tuglidamato

25 May 2012

Good fun

Not as bad as I expected it to be...The apes never really give you the feeling that you are looking at realapes. All apes seem to have drunk to much coffee, they are allconstantly agitated. There is not a lot of dept in the movie althoughit seems that they've tried a little bit. Don't expect good acting andemotional moments. You wont develop any feeling for any of thecharacters. But the story is fun and the movie has some good actionscenes. It's obvious that the makers are not trying to convince youthat this could really happened. All they want to do is give you a funexperience. And in that they succeed.

24 May 2012

Gonna Have A Monkey Good Time!

*cue up the James Brown guitar riffs*Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the latest reboot of the classic franchise, erasing the god-awful, best forgotten shlock Tim Burton forced upon us back in the nineties. The movie stars James Franco, John Lithgow, Frieda Pinto, Brian Cox, David Oyewelo and Tom Felton. Screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver take the seeds of the original PotA franchise and nurture it along a more organic and logical path, which under the guidance of director Rupert Wyatt could ultimately end up as something truly special. Unlike Birth of the Planet of the Apes, which was tacked-on to round out the storyline, this one's an origin story from the jump.Will Rodman (Franco) is working on a cure for Alzheimer's Disease, testing his serum on chimpanzees, spurred by his father's (Lithgow) own illness. Rodman's serum not only repairs brain cells as hoped, but improves upon undamaged ones by enhancing cognitive abilities in the chimps. A tragic incident leads to the cancellation of the project and the animals being put down, but not before one of the test subjects has given birth. Rodman takes the newborn chimp home, where he discovers the mother has passed her genetic enhancements along to her offspring. Now named Caesar, he displays amazing skills and development as he matures, but their idyll is shattered when Caesar commits an act of violence against a neighbor and is taken away by Animal Services. Being locked away and surrounded by his fellow simians for the first time proves to be a crisis moment for Caesar, one that will ultimately change the course of human history.Where to begin? Firstly this is a great script, taking the franchise in directions it should've already gone. The story feels and flows naturally, without relying upon cheesy gimmicks and laziness like time travel to resolve plot issues. Classic lines and references from the original movie are dropped in both as homages and plot threads for the sequels (What? A space shuttle mission goes awry and both the ship and the crew went missing, you say? Hmm...). You should stick around as the credits roll for a minute to check out a slight teaser setting up the sequel's storyline, though from seeing the movie you'd already know what it is. My only real complaint is the two most iconic lines from the original classic are used, but not very effectively. The first one you can barely hear over the noise being made and the second was clearly forced into the scene it was used in, but it's Caesar's reaction to it that saves it (and that's two big hints for you). It's been remarked elsewhere that the previews make Caesar look like a seething ball of simian rage- which isn't the case- and I have to agree. This is the beginning of a saga- Caesar's journey from alienation into self-awareness that leads into accepting his role as a leader of his species. A lot for a sci-fi flick, but that's why it works.The CGI is stellar. Even though it's painfully obvious you're watching motion capture effects it works great, but more for the gorillas than the chimps. Andy Serkis of Lord of the Rings fame supplies the motion capture for Caesar and the movements are flawlessly smooth, yet another installment in his already excellent body of work. The acting is solid; James Franco is starting to grow on me and it's always good to see Brian Cox and John Lithgow. Cox doesn't have all that much to do but Lithgow's good. I also liked the music; Patrick Doyle is one of the all-timers of movie scoring and in the quieter moments the strings and drums supply that extra emotional impact like they should. Looking forward to checking out the cd.Rise of the Planet of the Apes is more than you'd expect from even a modern day sci-fi flick. It's an origin story worthy of a legendary franchise, one that everyone except DC Comics seems to be able to pull off lately by completely investing the audience in the characters and the outcome (yeah, I'm still angry about Green Lantern!). Those expecting a film similar to Birth of the Planet of the Apes, climaxing with burning cities and apes grinding humans down into savagery will be disappointed, but you shouldn't be because this one is much more satisfying and enjoyable. And there's so much more to come. Once again Amazon needs a 10-star rating system- though it's not quite a 5-star movie, what the heck. You won't find much better this summer.

