Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Nektonic said:
I think I am going to write a post apocalyptic satire called After the End of the World: Rise of those who Fell into Anarchy after the Fall of Civilization. It will have cannibals, zombies, mutants, killer robots, aliens, sea monsters, giant man-eating rodents, and furiously feral grannies.
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FALLOUT 1 and 2 had all of that.
 
TheDingo said:
...Yeah, it's an alternative universe where Robert Smith and The Cure only came on the scene after some wild monkey sex. :cool:
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I think that was *this* universe...

...the Burton mess was downright offensive on a number of fronts (although Paul Giamatti did a bit to relieve the anguish). Saw the trailer for this for the first time last night, and have to admit to being intrigued. I have always had a soft spot for the original 'Apes' movies (even as they descended into rank cheesefulness) partly because they took on some for-real heavy-duty social issues that were particularly raw at the time, and also because Cornelius and Zira are respectively my favorite Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter roles.

On the admittedly risky assumption that it can hardly be worse that Burton's effort, I think I'm going to see this.

Some day it would be interesting to see a straight adaptation of the Boulle novel, but I won't hold my breath.
 
Sad Max said:
...the Burton mess was downright offensive on a number of fronts
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Burton is not a Sci-Fi director, so his Monkey Disaster movie does not surprise me at all. I wish they had chosen someone like David Cronenberg, as I think he could have produced something that would scare the sh*t out of the audience and take the whole franchise in a different direction. ( even David Lynch in his non-experimental-art mode would have been better than Burton )
 
TheDingo said:
Burton is not a Sci-Fi director, so his Monkey Disaster movie does not surprise me at all. I wish they had chosen someone like David Cronenberg, as I think he could have produced something that would scare the sh*t out of the audience and take the whole franchise in a different direction. ( even David Lynch in his non-experimental-art mode would have been better than Burton )
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It started with a dreadful story concept, spawning a dreadful script - which of course can be ultimately laid at Burton's feet. I don't think that the problem is whether or not the director was a 'Sci-Fi' director but the story the director chose to tell, and how he went about telling it.

I don't know about Lynch...The Monkeys have AWAAAAAAAAKENED! Or possibly the apes are not what they seem... tough to say.
 
I saw this trailer before two movies I went out to see, and in both cases it ended with the audience laughing. Part of it simply comes through the choice of music along with the design of the trailer. There are other roots they could have gone that wouldn't have received such a comedic reaction.
 
Reviews are pouring in and it currently sits at 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.
93% if you just look at the Top Critics.

I'm in. Not expecting a masterpiece but it looks like fun to me. :thumbup:
 
Way better then what I had expected a few things here and there .
The CG and camera moves are top notch ....the editing is very well done. It's a very good thriller movie .The audience was captivated we had a few screams.
The whole time I kept wondering why didnt they just call the movie Rise of the Apes. The planet word makes u think about UFOs and such.
I just hope I dont see very low budget / mediocre sequels after this one.
 
Better than expected. A solid B movie. The kind of competent entertainment with simple, direct storytelling Hollywood used to make routinely. The apes end up being more compelling and believable characters than the humans, but that's not really a bad thing here. James Franco's character gets less relevant as the movie goes on and Freida Pinto had the most useless role I've seen in quite some time. The villains were also a bit too broadly played. But it's Andy Serkis's show and his performance as Cesar is pretty great, although the animation is inconsistent, ranging from practically photo real to borderline cartoony. The film was also a little bit too headlong in its pacing, with lots of very brief scenes. A few moments to breathe would have been welcome here and there. I liked all the little setups they dropped for the inevitable sequels, which I'm looking forward to more than this film, which caught me by surprise.
 
It's kind of ridiculous, but I had fun watching it. I had to suspend my disbelief across the grand canyon, but I enjoyed it. Most movies fall apart in the third act, this movie built up to an awesome third act with a so-so first and second.


SPOILERYSTUFF
They kind of overdid it with the references to the original, even lifting one of the most iconic lines. Not paraphrasing it, not subtly referencing it. Just quoting it outright. But the theater got so quiet after the "No!" It was kind of silly in retrospect, but in the moment, it worked so well.
 
Billy Pilgrim said:
But the theater got so quiet after the "No!" It was kind of silly in retrospect, but in the moment, it worked so well.
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Yeah, that was a great moment.

SPOILERS

However, there was lots of laughter at Franco's lame response to Cesar's last line of dialogue, "Ceasar is home."..."uh...yeah...okay...Cesar is home."...I did appreciate that they went with a long "slow" build up to an explosive third act, but as I said, I think they compensated for this by speeding through every scene in the first and second act, giving things a rushed feel. This made most of the secondary characters feel like cardboard cutouts.

They did reference the dialogue from the original a bit too liberally, but it just confirmed something I always felt. Charlton Heston doesn't get enough credit for making those lines sing. It's really his performance that makes them work, as they are pretty theatrical. Hearing other actors try and make them work makes it evident how difficult that is.
 
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Seems like the film way overperformed and cleaned up at the box office over the weekend, even if it didn't make Harry Potter level money. I think there are lessons to be learned here, but I think Hollywood will come away with the wrong one and flood the market with apes clones. I think the main reason this film is working for audiences is simply because they took the time to make you genuinely care about the main character. The film doesn't have a whiz bang action scene every ten minutes. It builds towards one big one, and up until then builds your sympathy in Cesar's plight. Roger Ebert once wrote that it's better to wait an entire movie for something to happen, then watch a movie where things we don't care about are happening constantly. This movie kind of proves that. Not that it's a slowly paced film, but it definitely breaks free of the Hollywood action/thriller paradigm that demands a big WHAMMY every ten minutes. I hope we see more of that...Again, this wasn't the greatest movie ever, but it has qualities you don't find much of these days in hollywood's big, dumb action movies.
 
One of the best movies I've seen this year and a more complex movie from a directorial standpoint then what I've seen in a long time. I mean lets be honest here, even if you didn't like the movie, this thing was a TOUGH movie to make. There was a lot to try and get right to make this movie work, and I think they did very well. This movie would scare the pants off me if it was given to me to do. Kudos to Rupert Wyatt, I think he's got some serious chops.
 
I loved it. It wasn't perfect but it was damn good. This movie had me routing for Caesar, big time! There were plenty of touching moments as well. Time to give Andy Serkis some serious props for bringing these characters to life on the big screen.

The effects for the most part were pretty spectacular and you can tell a lot of thought went into making this movie. It's doing extremely well at the box office. Can't wait for the next one! :)

Serkis stole the show, something you want the lead character to do. I've watched some of the BTS of how he made Caesar come to life and it's just amazing. Job well done.
 
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