Rapa Nui: Uma Aventura No Paraíso

... and I am very glad I did.

I had not seen the movie prior to going there 6 months ago, for two reasons: people told me it was boring, and when I started watching it, I was bothered by the orangey hue of the movie.

I'm glad that this time I persisted. By no means a classic, it certainly is entertaining, and the actions scenes are genuinely GOOD.

I went to Rapa Nui because I was mesmerized with the idea of an ultra-isolated island where an ecological tragedy happened because of huge stone heads. In fact, I read extensively about the island before visiting it. The reading I recommend the most is Jared Diamond's book "Collapse", which draws from reputable scientific sources and Mr. Diamond's encyclopedic knowledge of geography and biology.

I was hoping to find an island of archaeological interest. What I found was an open-air museum that exceeded all my expectations about archeology, and also a very pleasant and delightful place to visit.

There is no crime. There is no pollution. The only (tiny) beach has white sand and blue water in a perfect temperature. The natives are incredibly nice and even the tourists were interesting (because, really, who goes there?). Now I have a toddler-sized moai in my living room and many wonderful pictures with stones, moai, sunsets, stones, blue sea, volcanoes, moai, and lots of more stones.

And the trees? Around the only town, Hanga Roa, there are many of them! Traumatized with the haunting tale of environment destruction, people are starting to plant crops, and the hotels have beautiful gardens, and the whole town is shady and breezy because of all the trees. It's not all dryness and destruction.

I also believe this movie is underrated. Don't go by the negative interviews! The orangey colors of the movie, though lamentable, don't detract from the overall experience, but if you can find a better copy, by all means do so.

I am saddened that so few people seem to have seen this film; It is worth watching for the lush photography alone.. It takes some getting used to the accents of the actors, and many lines may not be clear on first viewing.

I have read many books about Easter Island and the mystery surrounding its statues.. This film attempts to answer some of these mysteries (how the statues were moved, why work stopped so abruptly on then, what happened to all the trees on the Island, etc.) First read up in an encyclopedia on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and then watch history (or at least a good guess at it) come to life. Film making and story telling at it's best, along with an athletic competition at the end unlike any you have ever seen.

A victim of razzing when new and ever since. However, breathtakingly filmed, especially the brutal tribal competition. One of 4 films (and the most unclad) that Jason Scott Lee made in a short time, and even more athletic than his Bruce Lee biopic, 'Dragon', although dramatically J.S. Lee's most memorable performance was as the Inuit halfbreed Avik in 'Map of the Human Heart.'

Sandrine Holt as his beloved is luminous, while Esai Morales is the villain-- -again. A plot-nudging iceberg is obviously a construct but only a brief story device before it floats away. Sadly, the stateside DVD has been withdrawn, leaving only South Korean copies (in English, however) with some manufacturing glitches fore and aft for collectors unwilling to settle for used merchandise..

Rapa Nui is more than just a bunch of Polynesian (and Hispanic!) actors running around half-nekkid. It's an allegory about the dangers of theocratic government, and a tale of class struggle. Rapa Nui is the Polynesian name for Easter Island, that famous dot in the Pacific Ocean with the mysterious statues. We get to see how these things were carved - and why. The Long Ear tribe has effectively subjugated the Short Ear tribe, forcing them to carve Moai (statues) in order to placate the gods. Director Kevin Reynolds uses the island and the carving of statues as an effective backdrop to illustrate the enmity between the tribes, as well as a power struggle for eventual spremacy of the island. The film is driven by visuals and ideas. The writing hardly ever rises above so-so, and it's jarring to hear Polynesian-looking people with British, American and Latino accents. But the film has a certain power to fascinate, and for that alone I recommend it highly.

Like many, I was jolted to hear a bunch of ancient Polynesians sounding like "valley girls" and their boyfriends, but let it pass since at least they were all speaking the same language as they would have been anyway, unlike movies like "Seven Years in Tibet" where Austrians spoke English to Austrians, Tibetans spoke English to Tibetans, and otherwise people who wouldn't have been able to speak with each other all conversing in perfect English... that movie was frankly too much for me. As for the different accents in Rapa Nui, I assumed it was a way to show class differences (after all, Jason Scott Lee has proved he can handle about any accent): the chief spoke hoity toity British, Lee sounded like a poor little rich boy (which he was in the movie), so it kind of made sense. And as a great Jason Scott Lee fan, it doesn't matter how well- acted or historically correct or whatever else the movie is or isn't (and by the way I found it completely passable in those senses) as long as we are treated to generous footage of Jason Scott Lee showing off his perfect physique -- and in this movie he nary wears a stitch. Most of the other young male actors, incl Elias Morales, are up to the job as well. I understand perfectly how thrilled one reviewer was about Sandrine Holt's "performance" and feel the same way about her leading man. Anyway, to avoid redundancy, I basically agree with the other positive things other reviewers have said about the movie, and believe one reason it didn't do great at the box office was due to its unusual subject matter -- something that John Q Public isn't always great at handling.