Mel Gibson
haters will be disappointed to hear Apocalypto is not a complete
disaster. Mel Gibson lovers (are there any left?)
won’t be able to hold this
movie up as another classic or a new beginning for the troubled star. And, let’s face
it, nothing I have to say is
going to compel you to see the movie if you are angered by
Gibson’s anti-Semitic
and sexist remarks (and I could not blame you if you turned your back
on him
forever). However,
in the end, Apocalypto
is a borderline movie stuck with a remarkably difficult marketing
problem and
lots of bloody violence.
Rudy Youngblood
stars as Jaguar Paw – a peaceful Mayan living with his tribe
in the
jungle. However, their peace (and what feels like plenty of
misplaced
comic relief) is shattered one day when warriors working for the Mayan
rulers
raid the tribe’s land, kill many and imprison the
others. Jaguar Paw
quickly hides his young son and pregnant wife, but gets captured when
he goes
back to protect his father and the rest of his people (again proving
that being
noble is a nice thing, but often leads to your own downfall). Now, he and the other
prisoners are being
taken to the Mayan rulers to be sold off into slavery, and worse, but
Jaguar
Paw is determined to escape and get back to his family before it is too
late.
What do the
rulers have in mind for these prisoners? Can Jaguar Paw
escape and save
his family?
Done completely
in the ancient Mayan language (with subtitles for those of us who do not speak
Mayan), Apocalypto is a violent, long winded movie, but one that has some
amazing moments. Co-writer/director Mel
Gibson and co-writer Farhad Safinia don’t focus too much on the dialogue, even
starting off with the chase, capture and gutting of a wild tapir just to let us
know this will be a bloody and gory movie without much dialogue to get in the
way. Much like Gibson did with The
Passion of the Christ, he and cinematographer Dean Semler try to tell the story
visually. However, Apocalypto needs more
dialogue, more interaction between the characters and more story being told to
us to make it easier to understand and more compelling. Without it, the movie just feels like a long,
pointless, repetitive run through the jungle punctuated with some interesting
moments that are few and far between.
On this long
odyssey, Gibson seems to be putting together his own Canterbury Tales as Jaguar
Paw and the rest come across others in the Mayan world who can tell the
audience of the decline of Mayan civilization in a series of mini-stories and
events that let us know about the ravaged land, drought and disease they
face. However, there aren’t enough of these
mini-vignettes.
Aside from an
early and very creepy run-in with a diseased little girl, Gibson seems to drop
this idea and focus more on Jaguar Paw, whose story doesn’t change much. He wants to get free and get back home, but
his trip is uneventful for the most part, so Gibson goes for shock value as the
blood, gore, and body count all rise to fill the space left empty by lack of
story and character development. After a
while, the repeated violence gets silly (even evoking laughs from the audience
at the worst moments), since we don’t have one big message or one big lesson to
learn. Worst of all, Jaguar Paw doesn’t
seem to be getting by because of his ability.
It’s dumb luck that saves him, which takes away from his heroic-ness.
Apocalypto is a
better movie when focused on the plight of Jaguar Paw’s wife and child, who
face much more interesting and emotionally intense danger throughout the
movie. Sure, Jaguar Paw has a couple of
compelling obstacles to overcome (one scene where we learn what the rulers have
planned for him and another scene where he appears to have a chance for freedom
are full of drama), but his scenes are spotty at best.
Apocalypto has
some merit, but is best seen at home on DVD so you can skip the boring parts.
2 Waffles (Out
Of 4)
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
Apocalypto
is rated R for sequences of graphic violence, disturbing images, language, and nudity.
