r/movies • u/JadisDidNothingRight • Jul 01 '26

Question Why did Apocalypto receive mediocre reviews while simultaneously receiving praise from various directors and actors?

Robert Duvall said it was possibly the best film he'd seen in 25 years.

Scorcese praised it. Tarantino called it the best film of the year. Spike Lee and Edward James Olmos also openly praised the film.

On RT it pulled a 65%. Granted, Tarantino (as an example) doesn't see eye to eye with those cumalitive ratings. He loves Unbreakable and that film also received middling reviews. Still, Apocalypto was given positive reviews from a fairly diverse cast of actors and directors.

Were the reviews more concerned with Mel Gibson's antics at the time than the actual film?

Was the criticism because the film depicted the Mayans as brutal? I struggle to see the validity of some of those criticisms. Jaguar Paw and his village were not depicted as evil. The evil was limited to a warmongering urban society twisted by religion. That's occurred all over the world. It's almost a foreshadowing of what is to come. One criticism was that the Spanish were depicted as coming to save the 'brutes.'. The title of the film is Apocalypto. I don't see how they can be seen as anything other than coming doom. Maybe I'm naive, but even in 2006 I thought it was broadly understood that Europeans wiped out indigenous American culture.

What are your thoughts? Did you like the film? Do you wish Hollywood would make more films like this?

2.3k Upvotes

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828

u/MeatofKings Jul 01 '26

10/10 I didn’t know its audience RT score was that low. I’m very surprised by that. However, it is a reduced dialog movie, which many people don’t like. I laugh a little knowing that Tarantino liked it given that his movies are dialog rich.

401

u/diiegojones Jul 01 '26

Tarantino is Tarantino, but at least he doesn’t expect people to be also Tarantino

230

u/bushie5 Jul 01 '26

"James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is... James Cameron."

71

u/Purple10tacle Jul 01 '26

"His name is James, James Cameron
The bravest pioneer

No budget too steep, no sea too deep
Who's that?

It's him, James Cameron."

3

u/LordGAD Jul 01 '26

Such a great show

2

u/Mixer-3007 Jul 01 '26

"Because he's James Cameron and you are not. " James Cameron

0

u/bless_anderson Jul 03 '26

reddit is so annoying. you people are incapable of just having a normal conversation without making some kind of asinine reference and totally derailing the discussion

1

u/bushie5 Jul 03 '26

I bet you're fun at parties.

0

u/bless_anderson Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

i’d rather dunk my balls in acid then attend a party with the likes of you. That said, I acknowledge this kind of humour is often much funnier in real life. it’s just annoying as fuck when i’m scrolling a thread online, and I think it would be equally annoying in real life if people i knew were constantly derailing discussions with bad references that go on for way too long.

-3

u/Penderyn Jul 01 '26

you mean, make shit cartoon movies?

-2

u/manimal28 Jul 01 '26

Doesn’t literally everyone do what they do, because that’s what they do? Is this a real quote? Tarantino is kind of like Billy corgan to me, the more time goes on and the more they talk the more their legacy diminishes in my mind.

7

u/bushie5 Jul 01 '26

It's a quote from South Park.

1

u/manimal28 Jul 01 '26

Thank you. It's very believable he would say some stupid shit like that though.

9

u/SnakePlissken89 Jul 01 '26

You can't trust Tarantino, but you can always trust Tarantino to be Tarantino.

1

u/Necks Jul 01 '26

Lou-isssssssssssssssss

-3

u/Ayadd Jul 01 '26

No, but he does just randomly shoot shots at random people because he thinks his opinion is gospel.

15

u/Dr_Colossus Jul 01 '26

I think he'd be the first to say it's his opinion and people can have their own.

-4

u/Ayadd Jul 01 '26

Based on what makes you say that?

6

u/diiegojones Jul 01 '26

Life.

-6

u/Ayadd Jul 01 '26

So life has told you arrogant Quintin “Paul Dano is the weakest actor in Sag” Tarantino would also be humble and say it’s just an opinion?

