Craig Daily Press

In a time when massive beasts roamed the Earth and human beings struggled to comprehend their own existence, the severity of life was at its harshest. This examination of pre-historic days is represented in the epic “10,000 B.C.”

An ancient tribe of hunters who live according to the migratory patterns of the mammoth are perpetually in fear of a prophecy made by their clan’s soothsayer, Old Mother (Mona Hammond), who predicts that their last hunt will be soon.

D’Leh (Steven Strait), a young huntsman seeking to prove himself, finally receives the notoriety that he needs to claim his love Evolet (Camilla Belle), an outsider brought up by Old Mother whom he has loved all his life.

When a horde of warriors overtakes the settlement and enslaves most of the tribe, including Evolet, D’Leh volunteers to track them down, accompanied by his rival Ka’Ren (Mo Zinal), their mentor Tic’Tic (Cliff Curtis) and tagalong youngster Baku (Nathanael Baring). As they travel across the extensive wasteland, the group meets perilous hindrances in the drastic environments and in the fierce animals who wander them.

Strait is sufficient enough as the hero D’Leh, who has no real defining characteristics to separate him from any other clichéd male lead. Belle is hardly much better as Evolet, whose blue-eyed countenance is meant to be part of her effect on the future of her adopted tribe and the future of all the bands of people that surround them. Curtis comes off best as Tic’Tic, easily the most clear-cut role, the tribe’s unofficial leader who has been a father figure to D’Leh ever since his father left under inexplicable circumstances.

Director/co-writer Roland Emmerich appears to have a fascination with stories that entail the end of days. Whether it is from alien invasion (“Independence Day”) or global warming (“The Day After Tomorrow”), he seems to love constructing ways to destroy societies.

Kudos to the man for not insisting upon an all-star cast and in staging elaborate CGI scenes, but the congratulations end there for him. Emmerich’s newest venture apes recent, better selections of the same sort like “Gladiator” and “Apocalypto.”

The weak imitation of “Apocalypto” is particularly obvious in its similar story of slaves being captured for forced labor and human sacrifices. It is this unnecessary addition of a tortuous culture that D’Leh must conquer that makes the film so hard to swallow.

The battles against mammoths, gigantic terror birds and a sacred “spear-tooth” (saber-toothed tiger) set up an entirely different story altogether, and once we get to this free-for-all among tribes, it is hard to care. Topics of imperialism, sexism and the supernatural are put into question without ever being satisfactorily addressed, and most preposterous of all, modern English is spoken freely.

How Omar Sharif managed to get talked into butchering his way through the horrid narration is a mystery.

Admittedly inaccurate in its timeframe, “10,000 B.C.” is sustainable for anybody who is not expecting it to be anything more than “Land of the Lost” on a $75 million budget. All others might as well rent “Ice Age.”

Now playing at the West Theater.