Apocalypto (2006)

Originally Written

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Mel Gibson may have struck gold with Braveheart and then followed up with a highly controversial money maker, The Passion of the Christ, but Apocalypto fails to match the success or quality of those previous two films. In fact it ends up being quite an average attempt at creating another epic.

Apocalypto is the story of the final days of the Mayan civilization before its conquering by the Spaniards. The story is quite vague in terms of giving the viewer any real concrete information about what is going on, although the general idea is attainable. The film projects the Mayan's as quite a Satanist group of people, soldiers from the main city are sent out into the jungle to capture small clans of villagers, who are in turn sacrificed to the gods. Exactly who these people are and how they ended up in the jungle is never really discussed, however it can be assumed that their ancestors had fled from the Satanist ways of the Mayan culture, since all the tribes seem to speak the same language.

Apocalypto's main character is Jaguar Paw.  After his village is ravaged by the savage Mayans those not killed, or too young to be of any use, are captured and taken for slaves and sacrifices. Jaguar Paw is able to lead his pregnant wife and young son to safety from the attackers by lowering them into a pit where they could hide. But after he's captured by the savages his family's fate is almost doomed to be an even slower death inside the deep pit. The rest of the film centers around his attempt to escape from the grips of the savage civilization and return to the ruins of his village in hopes of saving his wife and child before they most certainly perish. Apocalypto is visually a very stunning film but visuals alone don't create a classic.

Aside from the scenes of the savages ravaging the villages the first half of Apocalypto is quite boring. The script is mediocre at best and the story, or lack there of, moves quite slowly until the main character finally makes his escape. The second half of the film is nothing but an extremely long foot chase through the jungle as the savages attempt to recapture him. There's nothing worse than a boring film with subtitles, especially when the dialogue is below average and a story with very little depth. By the second half there's not much dialogue present but even the 45 minute chase scene becomes a chore to sit through.

Overall, Apocalypto is nothing special. The story is too generic and leaves too many holes with nothing to fill. The dialogue is tedious and adds nothing to progressing the story, I think it would have been better with no dialogue at all.  And can someone explain to me what was with one of the savages using the F word?  Are we to believe it originated from the Mayans?!?

Apocalypto is about forty-five minutes too long and will leave most viewers quite bored, unless they let the visuals and violence overwhelm them. But even in terms of violence and blood, I actually expected a lot more, leaving me a little confused what all the controversy was about in terms of the graphic content of this film; I guess people have forgotten films of the past. In one scene a savage rips the heart out of a captive, this same visualization is done in Indiana Jones and the Temple Doom, and almost as graphic. The only thing that probably hasn't been seen in many films before is all the actors running around almost naked the entire time, maybe that mixed with a little extra blood is what everyone is talking about.

In the end, Apocalypto is way too long and quite boring on more occasions than not. The over abundance of action / violence in the second half of the film is only a poor substitution for a non-existent story and poor beginning. It's a film that isn't horrible, but for most people one viewing will be enough, and that is not due to the violence but due to the fact that this is not that great of a film. So what I learned is the Mayan's deserved being conquered due to their evil ways, but is all that worthy an almost three hour film? In terms of directorial outings, this is far and few between the worst for Mel.

5/10