, and stereotypical villains, this is a movie between a rock and a hard place. Indebted to director Roland Emmerich's own Stargate (1994), it offers little in the way of new ideas. While it's tedious enough that D'Leh is The One fated to free his people, he also turns out to be the savior for a large number of others. The other tribes are especially impressed that, fulfilling a longtime prophesy, D'Leh is "The one who speaks to the spear-tooth." (Yes, he literally speaks to an unconvincingly digitized saber-toothed tiger.)

Magical connection with felines notwithstanding, it's disconcerting that when light-skinned, movie-star handsome D'Leh arrives at the sandy site of his "destiny," he's surrounded by dark-skinned warriors who've apparently been waiting to be led to freedom and glory. Surely it's only coincidence that the sign of D'Leh's achievement is a White Spear. As if to emphasize this old-fashioned race dynamic, the villains -- especially the man who lusts after Evolet and his testy sidekick -- have large noses, dark skin, and terrible attitudes. That they must suffer mightily at the hands of the hero is no surprise; at least they don't have to witness the movie's utterly preposterous ending.

Kids looking for a fun movie with a prehistoric setting would be better served with Ice Age and its sequel.

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