Upon first viewing of the trailer of Apocalypto, I was completely engrossed. If there was one word to describe the feeling of depth and mass scale for the film Apocalypto, it would be the blatantly overused, and sometimes genre-defining word, "epic." The trailer, however, painted what seemed to be a different picture from the actual film.
What can we say about the talented Mr. Mel Gibson? He is immensely talented and it seems he is always trying to break new and different ground. His desire for epic proportions led to mixed-results in his newest venture that follows a young man fleeing from his Mayan captors. At the start of the film, comic relief and a sense of brotherhood provoked a sense of well-being and belonging -- you feel as if you were a part of the village, almost family, and accepted). Murder, rape, and slavery then became the key messages that brought those exact feelings burning down.
There were moments where I fought to hold back my tears. There were moments of extreme suffering and, as a result, there were moments of self-questioning and the questioning of both human nature and human ideals. Sadly, over the course of the film, these emotions were only sparingly triggered. The majority of the film did pass as an event more neutral than anything else.
The first half of the film seemed to entail, instead of the overall epic feeling, a more grassroots, or even documentary feel. At times, one feels as if he or she is viewing a modern documentary on a group of indigenous people; this was further bolstered by what seemed to be a very documentary-esque cinematography and shooting style...
In terms of cinematography, one is teased by a crisp, almost digital picture that reaffirms the feeling of watching am almost-live documentary. Following the lines of documentary-shooting, there seemed to be an excess of close-up shots, which went in line with the style described above, but only for shame. To contrast, the shots that were taken from a distance were breathtaking and allowed one to truly feel the scope and majesty of the Mayan empire as being nothing shy of epic.
There was plenty of nudity (recall documentary) as well as violence. With the bloodshed being so abundant, one had several occasions to view tricky camera cuts and angles as well as modern-day special effects and rigs, which leads me to point out several flaws -- though some of the special effects were right on mark, many were not. (There was a specific scene that was highlighted with squirting blood that would embarrass even a particular Addams Family film; this also triggers the wrong reaction from the audience). With Apocalypto, miscalculated timing and laughter seemed to happen more than the norm, which was quite unfortunate.
Putting aside special effects gone awry, I have to admit that the worst thing about this film was the level of predictability. There seemed to be an understated parallelism with Lord of the Flies -- I was able to predict not only the smaller twists of the story but also the Deus Ex Machina (which was far from holding any importance to the actual story and accordingly seemed quite unnecessary).
I also have to admit, though, that the best thing this film has going for it is that it is different. Apocalypto squeezed the meanings of the words grassroots and documentary, and Mel Gibson painted a different face to the tired picture: a story of a people, happy and content with life, suddenly facing an abrupt change.
Apocalypto strives to be different. It was filmed in the native [Yucatec Maya] language and appropriately subtitled. It managed to tap into a feeling similar to that of a documentary, but at times, it also managed to look epic. I could only wish that epic sense had been tapped into much more than it had been. And there were moments that the professionalism or polish one would expect from such a top-notch production were not present.
Different, however, is certainly enough to have gotten my attention, and Apocalypto might just do well at years end. And if you find yourself unsure about attending one of "those" end-of-the-year children's holiday films or “that†holiday comedy, adding Apocalypto to the equation might not be such a bad idea after all.
"Apocalypto" opens December 8, 2006 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Mel Gibson. Written by Mel Gibson & Farhad Safinia. Starring Dalia Hernandez, Gerardo Taracena, Jonathan Brewer, Raoul Trujillo, Rudy Youngblood.
