Apocalypto was much awaited and it lands shedding blood from slit throats, chopped heads and other more violent murdering. If you are wondering what can be more violent than slit throats and chopped heads, you should watch Apocalypto. That is how the movie starts. A brief moment of fun and then it shifts dramatically into giving sickening effect. Though a splurge of violence was on the expected lines, the actual experience is totally nauseating. After getting tuned into the movie’s level of barbarianism, all that we get in the rest is just breathtaking.
A small happy tribal group gets into disaster all of a sudden when another group of barbarians attack them. They are taken to another place as slaves and the women are sold for various activities. Men are slaughtered as a sacrifice to the sun god. The hero, who is one among the victims, leaves his pregnant wife and his boy safely inside a deep pit, during the initial attack. How he escapes from the capturers and whether he saves is family forms the plot.
As you can see, the storyline is very predictable to the extent that if you have seen just 10 movies in your lifetime you will still be able to say how the movie would progress. On top of that, there is a small scene in the middle where a small kid foretells the events, which gives it all away. Also as in any other Mel Gibson movie the dialogues are in some language(understandable as the tribal speak their native language), which you don’t comprehend without the subtitles. Yet, when the 2-hour movie was over and the credits were scrolling, not many in the theater moved. Everyone sat stunned. So, what makes the movie terrific?
Be it the dark green forest or snowy mountains or the sensational waterfalls or the blood that spilt is captured with sensational Videography. Fast, hard sound effects pump more blood in and out of our heart. The chases and the stunts are taken so craftily that they take your breath away. You hardly realize there is some graphics involved. Stand out scene is the one where the blood gets sprayed in the air in one of the action sequences. Screenplay, with heavy number of action sequences, is adorable too and the 2-hour movie seemed to get over in a jiffy. Few gripping sequences make you clench you fist and bit your nails in anticipation for things to go fine and with empathy for the characters on screen.
In short, the movie has all that would be expected in a Mel Gibson movie. He goes for the all-fine-in-the-end approach, which is most welcome for all the violence you get yourself drenched with. If you are planning to watch this one when someone uploads it on the Google videos or for the DVD that comes out for Rs. 30, you can as well give it a miss. As they say, “it’s the experience that counts”. If you think you can withstand the violence, Apocalypto is not a movie to be missed and to be seen only in theater.
-Vinayak
(Please do RRC)