lee300772

23 May 2012

A great and intelligent action film

As the film began I didn't have high expectations for the prequel toits classic 1968 counterpart. All that was to be expected was yetanother Hollywood revival of a successful movie franchise with dazzlingCGI and forgettable dialogue, a possible cash cow.James Franco (127 hours) plays the role of a young, passionatescientist, working at an animal testing laboratory, experimenting withprime apes in the hope of a major scientific breakthrough. This occurswhen he stumbles upon a chemical that increases the monkeys' ability tolearn. However, later in the film we discover that's not all thechemical does!!!Franco in my opinion has a tendency to overact sometimes, in this filmthere are several emotionally stirring scenes, but here he showsmaturity in restraining himself and bringing a natural feel to hisperformance, neatly juggling his roles as a scientist, a young dotingson and the surrogate father to Caesar. A deserved mention goes toLithgow portraying an Alzheimer sufferer, living at home, bed-ridden,trying to patch together faded memories whilst Franco supports him,embroiled in despair as he sees his father deteriorate. This could haveeasily become very cheesy and clichéd, however Lithgow puts in aterrific turn, bringing a sense of solemnity and warmth to hischaracter, far removed from his role as the manipulative and terrifyingTrinity Killer from the TV series Dexter.Also making an appearance is the young and beautiful Freida Pinto(SlumDog Millionaire) in a supporting role as the girlfriend of Franco.Even though it does feel somewhat tacked on it doesn't detract from thefilm's focus. Tom Felton (Harry Potter) plays the clichéd role as thehorrid gorilla centre staff, reprising his role as the film baddie andsets up my favourite quote of the film.Despite Franco's centrality to the film he is not the star of thisshow, Caesar; his close prime ape friend (pet/son?) is. He is raised byFranco over several years, the relationship is complex; Franco nurturesCaesar like a son, however is unable to give him the freedom hedesires. As Caesar becomes more intelligent and self-aware hisacceptance of the world around him wanes and so the rising begins.Caesar is the heart and soul of the film, all actors' performancescirculate around this amazing creature, he demands your attention.Showing great range of emotions, we feel Caesar's rage and sadness atthe cruelty of man and simultaneously see him show mercy and compassiontowards them as he leads the uprising. Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings) excels in the lead role, bringing thecharacter to life with the aid of CGI. Technology has progressed atcertain points in cinematic history, from 2001 to Star Wars, themind-bending Matrix (bullet time anyone?) and more recently thevisually breathtaking Avatar and Tron in 3D. This lacks the same wowfactor, we are not immersed into a different universe, but arefascinated by Caesar and the life Serkis brings to him. Without thistechnology and in the hands of another director this role could havebecome painfully laughable, but CGI is able to demonstrate thecharacters range magnificently, yet conversely the character does stillseem computerized when surrounded by human settings and people. A quick mention to the pacing of the film, the director movesproceedings along at a swift pace, but with careful hands knowing howto pause and allow the audience to take a gasp for breath and embraceemotionally charged scenes. My female friend found it a bit much,Alzheimers, animal testing and cruelty all in one film, you may need tobite your tongue or have a box of tissues handy!This film will make you briefly question the fallacies of man, andsends us a similar message to films like The Day the Earth Stood Stilland Terminator; that man will eventually give rise to something that itcannot understand or control and will become obsolete. I highly recommend you see this great, intelligent and heartfelt summerthriller. 8/10

