Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

You almost have to wonder if Mel Gibson has bought into all the hype that he is god’s gift to the cinema world and that he is so full of himself that he thinks of himself more as an artist than a film maker any more. I am not saying I didn’t enjoy Apocalypto because I really did, the movie is fast paced, action packed and has a fairly good and reasonable plot and story to it. The movie is heaped with the myth and intrigue of a long dead people in the Mayan’s who are a fantastic tale on their own. But I question why Mel Gibson felt he need to do the movie in the long dead Mayan language because they language would have made no difference in the movie. I somewhat understand why he did it in Passion of the Christ as he was trying to tell the tale in the truest form he could possibly tell it in but there is no reason to do that in Apocalypto. Apocalypto isn’t a true story, it’s a fictional story heaped in the mystery that were the Mayan people and could have been just as easily done in English without take anything away from the film, the only reason I can think to do it Mayan is because Mel Gibson thinks of himself more as artist than someone who is making films for those who love to go the movies.

The movie is simply at its heart a chase film, an action packed, exciting film where the in the end the characters are led on a fantastic chase through the jungle that is exhilarating and breath taking. It an old fashioned foot race, no cars exploding, no gun’s crying out in the night, no siren’s just one man running from a group of slavers and murders through a jungle untouched yet by technology or modern times yet. From waterfall’s, to jaguar’s stocking their prey the two groups race along to an epic finish. Why not let the movie goers not have to worry about reading subtitles and just let them enjoy the chase, why not alienate those who refuse to see movies in subtitles. Action films should not be subtitled, I can understand with Chinese imports like Hero and Fearless but Mel Gibson isn’t Mayan and there is no reason for the film to be in Mayan other than his own ego.

One thing I did appreciate was the fact that Mel Gibson doesn’t use any known actors in the film. I mean there is always that pressure to add a well-known name to any movie especially an action film to headline the movie and sell more tickets. But sometimes that can be distracting as it can be difficult to separate them from all their previous films they have done but by going with a completely unknown cast and stars we are able to just accept them from what they are and engross ourselves into a film that makes little pretense at being more than fun, action packed, chase. Gibson got it right there so he does know what he is doing at times, now if he just can get past his ego more people would be willing to see his films as I highly recommend Apocalypto if you like good ole fashioned action and adventure movies.

Grade: B+