Rise of the Planet of the Apes

[palmer_eldritch]

Couldn't find a thread for this.

It's fun and the special effects - given that the apes are computer generated - are very impressive but it lacks tension and any real plot. The first intelligent ape is created towards the start of the film and the rest is predictable from that point on. That might be inevitable, given that it's a prequel to a well known film (and the title is a pretty big clue too) but I'm sure there could have been some twists and turns along the way.

The ending is very flat too. The story just ends, and it feels a lot lilke a film designed with a sequel in mind (Battle for the Planet of the Apes!).

Although it's clearly meant to be a prequel to the 2001 Planet of the Apes film rather than the 1968 Charlton Heston version, I also feel the franchise isn't actually helped by telling stories about the Apes taking over the world. The ending of the first film was powerful because it suggested we'd managed to blow ourselves up - something that seemed like a real possibility in 1968 and maybe still is today - and the apes just stepped into the gap we left behind. At least, that's how I saw it. That version of the fall of man seems more interesting than a science-fictiony thing about genetic engineering and ape rebellions.

But having said all of that, it's not a bad film.

[Teleku]

Yeah, the first movie was post-apocalyptic earth, many thousands of years into the future.  In the subsequent films (did you know the original planet of the apes had 4 sequels?), they sort of changed it around so that humans first started using apes as slave labor, then they rebelled, and then apparently nukes started flying shortly after (the sequels are a big mess really).

[Merusk]

I knew there were 4 only because they use to have marathons of them (Featuring Big Chuck & Lil' John or Superhost!) up in Cleveland.  Even then I think the only ones I ever caught were the original and the one where the Doc & his wife are in 197_.

[HaemishM]

Actually, the way the original movies explained it was that Cornelius and Zira came back to present day (1970's) on Charlton Heston's ship prior to the destruction of Earth envisioned at the end of the 2nd movie. Their son, Caesar, was thought to be killed when his parents were, but was instead raised by a circus owner who was killed. Caesar could talk and led an ape rebellion in the 4th movie. Apes and humans were living together in the fifth movie, led by Caesar, but had to fight off the remaining humans who lived in the cities and later became the nuke worshipping mutants in the second movie. THOSE humans used the nukes to try to destroy the apes and we came full circle.

I want to go see this movie, though I think the trailer gives away way too much. They have also greenlit the second movie already I think.

[SurfD]

I dont really think it works as a prequel to the 2001 Planet movie.    In the 2001 version, the main "human" character takes off from a Space Station orbiting somewhere (dont think it was ever confirmed as "earth), gets sucked through a wormhole, and lands on a planet where the apes rule.  At the end, you find out that the planet he landed on is the Same Planet the Space Station was orbiting, and the apes were the "super apes" the scientists on the Space station were using as guinea pigs untill the station crashed and set them loose, and the wormwhole caused him to miss loads of years inbetween.   Then they do the whole "he takes off in his pod again" and this time lands on an Ape Run alter-earth, where the apes dress like people, drive cars, and have an "ape-lincoln" monument etc.

The new one seems to just do the whole "we will genetically engineer our own replacements at the same time we also genetically engineer the supervirus that kills us all" standard sci-fi trope.

[K9]

Given the number of plot holes in the trailer alone, I think I will be taking a pass on this one.

[SurfD]

Given the number of plot holes in the trailer alone, I think I will be taking a pass on this one.

Actually, the plot was fairly ok.  There was only really one moderate sized plot hole from what i remember, and that was that all the "normal" apes seemed to get really smart, really fast, in comparison to Ceasar (the "main" ape character) after only a day or two exposure to the drug. 

I think the trailer simply suffered from a bit of bad editing in that regard.

[naum]

I dont really think it works as a prequel to the 2001 Planet movie.    In the 2001 version, the main "human" character takes off from a Space Station orbiting somewhere (dont think it was ever confirmed as "earth), gets sucked through a wormhole, and lands on a planet where the apes rule.  At the end, you find out that the planet he landed on is the Same Planet the Space Station was orbiting, and the apes were the "super apes" the scientists on the Space station were using as guinea pigs untill the station crashed and set them loose, and the wormwhole caused him to miss loads of years inbetween.   Then they do the whole "he takes off in his pod again" and this time lands on an Ape Run alter-earth, where the apes dress like people, drive cars, and have an "ape-lincoln" monument etc.

The new one seems to just do the whole "we will genetically engineer our own replacements at the same time we also genetically engineer the supervirus that kills us all" standard sci-fi trope.