Framescourer

22 May 2012

Slick storytelling

A thoroughly entertaining sci-fi thriller, intended as a prequel to thecelebrated but patchy Planet Of The Apes sci-fi canon. The film is anoutstanding exemplar of brisk, no-nonsense storytelling and a supercase for the continued use of motion-capture as a process for puttingcomputer generated images on the screen. Inevitably, the onecomplements the other: the excellent acting and digital rendering ofthat acting means that the story can be told with great economy -through the images on screen, without having to burden the script.So, once again Andy Serkis impresses as a non-human, as well as RichardRidings' silverback, Buck, and the sagacious Maurice of Karin Konoval.I don't think it's inevitable that the humans should be less engagingbut they are notably slight characters in comparison. I think FreidaPinto's trope-vet/love interest is just written on auto-pilot but DavidOyelowo has been better than this on British TV. He neither reallycommunicates his disingenuity nor a real, money-grabbing steel. Francois winsome but anonymous as the principal scientist. Whilst I'm on theweaker stuff, I have to shrug a bit over Patirck Doyle's score:functional but obvious.Rupert Wyatt's film is much more than the sum of imbalanced partsthough and whisks you through familiar narrative territory with somereal panache. 8/10

Ced Yuen

21 May 2012

Chimpantastic.

Nowadays, it seems that prequel-reboots of old franchises are all therage. James Bond, Star Trek and X-Men have all been successfullyrevived, ready to entertain another generation. Next up is the 'PlanetOf The Apes' series, which went stale despite Tim Burton's'reimagining' in 2001.Surprisingly, 'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes' feels nothing like itspredecessors. There is no Charlton Heston-type character, no humanheroics. There are outlandish sci-fi elements involved, but this ismainly a story about an animal growing up in a human world.Scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) develops a virus to cureAlzheimer's disease. The project is terminated after a test chimpanzeeshows side effects. Will takes home the chimpanzee's baby and names himCaesar. Growing up, Caesar displays extraordinary intelligence, andbegins to question his place in the world.Caesar's development serves as the film's primary story arc. As he goesfrom playful childhood to aggressive adulthood, he never stops beingthe film's driving force. It is touching to see him play, chilling tosee him rebel - at every turn Caesar has the audience's full emotionalinvestment.'Rise' is a monster movie in the vein of Frankenstein, but it is also amodern-day Icarus tale, an examination of human arrogance and naïveté.Unexpectedly philosophical and emotional, it feels nothing like any ofthe earlier films. While there are certainly similarities in terms ofplot and theme, this entry represents a significant departure from thefranchise.The biggest change is the use of CGI instead of prosthetics. Not onlydoes this present a visual contrast between 'Rise' and its predecessors- it enables the creation of characters not possible through practicaleffects. This is the closest that the industry has come tophoto-realistic, yet computer-generated, imagery. The use of CGImake-up over motion- captured performances – à la 'Avatar' – is onceagain a winning combination.While 'Avatar' bombarded viewers with its imagery, the CGI in 'Rise' islimited to the apes. The approach of blending the real and the renderedis much more subtle, and ultimately it is far easier to immerse oneselfinto the story.The wizards at WETA have done a truly stunning job creating the apes.Their facial movements are subtle and nuanced. The apes each lookdifferent, and have unique personalities. They feel natural, genuinelycoming across as living characters that think, feel and express.Caesar is particularly well realised – it is only a matter of timebefore Andy Serkis' performance-capture antics receive more prestigiousrecognition. It is testament to the skills of WETA and Serkis that acharacter made from CGI can be so utterly captivating.Other aspects of the film prove to be just as remarkable. Thecinematography is effective. Long takes show the ape action in a clearand coherent manner - short bursts of shaky-cam convey chaos throughthe eyes of the primates.Rising director Rupert Wyatt demonstrates impeccable pacing and anability to handle tension. The human characters are ratherone-dimensional - a minor fault in an otherwise flawless operation -but that is of little consequence in a story that focuses on animals.The formula for franchise-rejuvenation has become very muchstandardised. Tell an origins story; throw in enough references to keepexisting fans happy - leave it open enough to allow for future entries.'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes' does all of this, and yet it is muchmore than a prequel- reboot. It has more heart and intelligence thanany film released this summer. Combined with the remarkable specialeffects, it is easily one of the best films of 2011.

