Klavs.net - Apocalypto (movie review)

Mel Gibson's new jungle movie is a fantastic achivement and the scenes are beautifully created. It actually makes you believe that this Mayan world is real and that in itself makes the movie worth seeing. Especially the Mayan city is outstanding.

There has been much talk about the violence and gore and I fail to understand what exactly this criticism is about. There isn't really that much gore in it and much of it even takes place off camera. I find it quite realistic and I don't see why people are so offended by it. The violence is never over the top. It fits in perfectly with the story and it is probably how things were done back then.

What is a real shame however is that some of the story is very unrealistic. There is a girl who is able to tell the future and then there is the fact that the hero Jaguar Paw is being chased halfway through the jungle after being hit by an arrow right through his torso. He even outruns an angry jaguar... To make things worse he is being hit by another arrow later on and one would think that this should cause severe problems if you didn't have proper medication to kill the infections. But not for Jaguar Paw. He is as fresh as ever shortly after that. A shame that Mel Gibson didn't aim for realism all the way around.

The movie runs for more than 2 hours and you are never bored even though you can't understand a word of the language (subtitles are provided). There is so much to look at and lots and lots of action. Quite a thrill.

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Movie reviews: KP's Top 20 of Action Movies, KP's Top 10 of Movies "that didn't really fit in on any of my other Top x lists"