This ho-hum rendition was closer to the spirit of the book (author Pierre Boule), which is short, but excellent and dwarfs all the movie adaptations to date. And while the Heston first film of the series (which went rapidly downhill thereafter) from the 60s is decent, it still pales in comparison to the book -- ape society was on par or slightly more advanced (in some regards, i.e., airborne "jo-cars") but the class divisions that were evident in 1st film were much more woven into film -- chimps (science, intelligence, "clerical" workers) v. orangutans (faith, politicians) v. gorillas (warriors, "physical workers")…

[Khaldun]

Look, the original's holy-shit-did-I-see-that charge had something to do with prevalent fears of nuclear holocaust but also frankly with the way that it was metacommenting on racial conflicts in late 1960s American society. It's hard to see how you can do anything with the property that isn't just a kind of pastiche commentary on the way that it worked as pop-culture kitsch back then.

Though I still think the most underrated thing about the whole film is the way that it makes the American Southwest feel genuinely alien and terrifying.

[K9]

Given the number of plot holes in the trailer alone, I think I will be taking a pass on this one.

Actually, the plot was fairly ok.  There was only really one moderate sized plot hole from what i remember, and that was that all the "normal" apes seemed to get really smart, really fast, in comparison to Ceasar (the "main" ape character) after only a day or two exposure to the drug. 

I think the trailer simply suffered from a bit of bad editing in that regard.

Apes with spears beating men with guns; how do you explain that?

[Merusk]

The only way I can see is if the apes overrun the lines and turning it into a melee? Chimps alone are about 2x stronger than men. Apes are somewhere around 5x stronger.  They win a melee.

However, HE and grenades along with there just not being that many apes to begin with should have meant victory for Men.


The bigger plot hole - from the trailer- is evil science lab not killing freaky-intelligent monkey and dissecting his brain but instead sending him off to a primate camp when funding disappears.

[Sir T]

The bigger plot hole - from the trailer- is evil science lab not killing freaky-intelligent monkey and dissecting his brain but instead sending him off to a primate camp when funding disappears.

Well that's a little true to life or an in joke as it mirrors what happened to the alleged humanzee Oliver

[Khaldun]

See the new documentary on Nim Chimpsky.

[Sheepherder]

Apes with spears beating men with guns; how do you explain that?

We had this argument before, in the Avatar thread.  Then tanks entered the equation and something magic happened.

[K9]

Avatar was only bearable because it had pretty cinematography; I have seen enough NYC/DC/SF/LA based disaster movies to last me a lifetime now, and the addition of CGI chimps is not about to change that.

[Mrbloodworth]

[Ragnoros]

Just Redboxed this. Quite an enjoyable movie. I will readily agree with the half in the bag guys, Caesar is the star of the show, the humans are little more then set pieces. My only complaint would be the whole, "Hur Dur, lets make our super-virus airborne. What could go wrong?" for no real reason other then to skip what could have been an interesting next movie. Given they fairly heavily implied that the virus killed all the humans, I imagine that we will be skipping what could have been an interesting "Battle for the planet of the apes" for a simple reboot of the original.

[Threash]

Yeah, they even set up the whole missing astronauts thing.

[Pennilenko]

Yeah, they even set up the whole missing astronauts thing.

Somehow I missed that set up, can you elaborate for me, because I am too lazy to put it back in my blockbuster queue?

[Ragnoros]

They showed a random news snippet about the first manned mission to Mars in the background of some other shot, as well as the cover of a newspaper with the headline "Lost in space?" (or something to that effect) later in the movie.

[Threash]

Yeah, the news was talking about a manned mission to mars near the start of the movie and near the end it is apparent that something went wrong and they all disappeared.  It was all in the background or blink and you missed it news headlines though.

[Pennilenko]

I blame my wife, its been six years since I was actually allowed to focus on a movie without answering a dozen plotline questions even though I have seen exactly what everyone else has seen.

[HaemishM]

I finally got to sit down and watch this all the way through. Fantastic flick. Planet of the Apes was one of my favorite childhood movies/TV shows and this took all of the best bits of that, updated it and made a prequel film that really deserves to be a reboot of the series. The only negatives I had were timeline issues. We travel 8 years in like 15-20 minutes and during that time, Franco's girlfriend never though to ask where Caesar came from or why he's so special? Does not compute. But really, that's kind of a sideshow to the meat of the story, which was the chimp. Andy Serkis deserves a fucking Oscar for the work he did as the monkey. The CGI monkeys looked great, incredibly expressive virtual actors and only a few times looked artificial. If you haven't seen this, you should.

[Khaldun]

I finally got around to finishing this after having started it once many moons ago.

It's surprisingly good. All the small touches--the Mars mission in particular.