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.

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.

The effort and attention to detail in the production is evident when you watch the film. Just the authenticity of the film's location, costumes, weaponry and actors is worth the ticket price. Then you watch the rest of the film, and it simply blows you away. Mel Gibson created a masterpiece. The only flaws are the critics who helped in denying him and the film - the accolades that they rightly deserved.

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.

I really don't get some of the comments, rating it one star because it didnt depict true mayans... There are obviously flaws in historical accuracy but who cares? It's a movie.. and it's brilliant. In another multiverse the Mayans probably did human sacrifice. The cinematography in this is outstanding, the acting.. costumes are all so good! There was a subtleness behind this genius screenplay, it didn't try to hard on the plot. One of my all time favourites of its kind!