I have to agree with this review, although some things i'd like to say also are that i appreciated how i never actually got attached to the humans in the movie. Caesar i genuinely cared for, but i never actually felt anything for the humans, save maybe Wills father as he's recovering from and relapsing into the disease. This, in my opinion, is a good thing: It's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, after all, not Fall of the Planet of the Humans. (Although technically they are interchangeable, although the latter name is less fitting.)
Another thing is that during their escape, i approved of the process not getting pitifully easy, or to be more precise not having things handed to them. It never became a situation of 'We took down these cops, now we have guns! We're a much bigger threat now!' They always had to be smart to make it. An example is the bridge scene, and a lesser one is when they freed the apes from the zoo and used the bars as spears. (Come to think of it, what did they do with all those, anyway?)
Anyway, whatever i didn't say here, the reviewer said for me. And i add two more enthusiastic thumbs to match.
"You lost, Dio. You lost for one simple reason - you were using charcoal." - Hank HillLeave a Comment:
A Reboot of Ape-ic Proportions
You'd have been right to assume that this movie was going to be bad. I certainly did, or at least I wasn't sure what to expect.
But this movie was exactly what the classic franchise needed. First off, it doesn't pretend to be a remake of the old Planet Of The Apes movie, which was loaded with Cold War-era sociopolitical implications; it updates its premise to the modern society it was made in, raising uncomfortable moral questions about the balance of testing on intelligent creatures and curing horrible diseases—both of their effects can be clearly seen in this movie. It also raises science questions, Project Nim-style; just how much are humans and apes alike? Could apes raised by a human family be at least partially fluent in a form of language? Can apes organize large-scale movements and operations?
Enough about the analysis of the movie's undertones, though—on to the movie itself. It was superbly acted, though the dialogue could have been improved a little. The characters are easy to relate to but are complex in nature; even Will's wife, who doesn't do much, is easy to relate to and plays a crucial role in the movie's climactic scene. You really feel Will's joy as his father recovers from his disease, and his sorrow and helplessness as the disease returns. The villain, too, is extremely well acted; you really feel that greed and callousness towards his apes, and it makes you hate him that much more.
Enough about the humans, though; this is Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Like Wall E before it, this movie does a remarkable job of displaying emotion, feeling, and "dialogue" without using words ("Why cookie Rocket?" notwithstanding). The apes are the true stars of this movie, and they don't even need to use words to do it.
All in all: Two enthusiastic thumbs up.