Monday, January 14, 2008

Media update I just started seeing previews for 10,000 BC this weekend. At the moment I'm still puzzling a bit over what it's all about. Looks so far like bands of big game hunters go up against some civilization with ziggurats and what-not. And mammoth! Lots of mammoth.

The preview at that link has the trailer. We see a mammoth hunt wherein they seem to engaging in the old 'buffalo jump' strategy of hunting large game: set them off stampeding into an enclosed area where you can pick them off more easily. I don't think there's any evidence mammoth were hunted this way, but at least it's got some basis in actual theory.

Then we've got some scenery in the desert and what looks like the Nile. But wait! There's a sub-Saharan African! And a smilodon! And mammoths used as draft animals! I thought I saw a dinosaur in there, but I think it's just a large flightless bird instead.

So, tough to tell what it's going to be like. It's directed by Roland Emmerich, who did Independence Day (dumb) and The Day After Tomorrow even dumber, so I suppose one can't expect too much. The effects looked pretty good and there seems to be ample eye candy for both sexes.

I'm putting my money on Indiana Jones for the most worthwhile archaeology-related flick for 2008.