Bruce

Mel Gibson's, "Apocalypto" came out today and I saw just got back from the movie, ready to share my opinion on the movie.

Firstly I must once again warn everybody: Extreme Spoilers contained in my review

Overall Rating: 6/10



Ok well I had high hopes for this movie, especially after Gibson's "Braveheart" but i'm sorry to say, this movie really dissapointed me.

You get the impression that this movie is based off the Mayan civilization which disappeared off the face of the planet, for reasons which are not known. That's what I expected, I expected to see Gibson's thoughts on how the civilization went extinct. However do not be fooled, this movie really has nothing to do with the history of Mayan civilization , it's more about one man's survival after being captured by them.

The movie starts off with a small clan of people (not Mayan's) and it starts off by taLking about they're way of life, which is fine. Soon though, they are under attack, by the Mayan's which have set to capture slaves for their city. As a result the first hour of the movie is a big battle..and while it gets plus' for realstic violence it slowly gets tiring, tiring to the point of insanity. After that saga ends we move on to the Mayan's dragging the town they recently captured through the jungles to the ancient city. Once this far into the movie I was pretty much confused on what they were doing there, and this scene ultimately led to one guy who was able to escape from Maya through the jungle in what is an estimated 45 minute chase through the jungle and this is where the movie really goes down. Where as the front of the movie played by the rules (being realstic) the last part bent those rules and went for typical and amazing prediticable bunch of tricks. Some of the scenes are quite terrible.. The main character is able to run through the jungle at 300 km/h while he's being shot at with arrows and and even being hit a few times. The movie goes through a cycle where the main character (below) is shot with an arrow through the chest and then stops to see the "bad guys" have caught up with him and then, despite being near death starts to run away fast and then magically heals from his wounds. I won't give anymore details away..but..




+ - Postive

-Realistic violence

-Character choices good

-The movie is done in subtitles as they used the real "Mayan" langauge


- Lows

-Some of the apparent Mayan's were most certaintly not Mayan, they were caucasian..

-Some of the scenes..uhh..

-Story quite typical, nothing Last of the Mohicans didn't cover

Would I recommend this movie, no, I don't think I would. If you have great appreciation for history (which I do) then you'll probably enjoy it more than the average person, but in all honesty it did not cover what I wanted (nor do I believe it will for any other history fan)

Jason.Bare

Hmm....thanks for the review! I think I'll go see.

Bruce

You're welcome and thanks

Don't get me wrong, there are far worse movies, this just didn't "float my boat"

However as I said, if you're into history of Civilzation's and what not this is probably something to watch.

Choleric

I am big into history and I tend to get annoyed when things are blatently wrong.

Not to mention, I STRONGLY dislike Mel Gibson, and do not like his movies, aside from Braveheart but even thats a stretch.

Thanks for the review though Bruce.

Just_me

I saw it yesterday and I had no expections about this movie, I wasnt even sure what is was for story. I love the movie, very good and realistic violence and excitement.