BBC Review of Apocalypto

Apocalypto, Mel Gibson's follow up to the astonishingly successful Passion Of The Christ, is much in the same vein, complete with obscure subtitled language (Yucatec replacing Aramiac) and lashings of ultraviolence. Set in the dying days of the Mayan civilisation, the film follows a young village warrior (Rudy Youngblood) on a frantic jungle chase, pursued by grumpy hunters bent on a spot of human sacrifice.

While the ancient dialects and weighty quotations suggest an arthouse epic, Apocalypto is basically a really good period popcorn flick: Last of The Mohicans meets First Blood, or maybe Passion of the Christ II: The Mayan Adventure. Gibson might consider himself an auteur, but Apocalypto shows us his true nature: he is a hack to his fingertips, and this is hackwork of the very highest order, full of pleasantly familiar cliches (waterfall jump, quicksand, poison darts) and delightfully unnecessary sadism. Violence, it seems, is the only thing that gets Gibson's creative motor running; his epic vistas are squandered with dull framing, and the most original shot in the film is a point-of-view from a freshly severed head (this is not a movie for the squeamish).

"OUTRAGEOUSLY ENTERTAINING"

The first hour, with its emphasis on suffering and high production values, is a bit of a trudge because Gibson - a master of overstatement - is never content to tickle your senses when he can boot you in the crotch. However, once the actual chase gets going, Apocalypto is outrageously entertaininng and thrillingly kinetic. The camera barely stops for breath and the actors, all indigenous Americans, are universally first-class. It makes you wonder how good Passion would have been if Christ had escaped from the cross and led the Romans on a wacky race around Jerusalem, dropping miraculous oil puddles and spike nets into their path.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2007/01/01/apocalypto_2006_review.shtml