Apocalypto Sneaks Into Austin's Fantastic Fest -- First Impressions

So here I am, down in beautiful (yet horribly humid) Austin, Texas, enjoying my "vacation festival" after the arduous "work festival" that was Toronto '06. I'm flipping through the pages of the festival guide, wondering what I'm going to see on Saturday afternoon when someone informs me that there will be a "super secret" screening later in the day. I rattle off the possibilities in my brain. Since Fantastic Fest is a genre festival, I immediately assume that the "secret" screening will be The Grudge 2 or Saw 3. The FF website indicates that the screening will run 130 minutes, so my next guess is Zack Snyder's 300 -- which would have been awesome. But then while I was outside grabbing a smoke, I hear the gossip:

The "super secret" screening will be Mel Gibson's Apocalypto -- and the director would be on hand to hold a Q&A session when the movie ends. Hey, cool. Aside from a promo clip I saw about four months ago, I knew next to nothing about Apocalypto except that: A) It takes place in 1502, B) the dialogue would be in ancient Maya, and C) it was a pretty violent flick. Needless to say, I was intrigued. So I got in line ... with about 400 other curious movie nuts.

I wouldn't feel comfortable penning a full-bore review of Apocalypto, as the cut we saw was a workprint: It had "temp track" music, unfinished sound effects, incomplete special effects, and a few sequences that were bound for the cutting room floor. But the meat of the movie was still there, so I suppose it's cool to share a few early reactions...

I dug the flick. Quite a bit, actually. The movie takes a little getting used to -- we open with a group of hunters chasing, catching and disassembling a wild tapir -- but once we get into the heart of the story, Apocalypto turns into one of the more intriguing action/adventure epics of the past few years: A peaceful forest village is attacked and brutally ransacked by a more "civilized" group of Mayan warriors, and there is much horrific violence before the village's strongest men are captured as slaves.

Basically, Act I is the intro and the attack, Act II details the long and terrifying journey towards the agressors' astonishing kingdom, and Act III is (literally) a 40-minute foot chase through the unkind wilds of ancient Mexico. I'll admit that during Apocalypto's opening act, I was getting a distinct Rapa Nui vibe, but once the characters were delineated and the action started rolling, I was stuck knee-deep in the movie, entirely fascinated by where it was taking me. It's a unique, challenging, visually beautiful and harrowingly violent piece of filmmaking -- and I definitely look forward to seeing the movie again, once it's been polished in post-production and trimmed down just a bit.

After the movie, director Mel Gibson and lead actor Rudy Youngblood took the stage for a rather illuminating Q&A session. Unfortunately I didn't have my recorder with me, so I cannot offer a transcription of the conversation. But Mr. Gibson was completely open to all queries, whether they were obvious or mildly critical. The director insisted that the movie needs a "few more trims" before release, and he reminded us that the film still needed polishes in the areas of sound, visual FX, color correction, and scoring. But the general reaction afterwards was pretty darn enthusiastic. While enjoying my post-movie cigarette, I overheard comments like "pretty damn awesome" and "a whole lot better than I expected," while virtually everyone was in agreement that the Act III super-chase was a whole lot of gritty and exciting fun.

The completely finished version of Apocalypto is scheduled to hit theaters on December 9th, and based on what I saw in the 130-minute workprint, I've no problem recommending the film when it hits your local multiplex. It's unique, it's epic and it's a pretty exciting thrill ride. Hard to say what kind of impact this type of film will have at the box office, but I have to give Gibson credit for tackling such a risky venture.

(And kudos to the classy Austinites who attended the screening: Nobody asked Mel about his alcohol-fueled tirade from a few months back. As far as my own perspectives on Mel Gibson go, I may not respect the man as much as I used to, but I'm certainly not going to lie about enjoying a film he directed.)