Movie Details
| Title: | Apocalypto | |
| Director: | Mel Gibson | |
| Year: | 2006 | |
| Genre: | Adventure | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.23.06 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- Hacksaw Ridge
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.23.06 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2006 So the big super secret film is a pretty early version of Mel's Mayan adventure movie. To be honest, this was not very high on my list of movies to look forward to. i was really impressed with the trailer last December, but... I hated The Passion and again I'd heard this wouldn't even have subtitles and stuff like that. so my expectations were pretty low. Well, it had subtitles. The story is basically of a jungle tribe that gets attacked by a more civilized group of Mayans who capture the men and women of this more primitive tribe, walk them into their city, sell the women off as slaves, and use the men as human sacrifices. One man manages to escape and the whole last act of the movie is a big chase sequence with him running from a band of Mayan hunters. Along the way, you get glimpses of signs of the mayan culture on the brink of extinction... disease, famine, pollution, corruption... so it's really a message of a simpler, more primitive tribe trying to escape the oppression of a bigger dirtier new civilisation. But that's really just on the sidelines... mainly it's a big chase sequence. um... So I have to say I enjoyed this movie. I think I am in the minority though... the majority of people sitting around me anyway all hated it. The person sitting next to me leaned over when the movie ended and whispered "Apoca-CRAP-o!" and some people said they spent the entire time making fun of it... One guy felt it was expoitive and just plain wrong... I dunno, I liked it. It tries to be authentic and atmospheric and yeah it has a few things to say which are obvious corrolaries to current events but you kind of have to look for them or put the pieces together yourself. Granted, there are a couple moments which... eh... and one scene in particular toward the end which made me laugh, and not in a good way... but hey, for a movie with a cast made up entirely of first-time indigenous people actors and all spoken in the Mayan language, I never found myself bored or tired. I don't know what to say... I enjoyed it. It kinda did make me wonder though, because the trailer looked great and definitely like it was shot on film, yet what we saw here looked like cheap consumer-grade DV. I'm thinking that's because it's straight from the Avid and it hasn't been color timed at all yet and most of the effects aren't done and it was low resolution and blah blah blah... but I don't know. That's a hell of a difference if the film was indeed shot on film because lots of shots, especially in the jungle, look VERY DV. I'll be curious to see how the finished film looks in theaters, because I definitely expected the movie to look much much better than it did tonight. It's forgiven though because it's very much a work in progress. Actually all that stuff... music, sound effects, sound mix, visual effects, picture quality... it was all very temp or unfinished. A few times they had to put print on screen to explain a shot that didn't exist yet... but you know, that also kind of added to the fun of getting to see this movie so early... assuming it all looks and sounds much better in December. So what's funny is... apparently they screened it for Harry today at 1 because they were paranoid and if he didn't like the film they wouldn't play it tonight. I think that's hilarious. So when you read Harry's gushing review of it, keep in mind that if he didn't love it, his already-announced super secret special screening would have to be cancelled. |