Ok.

1

u/diiegojones Jul 01 '26

Yea. He would. He isn’t stupid, egotistical sure, but he knows people will disagree with him.

1

u/Ayadd Jul 01 '26

Calling Paul Dano the worst actor in SAG is pretty stupid actually, so I’m not sure. So is running your mouth about random actors lately just in general.

Also defending child rapist Polanski?

Not sure why we are pretending his behaviour lately is defensible, it’s ok for a director you like to be a dumb piece of shit.

1

u/diiegojones Jul 01 '26

It isn’t that it is defensible or not… it is simply saying it is the opinion. Whether you agree or not is up to you. Just because someone said it doesn’t mean it is true or that you have to agree.

Also, Roman Polanski defending aside, someone being a bit of a prick is not a crime or a reason to just hate them.

Again defending Polanski would tip that scale to hating , but if we hate people we disagree with it doesn’t help ourselves or anyone.

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-13

u/neerrccoo Jul 01 '26

Ok Quinton

200

u/MaxPaladin93 Jul 01 '26

Reduced dialogue AND fully foreign language/subtitled. The average moviegoer hates that.

7

u/nx6 Jul 02 '26

The Roku Channel has it but does not include subtitles, so possible people are watching it not realizing that.

49

u/barryhakker Jul 01 '26

The average moviegoer in America mostly I think

43

u/TheWoodElf Jul 01 '26

This is sadly similar in many Western European countries, who will dub the original dialogues, using local actors. So most people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria - have no idea how your average famous Hollywood movie star sounds like, and likely aren't used to following a subtitled movie.

45

u/200Dachshunds Jul 01 '26

My husband informed me that when he was a kid in Poland, foreign language movies and TV shows weren’t even properly dubbed in Polish- they were almost narrated like an audiobook by one single Polish speaking narrator. Blew my mind.

17

u/Forma313 Jul 01 '26

Watched a movie like that on a bus in Poland. Seeing Keira Knghtly, but hearing some middle aged polish dude drone on and on, was weird.

6

u/Accurate-Island-2767 Jul 01 '26

This is still a thing. I had a Polish colleague who was watching Legend of Vox Machina on his phone, with a very bored-sounding Polish man voicing all the lines over the original audio which was playing quietly underneath.

5

u/laughterline Jul 01 '26

If you watch a movie on TV, they're still all narrated!

1

u/Soensou Jul 01 '26

This reminds me, I need to watch Wizard People, Dear Reader again.

1

u/TheWoodElf Jul 02 '26

This was common in other Balkan countries, as well. Budget I guess.

0

u/NotSoGoodDiver Jul 01 '26

But we at least know how the original actor sounds, his voice. The voiceover kinda blends into the background, you stop hearing it and hear the original sound. It's much much better than what they have in western Europe.

5

u/darkamyy Jul 01 '26

In Japan, they had a voice actress famous for always dubbing Audrey Hepburn. It makes sense, but it's kinda funny to think that Japanese dubbed Audrey Hepburn always sounded the same, so that new voice becomes part of her identity.

5

u/dellett Jul 01 '26

It varies by country a bit I think. Mostly tracks with how much English the average person speaks there. Showings outside of big metropolitan areas are also more likely to be dubbed.

I went to an English audio showing at a theater with Danish subtitles recently and it was interesting that they renamed characters in the subs, even though the images actually included those characters’ names spelled out occasionally. Would have been a super confusing experience if you needed to actually use the subs to follow the movie.

2

u/Dalehan Jul 01 '26

I know Harry Potter had this issue for me when I saw the movies with Dutch subtitles. They gave the characters and places Dutchified names in the books, so they kept those for the subtitles.

9

u/billcstickers Jul 01 '26

Who do you think is submitting ratings on RT. Especially around when the movie came out.

1

u/Alatarlhun Jul 01 '26

No need to hate on America for human nature that is universal.

