BOTTOM LINE: This film is a visual splendour, but there's a dumb, arbitrary, and 2-dimensional aspect to proceedings which make this film at times entertaining but at others completely laughable.

THE GOOD: Roland Emmerich, if nothing else, is very talented at giving us the money shots and 10,000 BC continues this tradition of creating marvellous visuals that are a sight to behold. They help to take us back to a time before time, where mammoths walked the earth, saber-tooth tigers prowled the open plains, and the human race was just becoming enlightened and moving away from its animal origins. Against this backdrop, this film takes us on the 'first' adventure led by a doubtful hero who eventually overcomes his weaknesses to take on the Gods, who turn out not to be Gods at all but malicious beings forcing humans to create pyramids. A lot of what works in this film is on the surface; we have the basic story of the 'one' rising to the forefront, leading a battle against the human race's ultimate evil tyrant. Emmerich revisits similar territory to his earlier film 'Stargate' but doesn't seem to want to explore too much about exactly 'who' is masquerading as the God, whether it be alien or human remnants from the lost city of Atlantis. All of these ideas are a giddy joy and make you wonder exactly where we came from and why so many mysteries are still unsolved (like the pyramids). Emmerich also deserves points for being bold enough to cast no known actors in the film, relying solely on story (however much there is) and visuals.

THE BAD: There just isn't any depth to the story telling. To be clear, I'm not asking for Shakespeare or even a David Fincher film, but the characters in 10,000 BC are nothing more than clunky caricatures, and the way they move from one point to the next is just as superficial. Without the visuals, this film is really very silly. Perhaps what caps this off perfectly is the death of the 'God' - our big hero throws a spear and kills the God who collapses to the ground in front of everyone. And then what happens? A big buzzing fly flies over the God's half exposed face with sound effect to match. It's an odd moment and the audience I saw this film with burst out in laughter. I'm not sure that was the intention. This film is filled with such moments. But perhaps worst of all is that the film just doesn't make any attempt to draw you in to the characters, something that's really needed given we have to follow these guys all the way through the film and care about their cause. Even the 'Old Mother' character, which serves more as a spiritual link to the characters is used in a silly way, and in the end makes an otherwise poignant and tragic climax a superficial excuse for the hero to get the girl in the end. All of this makes you feel as if none of them were ever in any real danger and as such, there are no thrills thereby making watching the film more of a mechanical exercise with the only thing to enjoy being the splendid visuals.