Bloody Melly

APOCALYPTO

Mel Gibson sure seems to love his bloody epics, doesn’t he? And there’s no getting away from the fact that Apocalypto is pretty much non-stop violence from start to finish. It was brutal, raw and ultimately quite enjoyable!

The film takes a good while to get going, but that works in its favour, as it gives us plenty of time to get to know the main characters first. I know I must sound like a broken record at this stage, but the importance of setting up protagonists who the audience will actually care about cannot be overstated!! Thank god this fact is still understood by SOME filmmakers.

Gibson has come under a lot of fire for the way in which he depicted the Mayan civilisation, but I don’t think his aim was to give a true and accurate representation of this ancient culture. Instead, the Mayans are seen through the eyes of their captives, and as such, it’s natural that their view would be biased towards seeing them as frightening and evil. Some of the Mayans were perhaps made a little too moustache twirlingly evil for my liking, but there was at least some attempt to give them a bit of depth. A villain with motivation is far more frightening than one who’s evil for no reason.

The film itself was beautifully shot and the locations were breathtaking. The incredible costume design (especially where the Mayans were concerned) warrants a mention as well. Gibsons direction can’t be faulted, giving the sweeping scenes a feeling of awe and majesty. He manages to give the action a sense of urgency, without having to resort to the choppy editing that seems to dominate choreographed fight scenes nowadays. The last half hour of the film was a wonderfully paced, heart-stopping chase that left me gripping the arms of my chair.

Its certainly not for everyone’s tastes (especially if excessive violence and subtitles put you off), but its one I can definitely recommend.