Rise of the Planet of the Apes

[Sunbaby]

Well, I'll be the lone dissenter and say that I thought Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes was much better than this one. I mean really, WTF kind of animal sanctuary was that? And how did James Franco, Freida Pinto and John Lithgow NOT age in five years? Freida's hairstyle was exactly the same! And of course James Franco isn't harmed during the battle at the end, despite being in the thick of it. *eyeroll*

Caesar/Andy Serkis was really the star here, and I was pretty much rooting for the apes. John Lithgow was terrific as well.

[Mugsy]

I watched the Tim Burton version a week ago, and thought it was ridiculous. The humans could talk! WTF? What was the point? The entire concept of apes being above humans was because humans were non-verbal "animals" and the apes were the more advanced "people". When Heston spoke for the first time, it sent a shockwave through the ape community because it changed everything.

But in Burton's version, the humans could speak as well as the apes. Why wouldn't they form a revolution if they could communicate? There were more of them than the apes. It made no sense.

[bklynred]

Mugsy, I agree re: Burton. (Of course YMMV.) Both movies* had flaws, but this latest one was a lot more exciting to watch, whereas I was just kinda wondering when Burton's version was going to end. <<<The Lincoln Memorial>>> at the end was a nice, weird shock the first go-round, but on multiple viewings, it got unintentionally funny.

*I've never seen the original, but know the famous parts and plan to soon.

[Neurochick]

Someone needs to explain to me the end of the Tim Burton version; I've seen it two times and both times it made ZERO sense.

[Mugsy]

It doesn't make sense. If apes evolved to speaking level and the astronaut went ahead in time to 2500 A.D. (approximately), fine, but why would that rewrite history? Lincoln would still have been a human, no?

[smockery]

Perhaps they were trying to imply that apes had redone the statue? To fit their worldview? No idea since I did not see it.

[bklynred]

I thought the ending had to do with changing timelines...the same timeline that got Wahlberg to the original planet had warped by the time he went home, but it was vague.

[chonies]

Saw it last night. Loved the apes, but like everyone else said, the humans were pretty pointless. I know enough about primatology to have been mildly distracted by some of the O RLY science, but I was expecting that.

For interested parties, when scientists first started researching HIV/AIDS in the US, dozens, if not hundreds, of chimps were injected with the virus, but unlike humans, chimps never develop AIDS, and since chimps have a 40+ life span, there are still many, many HIV+ chimps in North America. Some now live in wonderful sanctuaries (there's one outside Montreal), others live in labs, like Koba. </chimp freak>

Anyway, this was way better than the Burton one, but I wish someone had spent some time revising the humans. If James Franco's character was getting yelled at by his boss after five years, why hadn't he been fired yet? Also, I couldn't help but sympathize with the "mean" neighbor. Exotic pets are dangerous, whether or not they are also geniuses.

[grommit]

Sept 5, 2011 17:37:53 GMT -4 chonies said:

Also, I couldn't help but sympathize with the "mean" neighbor. Exotic pets are dangerous, whether or not they are also geniuses.

Me too. But, it was a good popcorn flick and I really enjoyed it.

[Deleted]

I only recently watched this and liked it a lot. Didn't mind that the humans had no real depths or that Tom Felton played Malfoy with an American accent as this was Ceasar's story and he did have an amazing arch. I loved how he got the other apes' respect even though his own power seemed to overwhelm him at times. The five year jump was a bit weird (especially the fact that Freida Pinto's character never seemed to have asked about where Ceasar came from and why he was that smart).
I'm glad that Andy Serkis got that SAG nom, he was absolutely great.