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Mel Gibson's one of the few Hollywood filmmakers able to finance his own big-budget projects, and Apocalypto proves that there are both good and bad consequences from that. Firstly, it's highly unlikely that a studio would ever have financed such an obscure sounding premise: a film set before the arrival of Europeans to America, with all the dialogue in Mayan. So it's fair to say, then, that it's a pretty unique work in the history of cinema. But Gibson doesn't take the route you might expect; this is no art-house darling. It's actually about as deep as a puddle and is basically an action movie. There is hardly any plot and what there is of one can be summed up in one sentence - a village is ransacked, hostages are taken, one hostage escapes and is chased. Essentially, the first half is about walking and the second half is about running. The ambition is commendable but the film just hardly kicks into gear, and when it does, it's right at the end. For a film with no plot it's certainly far too long as well. Some of it really needs some judicious cutting, which probably would have been imposed if Gibson didn't have such creative freedom. The second half is better paced but extremely episodic, while in the first half everything goes on for far too long. The trek with the hostages especially seems to take forever. From what I'd heard, I'd expected the action to be worth the wait, but I saw nothing hugely special about it; it wasn't even as gory as the 18 rating implied. From a technical standpoint, the use of video as opposed to film stock gave the film an occasionally amateurish look. Overall, Apocalypto had good intentions and it works in patches (its novice cast mostly apply themselves well) but it's just slightly self-indulgent.
The summary
Apocalypto is too long and not historically accurate in the slightest. There is some decent action and production design but not enough to completely sustain interest.
