It deserved a better showing at the box office, and I really want to give credit to Hughes on putting all of this together with an eye for some of the early traditions of early man. He clearly did enough homework to keep it true to the period while still making the film entertaining.
I do however think the subtitles didn't help the box office showing at all, but added to the realism of the film over all.
Kodi Smit-McPhee though, he was able to carry the film while looking strikingly like Juliette Lewis, and, in some cases, moving like her. It was a bit of a distraction, especially when the men and women really needed to look more rawhide...a lot more rawhide.
Despite that, it was a compelling film, despite some of the CGI issues. It drew you in and actually felt like a trip in the Wayback Machine much more than 10,000 BC could have even dreamed of doing.
And, it was really that transportation back to early man that sells the film, and Hughes pulled it off far better than anyone could have hoped for the man that gave us "Dead Presidents" he clearly has a lot of talent in him to be able to transport the viewer back like that.
