Reviews

Longform community posts about this title

✎ Write a review

Apocalypto (2006)- Review80@emreal1h

As much as I love to feed my eyes with movies, I love something real and exceptional.

Apocalypto was released in 2006. I was quite young then, but I can still remember the first time I watched it.

The terror it inflicted on me back then is not something I want to talk about; every piece of it felt alive, and guess what? That's just what I wanted.

The movie was directed by Mel Gibson and stars Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, and Dalia Hernandez.

Apocalypto (2006) is an action, horror, and historical movie. A peaceful settlement of happy hunters was raided by the Maya warriors.

Jaguar Paw, whose family was unfortunate to be part of the disaster, managed to hide his pregnant wife and son in a pit before being taken captive.

Jaguar Paw was consumed by the desire to reunite with his family, and even when he was to be sacrificed as an offering to please the gods of the strange land, his belief in reuniting with his family caused something dramatic to happen; a sudden solar eclipse occurred, which the priest interpreted as prayer answered and that eventually saved him. However, it was just the beginning of his struggle for survival.

Honestly, a lot of things made this movie outstanding. It started off quietly, and then it was intense action throughout.

The cinematography was epic; the forest and rivers were real; the trees were natural, and the concept of the running waterfall was flawless.

The lead actor, Rudy Youngblood, did an excellent job by playing his role with expertise. He gave his best, giving violence where needed, emotion where needed, and humor where necessary; everything was adequately played.

Everything in the movie was authentic. The language and costumes were traditional; everything was of the Maya culture.

However, I expected the two tribes to speak different languages; my expectations were cut off as both tribes spoke the same language.

The movie is quite one of the best, but it might be disturbing for those who are not comfortable with so much violence.

A majority of the scenes contain terrible violence that can leave one traumatized for a long time.

The ending was not impressive for me. Although Jaguar Paw reunited with his family, the movie left us in suspense.

I expected more; I was hoping to see what would befall the Maya people, Paw, and his family as the British people came into the land, but it was cut short.

This made it feel like that was just the beginning. It might be one of the targets of the movie: to lure people into suspense and leave them with crazy imaginations or conclusions, but trust me, I don't like the feeling.

Apocalypto is a movie that inspires me a lot; it gives me resilience in tough and crazy moments. It also reminds me that family is everything in life.

I will recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in action and historical movies, but ensure you are comfortable with violent scenes before going for it.

My rating for Apocalypto (2006) will go for 8/10

Image Credit

Rating: 80/100

Permalink·Posted on scrobble.life

Comments

No comments yet — be the first.

17 more reviews

›APOCALYPTO- 20 YEARS AND STILL A MARVEL90@henryjnrr16d2 views
After years of it being somewhere in the back of my mind and being referred to as “that intense Mel Gibson movie,” I recently watched it again and was struck dumb all over again by how this thing clutches you by the throat and doesn't let go for two and a half hours. It could actually be one of the least talked-about survival horror films I have ever seen, and it is a film I feel is underrated outside of movie-talk communities.

The premise is simple enough to fool readers into thinking it is something easily understood... In a village in Mesoamerica, a young man called Jaguar Paw lives in peace until a raiding party from a nearby more powerful civilization invades his village and decimates his people, using them as slaves and sacrifices. He manages to sneak his pregnant wife and young son down a deep well before he too is captured, and after that, it's a constant, frenetic pursuit; Jaguar Paw must fight to survive the freedom of captivity, and race home before his family runs out of food, water and time.

I was impressed the second time around at how assured and secure the filmmaking is. At no point does Gibson hold your hand... this movie is entirely in Yucatec Maya and subtitled, and the cast is all lesser- or unknown-known actors... and the decision at every turn seems like a good idea. It does commit to dropping you into this world and that's how it works. Don't mistake you for actors in an "ancient civilization" movie, you are watching real people in a real, brutal, breathing world.

The pacing is really a masterclass! The first act has time, allowing the character of Jaguar Paw's village to develop, the warmth and humor in his relationships to develop, the rhythms of the day to develop... it's important that it does because this sudden invasion, brutal, is like a gut-punch and not "the plot starting. After that initial action, the film is pretty much a continuous, extended pursuit scene with little relief. The jungle chase at the end half of the film is still one of the most frantically tension-filled and well choreographed scenes I've ever seen.. all the obstacles, all the close calls, all the desperate scrambles over trees, is all so real, so earned, even if it was for cheap thrills.

It's a film that's about as spoken word-heavy as a 1947 English long-distance train and Rudy Youngblood, the lead, does a lot of the work here; maybe as much as all of it. He's not doing it for show; he's showing the rawness and desperation that he has. It's what you'd expect a show to do when the show isn't like, say, a crowd-pleasing musical or awards winning; it's the reason the film doesn't suck.

I also just have to say how pretty this film is. The cinematography of the jungle is amazing, the recreation of the Mayan city, complete with its massive pyramids and sadistic sacrifice rituals, is staggering in scale, and there's a lived-in feel to each set and costume, so that the entire world feels real.... not some Hollywood version of "ancient civilization. It's worth saying much about Gibson as a man and filmmaker, a lot more, for that matter, but he is indisputably talented at capturing raw, immersive, spectacular images here.

Yes, it's violent. Violent for real and with no hesitation, it may turn off some viewers. But I didn't feel like the brutality was gruesome, in fact, it felt necessary to the stakes of the story, to make you feel exactly how dangerous this world is and how much Jaguar Paw has to overcome to get home.

I was completely exhausted at the end of the story, which I won't ruin it up for you guys, but in a good way. There's very few films that can do this for the whole thing without slowing down, and this is the reason I remembered this movie the whole time as I rewatched it.

The movie is a beautifully crafted thriller about survival that remains one of the most tightly wound movies I've ever seen.

_{image credit}

Rating: 90/100

Apocalypto

Top viewers

Recent watches

Trailer

Memes

Reviews

Comments

17 more reviews

More like this