20 May 2012

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is excellent!

"Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes" is excellent! This is how the story goes: A single act of both compassion and arrogance leads to a war unlike any other -- and to the RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.The cast led by James Franco (as Will Rodman) & Andy Serkis (as Caesar) is great! The directing by Rupert Wyatt is excellent! The story & screenplay by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (both of them also produced the film) is excellent!The music by Patrick Doyle is excellent! The cinematography by Andrew Lesnie is excellent! The film editing by Conrad Buff IV & Mark Goldblatt is excellent! The casting by Debra Zane is excellent! The production design by Claude Pare is excellent! The art direction by Dan Hermansen, Helen Jarvis & Grant Van Der Slagt is excellent! The set decoration by Elizabeth Wilcox is excellent! The costume design by Renee April is excellent! The special make-up effects design by Bill Terezakis is excellent! The visual effects by Weta Digital is excellent!This is an excellent and well-made action / summer movie that keeps you entertained and on the edge of your seat with your mind thinking and your heart racing. This is just as excellent as the original "Planet Of The Apes" (1968). Andy Serkis' performance as Caesar is terrific. This is one of the best movies of the summer and of the year, so far.

DonAramis

19 May 2012

Standard Action Flick Fare

If you like mindless entertainment and you're prepared to just "go withit" and suspend disbelief no matter what the movie, or Fox, may throwat you, then Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the movie for you, andyou should skip the rest of this review.People will likely call this an "action flick," or an "effects flick,"which, as often happens, means the plot is rife with a great deal ofsilliness. Such as the million dollar research lab that doesn't noticeone of their test chimps is pregnant until it gives birth. Such as the"wonder drug" that makes one (1) chimp "smarter," so therefore we'reall set to go into clinic trials on humans suffering from Alheimer's.Such as the scientist who decides to test out the untested drug on hisown (human) father, because, hey, Dad's practically a basket case, sowhat harm could it do?Overall, the film seems uninspired and continues the modern trend ofsubstituting eye-candy for creative thinking. It doesn't really feelvery science-fictiony either. The world setting is indistinguishablefrom the real-life modern-day Earth we all know, except for a TV newsbroadcast about a manned space flight mission to Mars. The "science"perpetrated by the film's protagonist mostly takes the form of computerdisplays showing lots of unreadable charts and graphs and data andstuff, which is not terribly convincing.The interactions between the various apes in the film do getinteresting, round about the middle of the film. The apes all seem tomove "realistically," at least to my zoologically untrained eye. Butthat alone is hardly enough to carry the film, especially since theclimactic action sequence at the end of the film appears to have beendesigned by graphics effects people, without reference to anyoneconcerned with such arcana as "logic" and "plot."

19 May 2012

Great

Great movie, this movie was better than the last movie that was made in the nineties. I would recommend everyone to watch this money when they get the chance. http://bestfilmcinema.org/

17 May 2012

Saw this in the theatre...

This is a must see movie! It's what a movie is supposed to be. Should you pass this movie up? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

KingdomSora

16 May 2012

Surprisingly Brilliant

I tagged along with my friends to the cinema 2 days ago just for a dayout/Something to do, and they chose 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'and i was like "hmmm okay..." not that i thought it would be bad, ijust thought it wouldn't be all that good to be honest, and theTrailers didn't really sell the movie to me either, they made it lookrather boring (In my opinion) From Beginning to end, the movie wasfantastic! I absolutely loved it! The acting was Great, I really feltemotion when they were happy/sad/scared etc. The effects werebrilliant, my Soundtrack was great and fit well in each scene and ofcourse our main character, Ceasar! He is my new favourite ape, he willbe up there with the greats like King Kong! As Ceasar began to grow youcan really see him becoming almost human, with his posture,intelligence and then later, his speech! I loved him the first time hewas on the screen, he is a very likable character! This movie has a lotof high points (I cant really think of any low points) The actionscenes were great, the acting is fab, the effects are ace, the music isgreat, what is not to like about this film? I highly recommend this toeveryone (it doesn't matter if you haven't seen the other Planet of theApe movies as this is a prequel)

