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Reviews Counted:182
Fresh:117
Rotten:65
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Apocalypto is a brilliantly filmed, if mercilessly bloody, examination of a once great civilization.
Theatrical Release:Dec 8, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $50,772,724
Synopsis: Mel Gibson (BRAVEHEART, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST) tackles the downfall of Mayan civilization in his latest turn as writer/director. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and his fellow villagers lead a... [More]
Starring: Dalia Hernandez, Mayra Serbulo, Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo
Director: Mel Gibson
The movie's world is so extreme that it's almost ludicrous. And yet, through Gibson's bravura feat of epic filmmaking, it's also so bizarrely alien, so visually stunning, so interesting in every frame that it's totally hypnotic.
Gibson may not be much of a deep thinker, but he's a heck of a storyteller.
Top CriticWith a ferocity that is often as difficult to take as it is fascinating to watch, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto comes crashing across 500 years of history with such immediacy that it feels as if this haunting, fierce, sadistic movie will never leave you.
Top CriticMel, no one in your entourage is going to tell you this, but you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. A big part.
Top Critic... Gibson's directorial efforts have been fairly blood-soaked historical exercises -- and Apocalyto isn't just more of the same, it's entirely too much of the same. ... Apocalypto is a career-ending flop, and easily the worst movie of 2006.
Mayan culture excelled in mathematics, astronomy, art and urban planning but Mel's only interested in its savage cruelty and sadistic barbarity.
Mel Gibson's Apocalypto is, above all, a muscular and kinetic action movie, a drama of rescue and revenge with very little organic relation to its historical setting.
Top CriticAlthough it's a pretty good bet that much of the audience won't be beguiled by Gibson's end-of-the-world metaphors, no one can deny he made an entertaining movie.
Top CriticGibson is never content to show us just one or two decapitated heads bouncing down the steps of a temple when he can show us eight or nine.
On screen, Gibson was a Lethal purveyor of hot dogging lunacy. Behind the camera, he has now subverted that Riggs energy more masterfully than ever before.
While there has been no shortage of recent films that decry the horrors of war and man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, I know of none other quite this sickeningly powerful.
There's a savage magnificence to Apocalypto, with visuals worthy of Fellini or David Lynch, and the kind of relentless excitement that only a few filmmakers can deliver.
Gibson's interest in human cruelty and human suffering does not make him unique among filmmakers. His preferred mixture of piety and viciousness, however, makes him uniquely suited to our post-Cecil B. DeMille age of cinematic mythmaking.
Top CriticBeautiful and, at the same time, completely savage, and that's something you don't get too often at the holidays unless there's a new Rugrats movie in theatres.
Apocalypto recovers from its excesses quickly, with Gibson crafting a shock-and-awe ending that is one of the year's best.
You could dog-ear the pages of every thesaurus imaginable, though, and still not be able to capture the visceral power that Gibson presents. You just have to see it.
Is it a story of a Biblical apocalypse? A probing look at civil strife that history and the movies have neglected? An allegory for Iraq? Try a thoughtless Hollywood actioner crossed with a glorified snuff film.
Any claims of cinematic prowess or social-political consequence, however, are obliterated by the pornographic relish Gibson seems to take in wowing us with his inventory of tortures and outrages.
Top CriticThere's no denying Gibson's talent behind the camera. He knows what he's doing, and does it with tremendous skill and conviction.
Top CriticWhile Gibson certainly doesn't prove he's not crazy, he reminds us that he sure is an accomplished filmmaker.
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