Posted on Sun, 7th January 2007 at 10:58 under Reviews
I was in two minds as to whether I should watch “Apocalypto”, primarily because the director, Mel Gibson, appeared in the TV adverts for it, which is a real turn-off for me. In its favour, I thought it would look gorgeous, probably contain some innovative movie-making and we had free tickets!
Simply, it does look gorgeous. The scenery and costumery is top-notch. There are some innovative scenes, mostly related to making blood and gore more realistic. Unfortunately, prettiness does not make a movie good. Apocalypto has a muddled plot that depends too much on deus ex machina, some over-long sections and little to empathise with in the over-passive main characters.
On the other hand, it is thought-provoking. What is civilization? Had the Mayan civilization already destroyed itself from within before the Christian Conquistadors arrived? What makes modern society more civilized than the one portrayed in Gibson’s movie? Have we learned from our past or are we repeating it?
My recommendation: rent on DVD.
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