A friend of mine and I, in celebration of the holiday season, went to see the rather bloody Apocalypto today. Mel Gibson may be an anti-Semitic crank with a drinking problem, but I’ll give the man credit: he can make a damn entertaining film. Apocalypto has a simple plot, but it’s briskly told and many of the visuals are stunning in their sweep. If you want look for a deeper meaning (perhaps something about how the decline of civilizations can be foretold by their use of manipulative spectacle), that can be found as well.
The theater was nearly empty, which was both pleasant and a little eerie. There wasn’t as much of a communal viewing experience, but there were also fewer distractions (if I had heard a baby crying in the audience during this film, I would have called social services on the spot).