Critick

16 May 2012

A failure in direction and screenplay

The new "apes" film begins with a surly James Franco (in his mostcardboard performance yet) trying to convince some drug company thathis new compound can cure alzheimers. So our ape-like hero's mom diesafter the new drug was tested on her. So Franco takes the baby chimphome to John Lithgow (who is not so ironically suffering fromalzheimers are well). In a major ethical lapse Franco gives the sameuntested possibly dangerous compound to his dad. It seems to work. Yay?I could go on but the amount of plot holes that begin to form at thispoint would make a donuts shop jealous. Plus I'm sure everyone canguess the end.The problem with this film was the direction. Franco wanders aroundlooking lost and confused the entire time. He doesn't convince me thathe is a scientist (why do all movies think scientists use Macs?). Hisdelivery is so understated that I almost forgot he was there. He alsohad some girlfriend but since there was no back story about her, whothe hell cares. There was also an odd appearance of Brian Cox and TomFelton.Felton is sadly going to be type-casted as a typical British go-tovillain. Unfortunately he doesn't have the talent or charisma to do itparticularly well, so we'll see how long he lasts in the shadow of theaging (but great) character actors still out there. That leads me tothe next gripe. Why do actors like Cox and Lithgow continue to sign upfor these things? The only explanation is money. I doubt they arefulfilled when they get to cut their teeth on lines like, "I'm goinghome for the day." There isn't much explanation into who Franco's dadis. Nothing about why Franco is so obsessed with curing his alzheimersthat he would risk his life. Then we have Cox, who appears for 2 or 3scenes. He was poorly used and I don't know why he was even in themovie to begin with.The main problem here is whenever you remake something your inevitablygoing to compare it to the original. This movie simply doesn't hold acandle to the 1968 "apes." Beneath this new version's glitzy surfacesand state of the art CGI there is nothing there. What is missing is atheme, a moral, anything. At least the Burton movie and the latersequels tried to venture into man's destructive nature and made a rawconnection with the audience. Here none of the characters havebelievable motivations or convictions (including the apes). Yes, theywanted to be free from captivity but why WHY WHY are they "rising up?"In the original it was explained that the apes rose up in the place ofman. The movie was low on action and dialog heavy. We still love itbecause of its mystery and the questions it posed. We follow Heston onhis search for answers: what happened to the people? The answers werefrightening. It may not have been beautiful to look at by today'sstandards but the "old apes" really trumps the new one in pretty muchevery way. If you haven't seen it, watch it. I also recommend "beneathplanet of apes."

Markus Kellow

16 May 2012

Love this work.

Brilliant, justified, impressive, fast paced, awesome music, heartfelt,surprising, raises the bar, well directed, well edited, incredible CGI,top sound design, realistic sets, expansive scope, deserving end forthe human race, faultlessly realized intelligence, all apes cast wellas ensemble, makes one happy that Hollywood is still able to bring outstronger material amongst the crap, perfect cinematography, cohesivegrade, connect to the main character, amazing flying camera shots,totally impressive development of character, wanted more, proud of theapes, CGI character facial expressions are out of this world, almostsolid logic, did not hurt my ears, exciting, satisfying, entertaining,thought provoking, mesmerizing film.

