RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Too many classics are being rebooted or remade these days that I feel that a generation of cinemagoers will never appreciate the original. That is not to say that reboots and remakes are a bad thing but nine times out of ten they are usually inferior to the original.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a welcome reboot as I found myself really enjoying it. At one point when I first heard about it I thought it would be a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes but it seemed to only take elements of the apes revolt against man. The story I found very engaging and I am not ashamed to say that I was rooting for the apes. Well, anyone who know Planet of the Apes knows what the eventual outcome will be anything.
One thing I was initially skeptical about was CGI replacing actors in make up. The make up was so iconic for the original, which Rick Baker had developed upon for the Tim Burton remake a decade ago, to me was part of the charm. There was something about actors in prosthetics that I felt would be lost in the CGI. However, it seems we have come along way in CGI and the CGI for the main ape character Caesar (as played by Andy Serkis) was incredible. The CGI brilliantly captured his performance and for the most part he felt real.
Although there is still advantages, in my opinion, to having actors in make up for the apes for their later evolution if this rebooted series continues. But the main ape characters could be augmented by CGI and background apes could be CGI.
Actors like Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Tim Roth made us believe that they were evolved apes rather than just actors wearing make up. Andy Serkis still gave a great performance as well.
James Franco was pretty decent in the lead human role of Will Rodman. It was great seeing John Lithgow on screen again playing his Altzeimer’s suffering dad and I felt he did an excellent performance. A cure for Altzeimer’s being the catalyst for the intelligent Caesar in the movie.
Well I don’t want to say too much on that part as I don’t like to spoil.
There are a lot of lovely references to the original Planet of the Apes. A few of the apes and characters are named after the actors and producer of the original series. A character is called Jacobs, after the producer Arthur P Jacobs no doubt.
And of course two of Charlton Heston’s classic lines are uttered in the film.
Of course it would be hard to top the original 1968 classic, it still stands up as one of the best sci fi movies of all time but this film is a worthy addition to the apes series.
I give it 4 out of 5.
Sigh, I lost my previous comments so have to retype them.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as someone who's not a fan of the series (having only seen some bits of the TV show many moons ago and more familar with it through parodies)- I liked it. As usual Serkis stole the show, but as you noted John Ligthgow was also good- I also liked Tom Felton and Brian Cox- what a pair of assholes. If I had to critique anything- I didn't think the lead actress was bad, I just felt her character felt a little tacked on at times.
Plus I liked a twist on how the apes wind up taking over (that isn't a spoiler is it?)
So...yeah, colour me unexpectadly impressed.
By the way, I plan on watching the original and conquest- would you recommend any of the remaining 3? I've heard a lot of bad stuff about battle and mixed about beneath and escape from.
ReplyDeleteOut of the remaining three after the original and Conquest, Escape is the best of the remaining three. Beneath has some good moments and Battle is my least fav.
ReplyDeleteHowever they are all chains within the same arc.