This probably has to be the strangest transition in all of cinematography. Mel Gibson following his Christian culture classic The Passion of the Christ, movies into ancient Mayan history. Pre-colonial days find the Mayans (and other tribes of Central America) pitted in wars against each other. In seeing previews for this movie, I thought it was going to be awesome. I was pretty disappointed...I don't know my expectations weren't met, or it was simply that I didn't like the violence in it. I can't really put my finger on it, but in no part of this movie did I think there was any redemptive quality (and not referring to the Christian sense of redemption, but why the heck do we watch movies or read books?! There has to be something to take away besides tons of people dying). Rachel said it was the most gorey movie she had ever seen. I'm not quite there, but I think in light of the fact that you don't leave with anything to take away besides death by tribe, the gore seems rather....lame. One thing Mel Gibson is a master of is cinematography. That guy can move some cameras around and make it happen and there were quite a few scenes where Rachel and I disengaged from the content of the movie and were caught up in how they captured that. Though that is true, it's still not enough to make it so that I would have to watch it again. High marks can't be given for that reason. Well done with the camera Mel. Let's hope that when people are killed in movies that it's not contributing to the continued dehumanization of our culture and to some end that justifies the mean.

Apocalypto : C
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Now playing: Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)