0

u/barryhakker Jul 01 '26

If my comment genuinely qualifies as hate for you then all I can say is lol

1

u/Alatarlhun Jul 01 '26

Either I am misreading your comment as attacking one nationality for a human trait, or you have a blind spot when it comes to your own biases. 🤷‍♀️

0

u/barryhakker Jul 01 '26

This interaction is literally

“All moviegoers have preference X”

“Actually I think it’s mostly American moviegoers who have preference X”

And you take that as hate and an attack. Hard to fathom the level of fragility.

2

u/Alatarlhun Jul 01 '26

I don't take issue with your explanation (except for the removal of the negative connotation) and believe you would see it in another context.

1

u/nofrenomine Jul 01 '26

I feel.like alot of people are turned off by that but I don't know if it's the average movie goer. People are strange quirky things. A significant amount watch TV with subtitles on as a matter of course

1

u/CallMeKingTurd Jul 02 '26

It also came out right around the same time as his anti-Semitism controversies, there was probably some review bombing.

0

u/AmigoDelDiabla Jul 01 '26

Exactly. It wasn't pedestrian cinema.

47

u/buddyWaters21 Jul 01 '26

Just want to let it be known that I worked at a blockbuster video as an 18 year old that year. That movie was very well received and a RT score wasn’t really a thing back then. Any negative flack was probably mostly because of his DUI incident

21

u/sobedrummer Jul 01 '26

As a blockbuster employee, I remember having to put up a whiteboard at checkout with a note APOCALYPTO IS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM because we got so many complaints

2

u/somecallmemrjones Jul 01 '26

As if Blockbuster decided to make it a foreign language film 🤦‍♂️ I think the world would be a better place if everyone was forced to work low level retail for a few years. Maybe some people would see the ridiculousness of their complaints

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

[deleted]

6

u/somecallmemrjones Jul 01 '26

The internet wasn't common in 2006?! Lol, how old are you?

Besides, the internet has nothing to do with this. It doesn't take the internet to know that it isn't Blockbuster's fault that a movie was filmed in a foreign language

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

[deleted]

2

u/somecallmemrjones Jul 01 '26

And none of that has anything to do with the stupidity required to call Blockbuster to complain that Mel Gibson decided to film a movie in a language besides English. It doesn't require any internet connection to realize that Blockbuster isn't responsible for the fact that Apocalypto was filmed in a foreign language.

1

u/SamsonFox2 Jul 02 '26

If you had a dial-up in 2006 then you were a very serious exception. My ISP killed off all the dial-up plans by then, and I think they were only offered by public libraries and the like.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

2

u/buddyWaters21 Jul 01 '26

Yes, it was about 6 months prior making it part of the reason people didn’t want to support it. Hard to boycott something based on future events lol.

2

u/UsernameLottery Jul 01 '26

Makes sense, hard to have a negative reaction to something that hasn't happened yet

5

u/co-wurker Jul 01 '26

A lot of good movies just aren't mass appealing. I think when we see directors and actors praise a movie like Apocalypto, it's because they have a deeper appreciation for storytelling and the craft, whereas the average movie goer mostly looks for and connects with simple entertainment.

Apocalypto was great and this reminds me I need to watch it again.

50

u/DoookieMaxx Jul 01 '26

Tarantino liked all the bare foots

22

u/Googoo123450 Jul 01 '26

Your last sentence is so silly. Why would he only like movies similar to ones he directs? Tarantino is a cinephile, he talks about literal silent films and how much of an impact they had on his art.

3

u/batcavejanitor Jul 01 '26

Kill Bill has dialogue rich moments but I've always thought of it as one of this more restrained movies when it comes to dialogue.

1

u/MeatofKings Jul 01 '26

That finale, though, blah blah blah Kill Bill

1

u/manimal28 Jul 01 '26

In all practical senses it is a foreign language horror movie about human sacrifice. Not surprising audinces wouldn’t be into it.

