It takes a lot of work to transfer an epic story onto the big screen, and not all movies can live up to the standards that its original screenplay set, but Roland Emmerich’s “10,000 B.C” goes beyond what was expected.

The plot really starts to unfold when the main character D’leh, played by Steven Strait, sees his lover, Evolet, and all of his people kidnapped and embarks on a journey to save them.

Along the way he discovers a sense of self.

They travel through the snow, the rain forest and the desert to find their people, and this showed off the amazing camera work that they achieve in this movie.

The story, however, shifts from D’leh to Evolet, and we find out that all of the kidnapped people will be slaves to help build pyramids.

As D’leh leaves his home, he takes along with him the memory of his father, a brave man who left his family in order to save his people and never returned. His father was viewed as a coward to his people for leaving his tribe. D’leh does not find out why his father really left until later on in the film.

The theme of the movie is somewhat ironic because when D’leh finds out who his father really was, he becomes just like him in an effort to free his people.

He decides that he will not stop until he gets not only Evolet, played by Camilla Belle, but all of his people out of enslavement.

The story takes great twists and turns, culminating in an epic battle at the Egyptian pyramids.

Once again, it was a great way for the directors and the editors to show visual effects in the heat of battle.

Special-effects movies seem to be the strength of Emmerich; he was the writer of mega-movie “The Day after Tomorrow” and was the executive producer of “Independence Day.”

Emmerich’s way of telling the story through his visual effects is so powerful that it sometimes doesn’t allow for the actors to get into character too much with the effects taking center stage.

Visual-effects geeks, and anyone who can cough up the arm and a leg that it takes to go to a movie these days, are in for a treat with this one.

It’s rated PG-13.