Rating of
1.5/4
A disgusting perspective.
memento_mori - wrote on 08/20/13
The main character of the story - Jaguar Paw - is so dumb that he becomes unlikable. During the raid of his village, he not only gives away the fact that the person next to him is his father, but gives away his wife and sons hiding position as well. He basically gave up his whole family within the span of five minutes of the movie.
I was very irritated with the was Mayans were depicted in this film.
Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia themselves stated they wanted to revolutionize the adventure genre, making a foot chase seem like a car chase.
That's the problem. Gibson and Safinia wanted to make a movie with thrills and adventure, not one depicting a fascinating ancient culture. That's why there is so much violence in this film in the first place. They were only looking to channel their action movie vision through Mayan characters, and that felt a little arrogant to me.
At least that is how I perceived the story.
The first half was about acquiring people for a sacrifice, the second was about avenging a death, and neither story was well-written.
I can't believed it was nominated for Best Sound Mixing and Sound Editing at the Academy Awards. There is a scene where a little girl with the plague chants something to scare the warriors. Every word she utters sounds audio-dubbed. Some didn't even synchronize to her moving lips.
The underlying message of this movie is to have no fear. But that's exactly what the film has. Fear of actually achieving a higher standard than a generic adventure film scenario set in an indigenous culture. It may be original, but it is disgraceful to a culture.
I am shocked and disappointed.