trashgang

14 May 2012

excellent use of CGI and good storyline

This is supposed to be a prequel to the much acclaimed Planet Of TheApes from 1968. But in that particular flick an astronaut crew crashlands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apesare the dominant species, and humans are the oppressed and enslaved. InRise we are on planet earth, to be precise in San Francisco. Alaboratory is experimenting with a new medicine to cure Alzheimer butthey need to experiment on chimpanzees. But one experiment goes to farand a genetically-enhanced chimp breaks free and leaves a baby chimpbehind. The mother is killed and one of the doctors (James Franco) WillRodman takes the baby home and it grows up in the family. But the babychimp has some qualities inherited from his mother. Once the chimp(Ceasar) knows it and uses it intelligence. Due a simple incident between (John Lithgow) Charles Rodman and hisneighbor Ceasar breaks free and defend Charles, but he is captured andsend to a place full of chimps, the rise is a fact.This summer blockbuster was forgotten very fast in my country dueTransformers 3. But was it that bad that it should disappear that fast.No, to be honest, I even enjoyed it. The apes due look like real apesand that makes it more enjoyable. There is naturally a lot of CGI butit all looks so real that you forget that you are watching a CGI flick.It takes a while before things go wrong. There are things going on butto see how the rise happens you really have to wait an hour. The actionlays in the last part of this flick. It reminded me a bit of the storyof I Robot were one Robot (Sonny) violates the rules and is learningthings by himself. Caesar does the same. I liked it more than theremake done by Tim Burton. I know that a lot of people disliked Rise OfThe Planet Of The Apes but give it a try and forget the saga for onemoment. Rupert Wyatt did a good job.Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 5/5 Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5

Chris Bryer

14 May 2012

Its A Mad House!

Rise of the Planet of the Apse was not just a amazing film on its owebut also pays its dues to the original Planet of the Apes in so manyways that when i was siting there watching this film i tried countingthe hints they tosses at you here and there. And there was lots, icouldest keep count. PS. You all know what actor plays the maincharacter Caesar. So if you did see the referents to one of that actorswell known rolls, high five to you.The Story So not to revile to much about the plot, the film mostlyrevolves around the story of a son trying to heal his father from thehorrible condition of Alzheimer's.(Which I'm sad to say is that i knowway to much about how terrifying it is to watch one of your familymembers lose all memory of you.)So Will Rodman(James Franco) discoversa chemical that can rebuild and repair brain cells hoping it will healhis father Charles Rodman(John Lithgow). Go onward and i don't want toreveal to much but a chimpanzee named Caesar(Andy Serkis) becomes themain protagonist of this fine story. Changed by the retro virus thatthe magical chemical that makes him unbelievably smarter that a normalape. And being mistreated and misunderstander by humanity he leads hisfellow apes on a revolution to be truly free.The Up's Andy Serkis steals the show with his amazing acting and isuncanny ability to say a thousand words with just his face and his bodylanguage. It would seem that all the work with the apes in the film isimpressive and makes you hungry to know more about Caesars fellowrevolutionary's. John Lithgow pushed me to the point of crying with isinterpretation of being affected by Alzheimer's's and the small amountof parts that him and Caesar share with each other are amazing andpowerful. The CG is rather good(even though it can get sloppy here andthere).I swear watching the first 5 minutes of this film was likewatching a documentary on Animal Planet.Plus the story itself isengaging and as i said before the hints and pocks you get about theoriginal films just puts a smile on my geek face. Me being a big fan ofthe original 5 films(and i only just recently found out there is 5 ofthem) this films fits perfectly with the other.And to top it all of,all of you Hary Potter fans out there will enjoy Tom Felton actingbeing the ass thats hes so good at being on the silver screen.The Down's Not to many problems i can point out here but there is some.I'm not a big fan of James Franco's depiction of a Bioengineer. IfJames Franco is a Bioengineer then I'm the goddamn queen of England.And like i said before the CG awesome it may be can seem almost sloppybut you really have to be looking close to truly see it.Wow, i cantreally think of anything ells bad about this movie.. Conclusion Go see the film. Spend ten bucks and enjoin yourself withsome friends and family members. Then go see it for a second timebecause I'm going to see it for a second time.This is your friendly neighbourhood fat dude Chris Bryer saying "Getyour stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!"

David Ferguson

14 May 2012

Its a Madhouse! A Madhouse!

