Apocalypto

On a delightful Sunday evening, I craved an adventure-filled movie brimming with wildlife and thrills. I googled, Keyword Jungle top IMDb movies. My search led me to Apocalypto, available on Prime Video in Spanish. Despite a slightly comedic start, Mel Gibson's creation gradually unfolds into a mesmerizing film, with no major stars and devoid of mass-centric elements.

Apocalypto skillfully immerses us in the reality of Mayan culture adding a touch of fictional drama. The first half grips us with intense violence and disquieting scenes, testing our patience, resolve to watch. However, the second half presents an entirely different experience brimming with adventures that entertain and enchant. While the first half reveals the intricacies of Mayan rituals, costumes, and their way of life, the second half is engaging, enthralling with spice-filled climax.

Apocalypto stands as a captivating journey into the heart of Mayan culture, a powerful fusion of reality and fiction. An unforgettable cinematic gem that leaves a lasting impression.

This film proves that the crazy guy Mel Gibson is a genius of sorts. With Apocalypto, Mel Gibson has proven it's possible to create a compelling action/adventure film in almost any setting. Gibson's theme is that all great civilizations fail when they begin to rot from the inside. Over the next 2 1/4 hours, he provides glimpses into the degeneracy of the Mayan society on the eve of its encounter with the Spanish conquistadores. However, Apocalypto is not a political tract or a dissertation about why the Mayan age came to an end. Instead, it's a high-octane adventure that concludes with one of the most intense extended chase sequences in recent movie history.

This is a magnificent film, despite the warranted criticism of the Director's personal life and how the film was stifled and stalled by controversy unjustly so. Too bad because this story is epic and monumental, a clash of cultures, sophisticated but primitive civilization encroaches upon those who live by the reality of the self-sustaining jungle, immersed by the understanding of their nature.

It wasn't so long ago that we existed in a world of distorted ritual and superstition, (we still do) where once we had alchemy we now have chemistry. Where once astrology held sway. Astronomy is now the herald of the day. The symbolism of this movie works on so many levels. How the increasingly impoverished Mayas used the science of the eclipse to eclipse the fact of their own empires demise. Using science and observable fact as a mask for sacrifice and superstition. Themes repellent and relevant for today and a warning to those who steal ritual from nature to use as a means of control and power through shock and awe and fear in this we are all diminished by this spectacle of grandeur.

Then there is the Shaman's apprentice bound to his own domain and the world his culture created gaining power as the run goes on. Jaguar sacrifice, man becomes jaguar, and in his own element the hunt is on. The hunter becomes the hunted. The goal is born out from the will of the individual, the rescue and survival of his family and culture combined to himself, his own identity becomes the retreat into the wilderness as an answer to preservation.

We are all striving to survive in these changing times what matters are the quality of our intentions and the nobility immersed in our deeds.One culture advances and the other retreats, or is it just the other way around? I guess the point is does the purity of 'Eden' reside in its simplicity and the idea of living within your means? No matter how flawed this may be.

Apocalypto is probably one of the ten best movies of the year, a compelling action movie with not only adrenaline, but also brains and heart. Its portrayal of the Mayan culture -- including its strange dress, hair styles, costumes, tattoos, body piercing, and decorative scars, as well as its industry, class system, cities, warfare, weapons, myth, and religion -- provide a bizarre and fascinating anthropological backdrop for what is, at its heart, a solid, thrilling, fast paced old fashioned struggle between good guys and bad guys. The movie does have a lot of violence. But the violence is woven into a story with characters we care about. It is a realistic part of the culture being described. And it is not shown in a hyper gruesome manner, as is much of movie violence today. Thus, I found it much less offensive than many reviews had led me to believe I would. Unlike in some movies, I found the subtitles in Apocalypto so easy to read that most of time I forgot I was reading them. If anything the strange language only adds to the tone of exotic strangeness that pervades this unusually good and thrilling movie.

Though I had no interest in the subject, I took a risk and just came back from seeing Mel Gibson's new flick and it is an exciting adventure which engages from the start with touches of humor that allow us to relate to the characters rather than hold them at a distance.

The accusation that it portrays the people unfairly has no merit. Both sides of human nature doubtless existed in each culture from the start. Look at The Fast Runner - a movie about a much smaller aboriginal community in which we see no matter how small your clan is someone will be a criminal and all soap opera elements will be represented.

Rudy Youngblood especially stands out here as the hero. Reading the subtitles will add comic relief to your screening, but the story itself plays visually. Again more is made of the violence than there should be. There is violence but it moves the story along and generates suspense.

I would give it a ten except that I understand IMDb sometimes discounts the tens and ones. Even if you had political reasons you did not like The Passion - or Braveheart for that matter - if you like a good motion picture Apocalypto is a good bet.