Jump to content
🔒 The Earwolf Forums are closed Read more... ×
Sign in to follow this  
CorneliusDonley

Apocalypto

Recommended Posts

Mel Gibson's movie about wild savages that lack the book of Christ. My friends and I went to see this a week or two after it came out at a noonish showing and were the only people in the theater.

Share this post


Link to post

I liked it too. Sure, it's a massive ego trip and totally plotless (as opposed to the ego trip that Southland Tales was, which had a thousand plots piled on top of each other), but it's a fun, well-choreographed series of foot chases and brutal murders. I wasn't a fan of the little bits of hand-held,low-resolution cinematography that inexplicably popped up, but that was really my only major complaint. The best movie? No. But I enjoy it.

Share this post


Link to post

The INSANE thing was that Mel Gibson made another movie in a dead language, this time with no real hook or any known names, that came out AFTER he started his descent into madness, and it was a hit. I mean it wasn't a "Christ"-sized hit, but it DID kick the shit out of "The Nativity Story" and managed to scrape up 50 million (and another 70 million internationally) even though it was released in the December death slot. Also, it was technically a Disney (Buena Vista) movie. Even though he was publicly doing wrong, it still seemed for a while still that he couldn't do wrong at the movies.

Share this post


Link to post

This movie was the EXACT plots of 3 different movies stapled together.

 

The beginning was an EXACT copy of The Naked Prey.

 

The middle was an EXACT copy of Predator.

 

The ending was an EXACT copy of Lord of the Flies.

Share this post


Link to post

Well, not really, but even I was to take that stance, it's still a great movie, despite the director being an asshole creep.

Share this post


Link to post

I still remember this movie for the trailer where Gibson stuck a hidden picture of himself standing next to the actors. They were in costume and he looked like he was doing an impression of Tom Hanks in Cast Away with a long beard and scruffy hair and I think he was smoking a cigar just looking insane.

Share this post


Link to post

 

The beginning was an EXACT copy of The Naked Prey.

 

The middle was an EXACT copy of Predator.

 

The ending was an EXACT copy of Lord of the Flies.

 

 

 

 

Apocalypto was a good movie and has no place on this list. I've never seen Naked Prey but this is definitely not an EXACT copy of either of the other two movies mentioned. By the way when you use the word "exact" like that you're literally using it as incorrectly as you can. There may be some basic similarities to Predator, but certainly not an exact copy.

 

 

 

 

I'm not saying this is a great game changing movie, but as anyone who has watched Imaginationland knows, while Mel Gibson may be a complete psycho the son of a bitch knows story structure.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post

Yeah, Gibson is a nutter but he's a good director. And to be fair, the ending is ambiguous. The arrival of the 'Christian' Spaniards isn't necessarily portrayed as positive or negative.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post

I also can't imagine a better way to end the movie, it's such a small, intimate story that slowly opens up to show this violent foreign world this tribe couldn't even imagine. The only way to end it is to show just how big the world really is and that there is always someone more powerful than you.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post

There are some mockable things about this movie, but I'm with the folks who think there are better candidates for HDTGM.

Share this post


Link to post

I disagree. Something about this movie stuck with me. I got food poisoning from the restaurant I ate at just before seeing it. When I started barfing later that night all I could think about was those headless, torquoise-pianted bodies tumbling down that pyramid.

 

It was promoted as a sort-of Mesoamerican Braveheart, but ended up just being realistically over the top violent with a crazy-ass religious message.

 

Worth watching for sure, but not fun enough for HDTGM.

Share this post


Link to post

I also can't imagine a better way to end the movie, it's such a small, intimate story that slowly opens up to show this violent foreign world this tribe couldn't even imagine. The only way to end it is to show just how big the world really is and that there is always someone more powerful than you.

 

Never really thought of it that way... Good point.

 

I still feel like the Will Durant quote at the beginning coupled with the conquistador's arrival at the end is a bit too preachy.

Share this post


Link to post
Sign in to follow this  

×