Greetings again from the darkness. As a young kid I saw the originalPlanet of the Apes at a drive-in with my parents. At the time, I mostlyjust thought the talking apes were cool and enjoyed the surpriseending, despite having no ability to really process the statement thatPierre Boulle (novel) and Rod Serling (screenplay) were making. Sincethen, I have had a soft spot for the series, including the Tim Burtonversion 10 years ago.As you can tell by the title, this latest version is truly a pre-quel.It is meant to explain the beginnings of how the Apes gainedintelligence and created a powerful society that would one day rulehumans. It begins in a genetic engineering lab run by James Franco andhis team. They are using chimps to test an experimental drug that willhopefully be used to treat and cure Alzheimer's. In fact, Mr. Franco'sfather is played by John Lithgow, a once renowned musician and teacher,who is now suffering the effects of this horrible disease.When things go wrong at the lab, Franco breaks most every known law andtests the drug on dear old dad. Of course, it works miracles. Theaccident in the lab, leads Franco to adopt a baby chimp born to one ofthe chimps used to test the drug. This chimp quickly becomes thesmartest one in the house, neighborhood and city. Named Caesar, hislearning curve is off the charts. And yes, after a couple of years, hisstrength and temper are as well.After yet another accident, Caesar is put away in a chimp camp run bygreedy Brian Cox and sadistic Tom Felton (Draco of Harry Potter fame).Caesar uses his intelligence and the unsuspecting and unobservantnature of the humans to organize a coup. This part is really somethingto behold.By far the best acting in the film is delivered by Andy Serkis. Don'trecognize the name? You might know him better as King Kong or Gollum inLord of the Rings. Mr. Serkis is a motion-capture actor-extraordinare.It is sometimes difficult to tell where these effects stop and the CGIbegins, but overall the look of the chimps is pretty good and theaction sequences are downright amazing.What hurts the film is the weakness of the human stories. Franco as agenius scientist? Doesn't work for me. Freida Pinto as a primatespecialist? The script gives her nothing to work with. Lithgow and Coxare excellent actors, but mere pawns in this story.Director Rupert Wyatt tips a cap to the original film a few times:tribute names such as Bright Eyes and Dodge Landon, an orange orangutannamed Maurice (in honor of Maurice Evans), a quick glimpse of a Statueof Liberty puzzle, horse-back riding, Charlton Heston on TV (as Moses),and a couple of classic lines including "stinking paws".In what was supposed to be a transition story, this one really belongsto the apes ... and it's teed up beautifully for a sequel just acrossthe Golden Gate.

13 May 2012

A fairly entertaining, technically accomplished film

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" has terrific computer-generated effects and a decent script going for it. Another positive is the character of the chimpanzee Caesar, who is developed well by the screenwriters--from a baby, to a trusting child, to the leader of the simian freedom fighters.James Franco plays the main human character--a scientist who is working on a drug to cure Alzheimer's patients (one of whom is his father). Of course, he first tries it out on the chimpanzees in his company's laboratory, and one, called "Bright Eyes" (what the orangutan scientist called Charlton Heston in the original 1968 "Planet of the Apes" film) becomes very intelligent. Franco winds up taking this chimp's baby home and becomes his "father." And this animal, Caesar, has inherited his mother's intelligence and green eyes.As in "Avatar," the motion-capture/computer-animation techniques are very well done, and Andy Serkis, who "plays" Caesar does an excellent job.The film has a few good action sequences and several simple moral lessons to be inferred. It also drags in a few spots, particularly when Caesar is incarcerated. All in all though, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a fairly entertaining, technically accomplished film.

