Apocalypto
Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: December 8, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
TimeRichard Schickel
Gibson is a primitive all right, but so were Cecil B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith, and somehow we survived their idiocies. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Neither Mr. Gibson’s fans nor his detractors are likely to accuse him of excessive subtlety, and the effectiveness of Apocalypto is inseparable from its crudity. But the blunt characterizations and the emphatic emotional cues are also evidence of the director’s skill. Read full review
60
EmpireStaff (Not credited)
Dextrous with the action-adventure elements but clumsy in its handling of the central message, Apocalypto is a strange but largely entertaining mix of action, bloodletting, chin-rubbing and arthouse trimmings. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It's difficult to imagine the target audience for this film. Gangbangers, perhaps? Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
With "Braveheart," "Passion" and now Apocalypto, Gibson clearly has established his priorities as a director. History is gore, plus a few hearthside family interludes. The trick is instilling the audience with enough rageful bloodlust to make the story work. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Numerous good things can be said about Apocalypto, the director's foray into the decaying Mayan civilization of the early 1500s, but every last one of them is overshadowed by Gibson's well-established penchant for depictions of stupendous amounts of violence. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
I could go on about the beautifully detailed production design, the fresh performances from unknown and often nonprofessional actors, blabbety blah. But praising the movie's craftsmanship seems less urgent than communicating the overwhelming experience of watching it: the clammy, claustrophobic dread of being trapped in a torture chamber. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Gibson sure knows how to shoot a sequence, but he also doesn't know when to stop with the blood, gore and maiming. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Yet Apocalypto has to be respected for the sheer audacity of it, for the commitment and ambition behind it, and for its presentation of a complete other world. It is the furthest thing from a cynical or casual piece of work. It's crazy, and it moves. Read full review
42
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
But even those who succumb to his primitive, survivalist vision may resent the way he presents every kind of atrocity at least twice without illuminating any of the exotic details once. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Not just a walk in the park with Mel and the guys (in this case a large cast of mainly Mexican Indians speaking present- day Yucatec), this lavishly punishing picture is the third panel in Gibson's "Ordeal" triptych. The Martyrdom of the Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ have nothing on The Misadventures of the Jaguar Paw. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A relentlessly gruesome, visually impressive and ultimately not very interesting movie with some pretensions to seriousness. Read full review
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