Walking with Cavemen

This show could have been great, since human evolution is a very interesting topic. This series should have followed the style and storytelling of the other Walking with... series, like the title promised (though I know it wasn't made by the original team, but it surely follows some elements of those series - the same CG models for example). Every other entry in the series shows the ecosystem around the "protagonist" of the episode. With this narrative, we can dive into the prehistoric world in more detail. This series could have featured great moments with our ancestors and other creatures interacting. Fighting off sabre-tooth cats, coming face-to face with Deinotheriums, cave bears etc. Without the ecosystem, the series feels dry. Instead, we got a ridiculous Gigantopithecus and a few shots of Megaloceros and mammonths. I almost hate this series, it's just feels so uncanny and unpleasant to watch.

One Star. That's all this documentary deserves. I haven't felt this disappointed in watching a movie, let alone a documentary, in quite some time.

I'm a BIG fan of the "Walking With..." series, including it's Nigel Marvin spin-offs, for all their gleeful fun yet informative information. And although the subject of prehistoric man has never interested me nearly as much as other prehistoric creatures, the subject is still interesting and unique to explore. Having seen all the other docs from the series, I figured I need to see this one as well, especially after seeing relatively good reviews in other places.

Well for those of you who put up a good review of this doc... what were you thinking?! lol.

Though the information that they were able to get through was interesting, the presentation failed in every other way possible. It had a terrible flow, was incredibly unfocused in what it was trying to say (with information scrambled and sometimes out of of place), horrible effects (that includes the few moments of CGI and especially the makeup effects), and overused MTV-style camera effects.

Speaking of the makeup effects, one reviewer here mentioned how laughable the scene was when the cavemen come across this giant ape and how it looks a lot like a 70s man-in-suit horror movie. Well there are plenty of moments just like that were the people portraying the ape men looked ridiculous and acted ridiculous. None of this is helped by horrible camera positions and compositions.

The worst part of all is none of it is shown in an interesting or dynamic way, or looks remotely real. It doesn't even look like it was taken seriously. It also lacked any emotional punch that the predecessors of the series had. Remember the episode in "Walking With Dinosaurs" of the fate of the Ornithochirus (sp?)? That episode still gets me on the verge of tears every time I watch it. It's this sort of engagement with the subject that lacks here most of all. When you are more engaged in the subject and it's own personal story, even one that is just speculation, you care more about the facts surrounding it.

The only saving graces of this production are the fairly good narration (at least in the BBC version I saw) and the music. Otherwise, DO NOT bother even renting this one unless you want to have a good laugh (which I did frequently, but usually followed by rolling eyes). This does not belong on the shelf with the other "Walking With..." docs.

And does it make sense to learn that this doc was NOT produced or directly involved with the same people who did the others in the series? Hmmm...

Like a lot of people I was impressed with the previous "walking with" achievements. This one mostly uses real people and has a whole different feel to it. The acting is superb and you'll forget you're watching people in makeup and hairy suits. That said, there seems to be a constant problem with productions that portray early human ancestors. I guess there's a tendency to think ancient means crude and sloppy, and that's the way these beings are shown. Think brutish as in "Quest for Fire". Somehow I think smashing an egg in your hand and getting only a bit of it, stumbling around and wasting energy or wearing furs in the cold that look like they''ll fall off in a slight breeze isn't the way these guys survived to become you and me. Probably it's meant to show how different thay were from us, but I hope future attempts might use a little more imagination. Worth a look though.

Walking with Cavemen is a spin-off of shorts of the Walking With series and its central story is the evolution of homo sapiens, the humans or more simply us. I was amazed when I first saw it ,because I lucked any idea how we came in to being apart of what it is written in the bible. To add, the producers here made a very clever choice: unlike the previous Walking the main creatures are made by actors in suits ,which makes perfect sense considering that they are either our ancestor or close relatives. This documentary has quit engaging stories and you are going to feel that in the end, we are them and Humans have practically zero differences with the rest of the animal kingdom. One other great think is that ,though a spin-off it does not try to copy the rest Walkings, but be a being in its own right, unlike what is usually the case. The only reason why I have not give it a 10/10 is that the science is a bit inaccurate when it comes to who we start to walking up right and the first of its four episodes it is bit slow ,but apart from this nit picks it is perfect. In the end not hear those who say that it is awful or that we are the chosen ones of God, because that is rubbish and we are as part of this planet as we are the creature that create civilization. Go watch and if your liked the previous Walking ,you are going to like this one also.

The good is easy to describe. There's some great content here. Winston is a decent narrator. The episodes are well paced and there's plenty of educational content.

However, of the "walking with..." series, this is the one I enjoy the least. The reasons are (1) the acting of the primates is frequently weak and the makeup (eg. The ears) are always wrong. This is quite distracting and the illusion is frequently broken. (2) The facts are often speculative, eg. Primates started to walk upright for "sex"? Maybe, we walked upright to climb steep terrain + navigating through deep water with children + an increased ability to reach more food in the tree tops? Also, we have buried our dead for probably 500,000 years or more.

Overall, it's a good series. There are some interesting moments and some great theories. It's definitely worth the watch.