13 May 2012

Surprisingly Good

Caesar's mother (a chimpanzee) dies and Will (Franko) smuggles the babyout of the company he works for and cares for him. Will's company istrying to make medicine that will help cure Alzheimer's and they usechimps as test animals. Caesar's mother passed on some the medicine toCaesar and that's when he displays quite a bit of intelligence. This is not your typical Planet of the Apes story. I thought it wouldbe, but I was wrong. This is surprisingly good. You will see CGI like you have never seen it before, perhaps betterthan in Jurassic Park or just as good. You will think the chimps arereal and you will like the main one, Caesar. When you meet some of theothers, you may not, but Caesar you will like very much. What's not tolike, he's almost human and knows right from wrong. If you watch the DELETED SCENES you will see Andy Serkis as Caesar, butit is not necessary to watch the deleted scenes. The story is well developed and basically there are good people whocare for the chimps. And, yes, there is the typical wise -guy who takespleasure in taunting them. Everything goes along pretty good until Will and Caesar are separatedand Caesar goes to live in a controlled Animal Stockade where hemingles with other chimps for the first time. Will is constantly tryingto be allowed to take Caesar home, but then things begin to happen thatyou knew would happen but wished they didn't. And, it now that youthink you were right to think this was another Planet of the Apesstory. The very last scene will get to you. And, all this will lead you into Part 2, as I am sure there will beone. 8/10.Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.

Brandon Blackwell

12 May 2012

Evolution becomes Revolution

During experiments to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, agenetically-enhanced chimpanzee uses its greater intelligence to leadother apes to freedom.Never seen the original, never seen the 2003 release. With viewing ofthe trailer, the movie all around looked pretty good. THAT was myintentions. With coming in, I was drawn into a movie which outcomes toa great one. The acting, quite surprisingly, wasn't that bad. Ofcourse, not perfect either, but I was surprised that it wasn't bad. Thedirecting was amazing! With amazing cinematography and sweet editing, Iwas overall very impressed. The plot was amazing as well too. No, theseapes did not just randomly escape and destroy everything, buteverything has it's reason. Problem is, they didn't focus much on thecharacter development and HONESTLY, they showed the chimp Ceaser morethan the humans. Then we have the ground breaker. The special effectsin this movie were overall stunning! The CGI chimps were magical, andyou can actually feel for them (getting up there with Pixar.) Theiremotions were spot on and imagine yourself actually inserting hundredson apes onto the screen. Another great thing, the score. I reallyenjoyed it because it fitted into the movie and was overall used at theright points. At times, it is soft and mellow. Then when the actionscenes come in, your heart is racing to see what happens with the musicmaking your heart pump. Then, of course, we have the flaws. Good thingis, the flaws were almost forgettable and it isn't much of a big deal.All in all, I was overall impressed. From all the components for myentertainment and discarding the flaws, overall: AMAZING MOVIE! 9/10.

iKEELyou

11 May 2012

monkey see monkey do

my expectation for this movie was a seven or eight but it was actuallynot that bad i haven't seen the original until after seeing this oneand could follow along with this prequel pretty well. I liked theacting and the plot very much. I really like how the writers showed adifferent perspective on how the planet of the aps came to be, therewas also a lot of connection to the originals. Another thing that wasreally good about this movie was the emotion that it produced.Although this is a prequel with a different perspective on what thehumans fate was i could see this being a good (but different)explanation as to how it all started. I also thought that the ideaswere well thought out, clever and creative with lots of suspense. afterwatching this then the original i saw how in this the aps were treatedthe same way the humans were treated in the original and thought it wascool how they kept things similar. last i liked how Cesar wasn't reallydrawn to vengeance and seeking blood but just wanted to be free withhis own kind and where he belonged.Overall this is a fantastic movie with great affects and acting: 9/10

11 May 2012

Monkeys!

This movie was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It starts out solid and ends solid. I fell asleep halfway through it and woke up at the end of it. So the middle of the movie is sort of a blur for me. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with swords made of light and a message that was slightly rascist. I woke up and caught the end of it, I wont spoil it for you but it was pretty epic. I think a gorilla threw a wrench at a helicopter at some point in the movie too. That was pretty cool, I was sitting there thinking "There is no way that gorilla has the ability to reason that heaving that wrench at that helicopter with the mounted machine gun is going to knock it out of the sky." And to my gawking surprise that monkey picked up that wrench and threw it right square at the machine gun helicopter and then the police showed up as they took his father to jail.