This is the best movie I’ve seen in a long time. Darren Aronofsky (who also directed Pi and Requiem for a Dream) used mostly “real” special effects (i.e. no CGI). The story is full of metaphor and open to interpretation and you won’t understand what happened (or interpret it in your own way) until a few minutes, hours, days, or never after you walk out of the theater.

Throughout the movie I was thinking “god this music is great too.” The Mayan scenes were incredibly realistic – reminding me of Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (which ironically has a trailer before this film).

After the film we waited and watched the full credits. They were mostly French names that came up. I was not surprised, knowing that all the major studios balked at Darren Aronofsky’s vision. He had to work for years to convince a studio to make this film. Next up we saw that the staff was filled with Mayan history consultants, Mayan architecture consultants, researchers, psychologists, and other notable intellectuals who added intense realism to the film (one of which actually used to work with Aaron at UCLA). Then came the extensive list of painters, over twenty individual painters were involved. After that it was what we’d really been waiting for – the score composer. To our surprise the screen said Clint Mansell (that wasn’t a surprise as he has composed on every Aronofsky film) and Mogwai. For those who’ve never heard of Mogwai, do a search for them in the search bar to your left for my review of their performance at this year’s Coachella music festival. Mogwai is an incredible post-rock band from Scotland. Technically the soundtrack was a collaboration between Mansell, Mogwai and the Kronos Quartet.

This movie serves as an intelligence test. If you can appreciate it – you’re intelligent. If you get bored, too confused, or write it off as “too weird”…you’re dumb.

Sorry, but you’re dumb.

Yes, I know… most people are dumb, and they are the ones reproducing the most.

The future is hell.