English Movies >
Reviews >
Apocalypto |
Language: English
Directed : Mel Gibson
Writing credits (WGA) : Mel Gibson , Farhad Safinia
Cast: Rudy Youngblood as Jaguar Paw , Dalia Hernandez as
Seven , Jonathan Brewer as Blunted
Review
"Apocalypto" is one of the few movies
that I started off seriously disliking before having a complete
change of mind turnaround. For the first half hour, the film has a
simplistic perspective of ancient Colombian villagers. The film
seems to say that their sense of humor was as crude as some of our
sense of humor today (bodily function jokes are universal and
timeless, supposedly) and the film keeps hammering away at that idea
instead of dramatizing any of the formal traditions of its peoples.
But the movie gets better, much better. In fact, it gets pretty damn
good. By the end of its 2 hour and 20 minute running length, I had
wished it had gone on longer – into perhaps a 5 hour movie to really
do this subject matter justice.
Once the village is invading by outsiders, the film gets graphically
violent. The intruders are of course Mayan guerillas that attack and
pillage without mercy. The film’s character of interest is Jaguar
Paw (Rudy Youngblood in his acting debut), whose father is killed in
front of him. He is captured like many others and forced on a trek
to the Mayan temples where human sacrifices are made to appease the
gods.
As another entry into the Mel Gibson cinema of agony and suffering,
"Apocalypto" feels right at home next to the auteur’s "Braveheart"
and "The Passion of the Christ". Innocent people face great
indignity and are executed in public arenas for the masses to cheer
over. While the Mayan civilization is held up to admirable scopes in
our history books as an accomplished society, Gibson suggests that
they were a culture likely preoccupied with homicidal rage more than
anything else. Everyday to the Mayans was a bloodsport, and it was
an especially good day if a slave was mutilated to death in the
process.
When Jaguar Paw luckily avoids public execution by decapitation on
top of the temple’s altar, he is immediately forced into a death
gauntlet where he can run for his life. But he has to watch his
steps because an army of men will try to spear him to death. It must
be assumed that no man has ever survived before, because the Mayan’s
are astonished when Jaguar Paw gets away. The film turns into a
drawn-out jungle hunt that contains some of the most exciting
sequences seen at a movie this year.
Without checking my watch, the last half of the movie or so was all
about Jaguar Paw trying to outrun a band of executioners. This is
fortunately where Gibson succeeds most. While the film’s dialogue
was never a strong point in the first place, the last half is where
action filmmaking takes precedence over anything else. Gibson is if
anything a great action filmmaker and he runs his cameras through an
authentically wild jungle that doesn’t feel like it’s been manicured
for the sake of an impeding Hollywood production crew. This wild
chase is tirelessly inventive, and Gibson keeps ratcheting up the
tension with a number of close calls. We get very engaged by our
hero’s survivalist choices – whether it is running, or setting up a
deathtrap, or to do some more running, or perhaps jumping down a
very tall waterfall. But our hero’s instincts are well attuned to
his surrounding environment, and he is as much a jungle warrior as
his pursuers.
Our hero does have a family that is comprised of a pregnant wife and
a young son. It becomes too much of a coincidence that she is going
to give birth by the time the climax is coming to an end. There is
another development with a far more grand coincidence, but this time
the coincidence shouldn’t be met with viewer apprehension. We’ve
watched a two hour-plus movie about bullies knocking Jaguar Paw and
his tribe around, and now a bigger set of bullies have arrived (this
must denote the fall of the Mayan culture). Gibson’s conclusion is a
wallop of a visual punchline, and this is where he stirs the
imagination of his audience.
And this is where I suggest that "Apocalypto" should have been
turned into a 5-hour movie that gave us more story. Of course we
live in a time period where a big studio 5-hour movie can never
exist because of marketing issues and concerns of a mass audience’s
patience. Not likely to ever happen, but I’ll still be panting for
Gibson to come up with Part II in the form of a sequel.
Keywords: Mel gibson, Apocalypto, Blue Diamond, Rudy Youngblood as
Jaguar Paw , Dalia Hernandez as Seven , Jonathan Brewer as Blunted
Add your
comments about the movie
Home
|
Reviews
|
Gossips
|
Actresses
|
Actors
|
Trailers
|
Events
|
Music
Copyright Notice: All contents in this page are the property
of MoviesBuzz.com Reproduction in any form including print and
web media is not allowed.
Trade Queries: If you would like to buy these
images in high resolution without the trademark logo kindly
contact us
|