By Dennis Nilsson
Jan. 28, 2007

Rating:
Title: Apocalypto (M18)
Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernández, Jonathan Brewer, Raoul Trujillo, Gerardo Taracena
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Genre: Action/drama
Duration: 139 minutes
Language: Yucatec with English subtitles

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

Director Mel Gibson’s latest film “Apocalypto” comes steeped in blood, controversy and promises of originality, but its storyline really does not stray far from classical Hollywood formulae, making it a tad too predictable and disappointing.

Set in southern Mexico in the time before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, “Apocalypto” is a first for Hollywood, with its use of the pre-colonial Mayan civilization as the backdrop for its story.

Gibson has chosen to work with unknown Mexican and Native American actors, many of which are new to being in front of a camera. Along with the use of the Yucatec Mayan language, the film is given a good measure of authenticity and ambition.

Rudy Youngblood plays Jaguar Paw, a Mayan tribesman, who is taken prisoner along with fellow members of his tribe by a group of slave traders. He manages to hide his pregnant wife and son in an empty well before being captured.

The prisoners are led through the jungle to a major city where decadence and illness prevail.

They arrive in the midst of a human sacrificial ceremony, where the captives are meant to be the next ones to surrender their lives. Jaguar Paw manages to avoid this fate and escapes.

Before escaping back into the jungle, Jaguar Paw kills the son of Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo), the leader of the slave traders, and races back to save his wife and son with the slave traders hot on his heels.

The film is thoroughly gripping all the way through, lacking nothing in pace, action and intensity.
Unfortunately, this grip comes with a price.

As the film progresses, the promise of originality and ambition fades into the background with the film evolving into a classic cat-and-mouse chase.

Other clichés also rear their heads during “Apocalypto,” such as one-dimensional characters that are either overly good or overly bad. There is not much left for the audience to judge.

This film not only veers toward conventions but also becomes a bit of a letdown following the originality displayed during the first part of the film.

It is also a crying shame that Gibson ventures into the world of the pre-colonial Mayas but fails to follow through on the civilization it portrays - as the title and opening quote would otherwise have the viewer believe.

It seems as if the director has lost some of the courage he showed in “The Passion of the Christ.” 

As for the historical inaccuracies and anachronisms the film has been criticised for, they are beside the point. It is a motion picture, not a documentary or a historical reconstruction. Artists allow themselves to stray from historical facts all the time. 

At the end of the day, it is a very entertaining 139 minutes.

Fans of the epic sword-and-sandals style of drama would certainly be delighted with the film’s grand scenes, awe-inspiring scenery and gory fights.

The level of blood and violence in it is easily on par with that in the director’s former films “Braveheart” and “The Passion of the Christ.”

For those hardy enough, however, the amazing choreography and setting alone are worth the ticket to the cinema.

Had the director only stayed the course from the first half of the film and weeded out some of the clichés, “Apocalypto” could have been a masterpiece.