I'll just admit it right off the bat, I had my reservations about seeing this prehistorical picture from the get go. For starters, it takes place during the post-ice age world of Neolithic earth, the "New Stone Age" period which was at a point in time when most of the late-surviving Pleistocene megafauna had already become extinct and early mankind evolved to a far more familiar state of anatomical modernity in terms of physical appearance and cultural behaviours (a lot less animal-like with regard to instinctively primal characteristics then how their older cave-people ancestors were acting). As someone who is just enamoured with primitive Palaeolithic prehistory, I had an inkling I wasn't exactly going to be all that riveted about watching this film. Despite the prospect of me not enjoying it all that much, I ended up giving it a watch and these here are just my own personal thoughts.
Evoking the pure visceral nature of a survival movie such as this doesn't come easy and is basically a huge feat in and of itself to pull off, one which I feel was conveyed quite adequately in this film (there's no denying). The authentic true-to-life-life costumes, natural surroundings of the rural wilderness setting, and advanced hunter-gatherer village lifestyle with domesticated livestock is ever present and nice to see done some justice to in a project that isn't a historical documentary for once. The pretty standard structure of this speculative story is obviously one of ambiguous guesswork, with dramatising a rage-engulfed Otzi who is essentially spurred into going on a "revenge mission" (of sorts) in order to avenge his savagely slain loved ones after they were all barbarically assaulted by a brutal band of malevolent marauders from another far-off settlement (hypothetically, him seeking out his own personal form of vengeance in accordance with his ancient people's ways and customary beliefs). The performances were solid all-round, with the actors really bringing out that certain sense of true grittiness in hopelessly bleak and extremely grim situations.
When concerning its level of accuracy, the film totally knocks it out of the park; featuring beastly portrayals of just how evil and vile the very nature of the Homo sapiens species could be in some rather disturbingly shocking scenes (carrying out heinous doings with apparently little to no remorse). So I didn't have any issue with potential inaccuracies or anything like that, it's just that it seemed like the movie was going to be average judging by the fairly mediocre plot (and I was kind of right). I know they say it's all about the execution of how these things are done when put into practice, which is all well and good for some but to me, this felt so generic (regardless of how it was executed). Sorry to say but when it comes down to raw movies of this ilk which additionally have prehistoric beasts featured in them, Quest for Fire (1981) and even the superior director's cut of Alpha (2018) are undoubtedly the more compelling (plus entertaining) prehistorical films to me, personally; the former of which I'm well-aware was always envisioned to be a bit more along the lines of a fantastical epic. But hey, at least it's closer in spirit to those types of flicks (even if it does lack some much-needed levity). I'd rather take something similar to Iceman (2017) any day over a period piece about the Roman Empire, Imperial China, or the Old West because I ain't no history buff (I'm a PRE-history buff).
Can't even say I'm all that disappointed because I never had high expectations for this film from the very beginning, to be completely honest. Also, another element of this movie's unoriginality comes in the form of its main story setup; "pillaging hunters mercilessly killing innocent members of an unrelated clan during a premeditated raid in their tribe's territory" is a near-on identical premise as that initially seen in the first act of Ao: The Last Hunter (2010) - I kid you not! And so with all that, I see this as a "one-time thing", where I'm glad I've seen it at least once but don't really have any inclination to rewatch it all over again. It was certainly competently made and all, sure, but I just can't see myself actually wanting to go back and revisit it due to the minor boredom I experienced halfway through. But just because I personally didn't gel all that much with its Bronze Age vibe, that doesn't mean the film won't get you invested in it (I encourage you to see the movie for yourself and to make your own judgment on it).
Evoking the pure visceral nature of a survival movie such as this doesn't come easy and is basically a huge feat in and of itself to pull off, one which I feel was conveyed quite adequately in this film (there's no denying). The authentic true-to-life-life costumes, natural surroundings of the rural wilderness setting, and advanced hunter-gatherer village lifestyle with domesticated livestock is ever present and nice to see done some justice to in a project that isn't a historical documentary for once. The pretty standard structure of this speculative story is obviously one of ambiguous guesswork, with dramatising a rage-engulfed Otzi who is essentially spurred into going on a "revenge mission" (of sorts) in order to avenge his savagely slain loved ones after they were all barbarically assaulted by a brutal band of malevolent marauders from another far-off settlement (hypothetically, him seeking out his own personal form of vengeance in accordance with his ancient people's ways and customary beliefs). The performances were solid all-round, with the actors really bringing out that certain sense of true grittiness in hopelessly bleak and extremely grim situations.
When concerning its level of accuracy, the film totally knocks it out of the park; featuring beastly portrayals of just how evil and vile the very nature of the Homo sapiens species could be in some rather disturbingly shocking scenes (carrying out heinous doings with apparently little to no remorse). So I didn't have any issue with potential inaccuracies or anything like that, it's just that it seemed like the movie was going to be average judging by the fairly mediocre plot (and I was kind of right). I know they say it's all about the execution of how these things are done when put into practice, which is all well and good for some but to me, this felt so generic (regardless of how it was executed). Sorry to say but when it comes down to raw movies of this ilk which additionally have prehistoric beasts featured in them, Quest for Fire (1981) and even the superior director's cut of Alpha (2018) are undoubtedly the more compelling (plus entertaining) prehistorical films to me, personally; the former of which I'm well-aware was always envisioned to be a bit more along the lines of a fantastical epic. But hey, at least it's closer in spirit to those types of flicks (even if it does lack some much-needed levity). I'd rather take something similar to Iceman (2017) any day over a period piece about the Roman Empire, Imperial China, or the Old West because I ain't no history buff (I'm a PRE-history buff).
Can't even say I'm all that disappointed because I never had high expectations for this film from the very beginning, to be completely honest. Also, another element of this movie's unoriginality comes in the form of its main story setup; "pillaging hunters mercilessly killing innocent members of an unrelated clan during a premeditated raid in their tribe's territory" is a near-on identical premise as that initially seen in the first act of Ao: The Last Hunter (2010) - I kid you not! And so with all that, I see this as a "one-time thing", where I'm glad I've seen it at least once but don't really have any inclination to rewatch it all over again. It was certainly competently made and all, sure, but I just can't see myself actually wanting to go back and revisit it due to the minor boredom I experienced halfway through. But just because I personally didn't gel all that much with its Bronze Age vibe, that doesn't mean the film won't get you invested in it (I encourage you to see the movie for yourself and to make your own judgment on it).