I saw Apocalypto yesterday afternoon because I was genuinely curious what the movie would be like. I left conflicted as the movie is really good and really bad at the same time.
The Good: 1) Acting in general was quite good and it was exciting to see so many native actors.
2) Costuming was also quite impressive, detailed, intricate, and diverse. It's honestly award-worthy.
3) The scenes in and around Generic Mayan City were incredible, believable, and amazing. This is the first and only time I can say I've had a genuine feel for what a Pre-Columbian city in Central America would have actually been like, despite having visited some, seen tons of dioramas, and Discovery Channel CGI. If these were real sets (I imagine a lot of it was CGI), they deserve awards.
The Bad: 1) No one in Jaguar Paw's village seemed to know anything about the fact there was a huge city full of hostile people less than two days walk from them. They seem genuinely shocked that they were being attacked and genuinely curious as to where they were going. This would be akin to people in Anaheim being unaware of the existence of Los Angeles....
2) The scenes of human sacrifice seem to be much more in line with what actually happened in Aztec cities, not Mayan, and even then on these types of sacrifices happened on extremely rare occasions.
3) The Maya were arguably the best astronomers in the pre-scientific world and would have known an eclipse was coming. It probably wouldn't have surprised the crowd and certainly wouldn't have surprised the priests.
4) After Jaguar Paw escaped he ran, and ran, and ran, and ran without stopping for literally 36 hours. And he was shot with arrows. Twice! And he jumped off the top of a waterfall at least 50 feet high! If he's such an invincible superman, how the hell did he get captured in the first place? 5) The scenes of Seven and Turtle Run (Jaguar Paw's wife and child) trapped in the well are superfluous, and well... silly. Add to that the fact that a few hours of rain causes the well to fill up with 6 to 8 feet of water despite the fact that it was empty when they went down into it.
6) The gore was overdone. I'm not saying this as a person who is afraid of blood (although if you are afraid of blood, do not see this movie), but someone who can see the line between necessary and excessive. Hunting, human sacrifice, and animal maulings are all real things that really are really bloody. But do we need to see a jaguar chew a man's face off? For three scenes? Does blood rhythmically squirting out of a wound really need to be seen? After the gore-fest we've endured Jaguar Paw finally kills his main tormentor with a blow to the head, but it just seemed cartoonish and over the top it caused the entire theater to erupt in laughter.
7) AND THEN THE Spanish SHOW UP! Talk about anachronistic! The decline of the classical Maya civilization happened almost 600 years before the Spanish arrived in Maya lands, and the great cities with the stepped pyramids were abandoned and overgrown with jungle at that time. Shall we have Elizabeth I and Shakespeare talking on cell phones in movies from now on? I could live with this movie if it was about the decline of the Aztecs, and the last days of Tenochtitlan, as almost nothing would have to be changed, but forcing the Maya into this framework just sinks the movie.
The Good: 1) Acting in general was quite good and it was exciting to see so many native actors.
2) Costuming was also quite impressive, detailed, intricate, and diverse. It's honestly award-worthy.
3) The scenes in and around Generic Mayan City were incredible, believable, and amazing. This is the first and only time I can say I've had a genuine feel for what a Pre-Columbian city in Central America would have actually been like, despite having visited some, seen tons of dioramas, and Discovery Channel CGI. If these were real sets (I imagine a lot of it was CGI), they deserve awards.
The Bad: 1) No one in Jaguar Paw's village seemed to know anything about the fact there was a huge city full of hostile people less than two days walk from them. They seem genuinely shocked that they were being attacked and genuinely curious as to where they were going. This would be akin to people in Anaheim being unaware of the existence of Los Angeles....
2) The scenes of human sacrifice seem to be much more in line with what actually happened in Aztec cities, not Mayan, and even then on these types of sacrifices happened on extremely rare occasions.
3) The Maya were arguably the best astronomers in the pre-scientific world and would have known an eclipse was coming. It probably wouldn't have surprised the crowd and certainly wouldn't have surprised the priests.
4) After Jaguar Paw escaped he ran, and ran, and ran, and ran without stopping for literally 36 hours. And he was shot with arrows. Twice! And he jumped off the top of a waterfall at least 50 feet high! If he's such an invincible superman, how the hell did he get captured in the first place? 5) The scenes of Seven and Turtle Run (Jaguar Paw's wife and child) trapped in the well are superfluous, and well... silly. Add to that the fact that a few hours of rain causes the well to fill up with 6 to 8 feet of water despite the fact that it was empty when they went down into it.
6) The gore was overdone. I'm not saying this as a person who is afraid of blood (although if you are afraid of blood, do not see this movie), but someone who can see the line between necessary and excessive. Hunting, human sacrifice, and animal maulings are all real things that really are really bloody. But do we need to see a jaguar chew a man's face off? For three scenes? Does blood rhythmically squirting out of a wound really need to be seen? After the gore-fest we've endured Jaguar Paw finally kills his main tormentor with a blow to the head, but it just seemed cartoonish and over the top it caused the entire theater to erupt in laughter.
7) AND THEN THE Spanish SHOW UP! Talk about anachronistic! The decline of the classical Maya civilization happened almost 600 years before the Spanish arrived in Maya lands, and the great cities with the stepped pyramids were abandoned and overgrown with jungle at that time. Shall we have Elizabeth I and Shakespeare talking on cell phones in movies from now on? I could live with this movie if it was about the decline of the Aztecs, and the last days of Tenochtitlan, as almost nothing would have to be changed, but forcing the Maya into this framework just sinks the movie.