Apocalypto

Saw Apocalypto today—probably the world's most exciting National Geographic special. A very simple story. They could have lost a half hour off the beginning though. Maybe it's the small screen but the violence didn't seem anywhere as "pornographic" as I had read about. In fact, I was left wondering if I was watching an edited version because of the number of times we cut away from seeing gruesome things. The acting was great. Somehow I thought this was a cast dragged straight out of the jungle directed to perfection by Mel Gibson. I later found out that these people were already performers (though not necessarily actors) drawn from all over. The DVD extra shows a lot of Gibson directing and he's doing nothing special. You know, "do this..., hold it like that..., Rudy stay like that..." The results are good though.

Spent most of the film looking at the cinematography since it was shot on Panavision Genesis. It looked a lot better than Superman Returns that's for sure. Apocalypto had a kind of seventies documentary look to it. A little over-contrasy. Skies blowing out a lot. Not beautiful, not gritty, not overly-stylized. It got me wondering why these films would look so different. Superman Returns had a brown mushy look to it. But it's not like changing tape brands would make any difference like changing film stocks though it's a funny thought that using Maxell tapes would look different from Sony tapes (does the Genesis system even use tapes?),

From a cinema point of view, it paid off to build the big set and hire 700 extras. Not once did I think composite or crowd simulation. You just never doubt it. It really helped to convey that documentary feel. Contrast with The Fountain. More ancient Americans, but they look like they're running around on sets and their pyramid looks like a cheap composite.