Review of Apocalypto (2006) by Elizabeth M — 06 Apr 2015

I like that it didn't feel like a Hollywood movie. Gibson did a good job transporting you back in time. But the script didn't impress me much. I appreciate the movie more from a documentary perspective so I only get a visual thrill. What I didn't like about it is it took all the mystery out of the Mayan culture. The characters are too identifiable. We start out with the guys joking around, and from there all you really got is the girl and the boy in the hole and wondering where the slaves are being taken. Where they're taken looks authentic, but everything about the movie after they arrive I thought was uninspired and left you thinking "of course that was going to happen.".

The drama with the woman and the child, it's just a little too humanist and generic for my approval. The plot element is used to tell a great story, or to get a cheap emotional reaction from the audience and fill up time in a plot that's more about spectacle, and I that's what it feels like here. I just expected more and I was disappointed to find out the Mayans were very American.

But with all that said, I still think it was a great movie -- just not in the way Gibson intended it to be. I was entertained. I thought every character was memorable. The makeup and costumes were brilliant. The chase is possibly the best barefoot chase scene I've seen. It was a typical Hollywood film. But I got to give Gibson credit for at least trying and getting as far as he did. I was just hoping for a more mythical story. It's just like Avatar. Both had good scripts, but the worlds they created deserved better. It's like if Lord of The Rings was just about the two Hobbits walking to the volcano and they meet some girl along the way they have to save. You'd be more interested in staring at the background hoping to see an elf or something.