The "documentary" is typical of the "ancient mysteries revealed" category - a lot of exaggerated statements and wild suppositions. The difficulty in getting to the "remote" island, which is really Robinson Crusoe Island, by fishing boat is laughable since there is a town there with a few hundred people and regular ferry service, not to mention the airstrip - its about a 3 hr. trip from the mainland. The film crew messed up a couple times in the "trek up the wild terrain to the monument" segments by showing the explorers walking a well maintained path and a string of guide posts (or maybe a fence?) across the hillside. As for the mysterious "Mayan" monument, well, it's a typical volcanic column and dike left from earlier activity after the surrounding softer rock has eroded away. The reason I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 is for the work of the photo crew and the cool Mayan mystical graphics and astronomical event simulations they interjected at various points in the story. Nice fantasy, but even the ancient Mayans would be laughing at this one. Maybe it was all a ploy to get more tourists to come and spend money?
5 Reviews
Total waste of time. Every single line was repeated and repeated and ...
HomerDPoe26 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I kept sitting through this thinking they would show what "face" they were talking about. After an hour I was crushed to realize they were still going to hold off. So I recorded the rest so I could fast forward. Even this was tedious and repetitive. When you finally see the "face" it's clearly just rocks, nothing "carved" much less a "monument". And he acts like he has to leave before he can do much of a "search" for relics that would give any credence to his idea. But when you find out he's really on an inhabited island, one with a town and a landing strip, it's obvious he didn't stay to look for Mayan tombs because it was a waste of time, there was zero chance there would be any. The whole thing is like a kid seeing a face in the clouds. His excuses are contradictory, one time saying the face is supposed to be visible and dramatic and 150 feet huge, the next that it contains no hieroglyphs because it's meant to stay hidden for a thousand years. It's clear that none of the people he brought with him can see the "face". Also, he claims in the movie that there is a "royal crouching jaguar" behind the face, but on his own website he calls it a "snail shell". That site is apocalypseisland.com, and if you go there you can see for yourself and just skip this boring endless silly movie.
Black Holes and the Mayan
MovieMandate18 July 2010
This film has no basis in fact; it is fiction, and not very good fiction at that. Who are these "scientists" making this "search into the Mayan past and future"? They have no credibility within the scientific community, and the "experts" they quote are of the same ilk. Everyone in the film is simply spouting ridiculous nonsense.
And, don't get me going about the black hole theory toward the end of the film. It is near-nauseating nonsense that the Mayan could have predicted anything having to do with a black hole in the center of the galaxy lining up with the Sun and the Earth on a specific day.
I can't waste any more of my time even thinking about how bad this film is.
And, don't get me going about the black hole theory toward the end of the film. It is near-nauseating nonsense that the Mayan could have predicted anything having to do with a black hole in the center of the galaxy lining up with the Sun and the Earth on a specific day.
I can't waste any more of my time even thinking about how bad this film is.
Total Hoax
apocalypseisland12 September 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Robinson Crusoe Island is not unknown, uninhabited or inaccessible and it is not in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is only 400 miles from mainland Chile and has regular ferry service from Valparaiso and air service from Santiago. This island is 3500 miles from the nearest Mayan area, an impossibly long voyage for Mayan canoes, and there are no indications of human occupation before the Spanish discovery. The rock outcroppings are natural. Even Jeff Salz who accompanied Turner says there is no sign of human shaping of the rocks or of any ancient human presence in the area. Simon Haberle, an archaeologist who has worked on Robinson Crusoe Island and has seen the rocks says they are natural and no Mayans were ever there. Since Turner is soliciting funds for more trips to the island, I feel this "adventure" is now actually fraudulent. The town on the island, San Juan Bautista, was largely destroyed by a tsunami in January and the people there actually need help.
Disgusting waste of time.
horsejohn220 September 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Worst program I ever saw on the History Channel. Turner is a total fraud and he is not even likable or believable in presenting this hoax. No Mayans, no "monuments", nothing to see. Total waste of two hours. Watch two guys take a fishing boat from Valparaiso to Robinson Crusoe Island when they could have taken an airplane or a ferry and the guys are not even interesting. Maybe Woody Allen could remake it with funny dialog like "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" Mayans going the same distance in the Pacific as London to New York in canoes, finding an unknown island over 400 miles from the mainland. Trying to build mystery by using a spooky voice and not telling us the name of the island was childish. Telling us it is unknown, uninhabited and inaccessible when it is a popular tourist destination with hotels, hiking trails and campgrounds is dishonest.
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