Apocalypto (2006)
This movie could also be called Good Things Roman Catholics Have Done For the World, that is, if you define "world" as South America and "good thigs" as savagery equal or greater than that depicted in the movie. Anyway, there isn't much of a story, the movie is mostly spectacle. It held my attention, like Mel Gibson's Braveheart, but did little more than that. The problem for Gibson here was for us to get us to care about Jaguar Claw, involved with him and his life, the two obstacles the obstacles being language (the mnovie is subtitled) and culture. It did not work because we did not know enough about him, did not get to empathize. At the end I did not feel cheated by the deus ex machina, nor did I feel satisfied, I was just slightly short of being happy it was over.
