There are quite a few kid/animal stories out there; what sets this one apart is the incredibly good cinematography. We're not talking wolves, dogs or whatever here, we're talking golden eagles and they're not easy to film - so what we DO see on screen here is absolutely stunning (and I'm a fan of nature docs). They even managed to mount miniaturised HD cameras on an eagle to capture some flight imagery ... there are some truly memorable scenes in this movie, among them a very intense, drawn-out scene where the young eagle tries his talons at a mountain-goat maybe one or two sizes too big for him. The winter scenes are haunting in their intensity, too.
But the movie as a whole gets only 7/10 from me - they tried to pep up the images with a story about a boy helping the young eagle to survive. Now I don't think the idea absurd - in fact a simple framing story might be a nice idea - but they put too much weigth on this story. The emotional struggles between father and son simply don't stand a chance against the for-life struggle of the animals, and so every scene we spend with the humans is - in my opinion - a scene wasted. No fault with the actors, btw - experienced acting as expected by veterans Moretti and Reno, and the boy was good, too - but it's not their movie. It's the eagle's.
But the movie as a whole gets only 7/10 from me - they tried to pep up the images with a story about a boy helping the young eagle to survive. Now I don't think the idea absurd - in fact a simple framing story might be a nice idea - but they put too much weigth on this story. The emotional struggles between father and son simply don't stand a chance against the for-life struggle of the animals, and so every scene we spend with the humans is - in my opinion - a scene wasted. No fault with the actors, btw - experienced acting as expected by veterans Moretti and Reno, and the boy was good, too - but it's not their movie. It's the eagle's.