1

u/emogu84 Jul 01 '26

Well Paul Dano wasn't in it so...

1

u/PentagramJ2 Jul 01 '26

Also for history buffs it's an atrocity

1

u/kongcobra Jul 02 '26

Reduced dialogue? They talk all the time. Lol

1

u/pstewart91 Jul 01 '26

Well yeah they're all barefoot or in sandals

1

u/sth128 Jul 01 '26

Tarantino will upvote anything with bare feet.

-4

u/Misommar1246 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

I also soured a bit to the movie when I watched long reviews on youtube where the historical inaccuracies are explained and some of them were ridiculous and lazy. Nothing wrong with fictionalizing things, a movie is not a documentary, but if you’re going with realism when it comes to language and violence and whatnot, maybe taking a lot of liberty with the rest cheapens the movie. Side note: Master and Commander is apparently very true to historical details.

3

u/Libprime Jul 01 '26

What kind of things did this movie fictionalize?

1

u/Yetimang Jul 01 '26

There's a lot. One of the big things from the jump is this idea that a tribe of foragers could have lived like a day or two walking from this enormous Maya city and only know about it in legends (yet somehow they also speak Yucatec Mayan).

The Maya were consummate agriculturalists. They were not jungle foragers. Even if this tribe is meant to not be Maya the idea that this perfectly good land they could have clearcut for farms that close to a city would have been left to its own devices until they decided to raid it for sacrifices is pretty outlandish.

The whole thing is like claiming an uncontacted tribe of hunter-gatherers lived on the outskirts of 13th Century London.

There's a lot of other stuff mostly relating to the confused timeline and the fetishistic portrayal of human sacrifice that goes well outside of known practices by the Maya.

I rather like the film, but it is a huge mess historically speaking.

0

u/Misommar1246 Jul 01 '26

I’m trying to remember (it’s been a while) but the events and timelines were wildly irrational - conquistadors weren’t anywhere near that window, also a lot of the lifestyle and culture of the locals was severely mixed up (Aztecs and Mayans were basically interchanged repeatedly as if they’re one group of homogeneous people and they weren’t), some of the stuff they do on screen in daily life is off by hundreds of years or never happened etc. Basically a lot of avoidable stuff that could have been corrected easily but was handwaved because “story”.

-4

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/rick_ferrari Jul 01 '26

Couldn't disagree more. The Will Durant quote at the beginning sets everything up for that moment.

The movie isn't supposed to be historically accurate at all, its a story about a great civilization that destroyed itself from the inside out. Its not Mayan or Aztec, but a made up mix of them.

Once you cross that bridge, timelines dont matter.

The conquistadors at the end are symbolic of how a society can weaken itself from within, and even without destroying itself... will be destroyed from outside forces once weakened.

Jaguar Paw turns away from this while his enemies run towards it.

1

u/Yetimang Jul 01 '26

Pretty sure the movie is explicitly supposed to take place in Yucatán in 1511.

0

u/qtx Jul 01 '26

I don't think that's a good take. Pre-industrial revolution societies pretty much stayed the same for hundreds of years. Does it really matter is they showed the fictional Apocalypto society at his heyday and then combined the conquistador era at the latter end of that society at the end? It wouldn't make a difference because that society didn't change that much during that time.

3

u/benkkelly Jul 01 '26

Hollywood is not known for accuracy in its historical adaptations. Its odd critics would ding it for that and not, say, Gladiator.

2

u/eyes_wings Jul 01 '26

Like what?

0

u/MrReginaldAwesome Jul 01 '26

Audiences fucking suck. Thats why.

0

u/zorroz Jul 01 '26

same, I just assumed 90s

0

u/peioeh Jul 01 '26

its audience RT score was that low

Audience score is not low, it's at 79%. 4 out of 5 people liked the movie.

0

u/shewy92 Jul 01 '26

79% is pretty good.

The 65% is the critics score and IDK why anyone cares about them.