Alpha
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: August 17, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 26, 2018
This Albert Hughes-directed adventure is visually stunning. Read full review
79
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiAug 16, 2018
Alpha comes close to greatness, specifically that rare kind of greatness that we reserve for timeless epics, or at least gorgeous Frank Frazetta illustrations. The story and protagonist aren’t quite rich enough to take it to the next level. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiam LaceyAug 22, 2018
Alpha aims to be not just a story but a transporting visual experience, which is one area where it over-reaches. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisAug 17, 2018
From time to time, there are the requisite cutesy boy-and-his-wolf moments, but for the most part, the film is harrowing, suspenseful and gritty — and a perfect vehicle for impressive 3-D effects that bring to life an exquisitely beautiful but unforgiving land. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 17, 2018
The best feature of Alpha is its imagery, which is absolutely stunning in IMAX. Hughes, his cinematographer Martin Gschlacht and the visual effects team create a world that is as beautiful as it is dangerous, often framing the characters in the center of a vast, almost endless landscape. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonAug 16, 2018
The movie will play in IMAX theaters and 3-D, which is the best way of seeing it. Director Albert Hughes (yep, the same guy who along with brother Allen did Menace II Society and Dead Presidents) and cinematographer Martin Gschlacht (the recent creep-out Goodnight Mommy) capture and construct some compelling images. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerAug 16, 2018
There’s something delightfully clever in a narrative that is easily transferable to modern times. Speaking of which, seeing Alpha on as big and splashy a screen as possible is advisable, preferably with children who can handle occasional scenes of intense peril. Read full review
70
VoxAlissa WilkinsonAug 16, 2018
Alpha is definitely sentimental, even pandering at times. But its unexpected setting, images, set pieces, and even language balance out the sentimentality with a strangely raw and cinematically adventurous aesthetic that’s uncommon for a film of its sort. Read full review
70
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 16, 2018
Mr. Hughes, who for many years cocreated films with his twin brother, Allen, and here makes his solo feature debut, is a sharp and engaged visual storyteller. It’s a pleasure to see him working in expansive wide-screen, a fitting format for his chops. Read full review
70
IGNSimon ThompsonAug 15, 2018
Alpha (think Bear Grylls’ meets The Incredible Journey: Ice Age Edition) is a welcome end of summer surprise that will tug at the heartstrings and delivers a visual spectacle that will wow. It’s just a shame that it tips more towards spectacle over substance. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 15, 2018
Alpha is not a perfect movie, and it is occasionally a way-too-pumped-up pulpy one relying on big-budget bulk. But it is most certainly a tonic in an age when every blockbuster film feels like part of some endless multiverse-cum-marketing scheme. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAug 15, 2018
Enjoyably old-fashioned in its narrative but crisply modern in technique, it is engaging enough even for those of us with no soft spot for pets. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 15, 2018
Alpha, a spectacular prehistoric eye-candy survival yarn, is enthralling in a square and slightly stolid way. Read full review
67
Film Journal InternationalStephen Whitty Aug 16, 2018
The movie...is a visual feast, one of the rare 3D films which was clearly designed with that extra dimension in mind. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerAug 15, 2018
Alpha has been sold, to some degree, as a family-friendly film, and while it’s too violent and perhaps too heavily subtitled for young kids (or, for that matter, some adults, who may notice how superfluous much of the dialogue is), it’s easy to picture some 10-year-olds taking to its exciting, cornball charms. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 16, 2018
Sweet, strange and at times slightly scary. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoAug 15, 2018
The stylishly crafted film mostly succeeds in its engaging (and tagline-ready) ambition to chronicle “how mankind discovered man’s best friend,” even if its naturalistic strengths are swapped out for an exaggeratedly epic tone in the later going. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 14, 2018
Alpha has to stand as one of the pleasant surprises of the cinematic summer, a gritty yet sentimental fantasy about that first Ice Age boy to fall for a dog. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsAug 27, 2018
If it’s surprisingly sweet-sounding subject matter for Albert Hughes’ first solo film, he treats it with respectful seriousness. It’s a family movie but one unafraid to show some very sharp teeth. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 23, 2018
It is a bit silly, but is likable hokum. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 17, 2018
The film works best during its (too-brief) getting-to-know-you section, which balances humor against snarly danger. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshAug 16, 2018
It's sweet, really, to imagine the kind of devotion Alpha might inspire, a film that's very simple, kind of strange, but will melt any dog-lover's heart. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenAug 16, 2018
Hughes’ handling of the material is unfailingly serious but the picture’s tendency to stray into the ridiculous robs it of the majesty the director so clearly hoped to achieve. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelAug 16, 2018
It delivers plenty of exciting action with some CGI-assisted visual flair, from stampeding bison to a starkly beautiful image of a frozen lake with our hero flailing on the wrong side of the ice. Hughes’ efforts to bring emotional drama to the proceedings fall flat, however, relying on coming-of-age clichés that strip the story of any real surprise. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleAug 15, 2018
The resulting sequences might as well be lifted directly from Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi trilogy; watching these pockets of pure cinema emerge from a "crowd-pleasing" story of a boy and his dog may just be one of the oddest experiences you have at the movies this summer. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeAug 15, 2018
It reduces the domestication of wolves to a series of simplistic interactions that don’t exactly convey the difficulties of a wild animal overcoming millennia of instinct. Read full review
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