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Rapa Nui

Play trailer Poster for Rapa Nui R 1994 1h 47m Adventure Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 1 Reviews 63% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
On Easter Island, the Long Ear tribe and its king (Eru Potaka-Dewes) rule over the Short Ear tribe, forcing them to build an endless series of giant heads to attract the canoe that will take the king to heaven. Noro (Jason Scott Lee), a Long Ear, falls in love with the beautiful Short-Ear Ramana (Sandrine Holt) and appeals to the king for her hand. The king agrees, provided Ramana spends six months in a cave and Noro wins the annual race that all young men on the island must enter.
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Rapa Nui

Critics Reviews

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Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Rapa-Nui is part Romeo and Juliet, part X-Treme Sports, part “save the planet,” part historical record, and wholly silly. Rated: 2.5/4 Dec 10, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Luis R more accurate that ppl want to admit Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/18/24 Full Review nefasto r I don't know about the historic accuracy, but for sure this movie is part of my history! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This is an important film because it is the first and only about Easter Island. In fact, Rapa Nui is Easter Island's native name. It is spectacularly filmed on Easter Island, which again is a first. By doing so, it also emphasizes what a desolate and deforested place it is. Not exactly Hollywood fare. As late as the 1970s, people still believed that aliens may have created the moai. The film depicts how the moai were actually carved and transported. It is a noble and brave effort that Kevin Costner and Reynolds chose embarked on uncharted territory to present the Easter Island story to film audiences for the first time. The film is historically inaccurate, because the main plotlines in reality took place at various separate times in history. Specifically, the moai building, the civil war, deforestation and Birdman competition, all took place hundreds of years from one another. However, I agree with producers trying to tie these events into one film in order to create an exciting film to captivate audiences. Otherwise, if only one of the plots were adopted, the film would be as dreary as the island's life itself. Despite that ambitous topic, the issue with this film is that it is bad. It looks and feels low budget, despite the stunning cinematography from Easter Island. The acting is horrible. The sound is terrible, with several of the few discourses essentially inaudible. I had to follow the plot online in order to understand what was happening. This happens occasionally with other films, and is not a positive feature of production. Esai Morales seems more latino than Polynesian to me and his European features are therefore miscast. It seems as if they tried to tie together many different events in Easter Island history to produce 2 hours of film, and thus several events, such as the deforestation, do not make an impact. An ambitious effort. I give it 5-stars for the production, plus an extra star for the subject material and filming location. I wish it would have been a better film. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member Before you see this movie, accept that it's fiction, a big mash up of historical and vague mythical elements, as interpreted and written down by European explorers, and mixed all together for this movie. Done that? Great, let's enjoy the movie. The scenery is amazing, the casting is much more believable than with many other movies of this kind and even the story actually works. Not a masterpiece perhaps, but fresh, definitely. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Frances H Interesting movie with unbelievably beautiful cinematography, and a possible explanation about the Easter Island heads. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/28/13 Full Review Audience Member It is alright while it had some good in it. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Rapa Nui

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Movie Info

Synopsis On Easter Island, the Long Ear tribe and its king (Eru Potaka-Dewes) rule over the Short Ear tribe, forcing them to build an endless series of giant heads to attract the canoe that will take the king to heaven. Noro (Jason Scott Lee), a Long Ear, falls in love with the beautiful Short-Ear Ramana (Sandrine Holt) and appeals to the king for her hand. The king agrees, provided Ramana spends six months in a cave and Noro wins the annual race that all young men on the island must enter.
Director
Kevin Reynolds
Producer
Kevin Costner, Jim Wilson
Rating
R
Genre
Adventure
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 1, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA)
$286.6K
Runtime
1h 47m
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