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philosoraptor42Okay, so I haven't seen the movie yet. Haven't been to the cinema in a while now, but after some remarkably positive reviews I'm actually seriously planning on seeing "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" some time next week.
I'm about to go through some of my views on the Planet of the Apes movie franchise. But don't worry if you haven't seen them yet. I'm planning on having minimal spoilers. If you've seen the trailer for Rise and you've seen the front cover of the DVD for the first movie then you probably don't have too much to worry about.
Back before I had DVDs but when videos were beginning to go cheap I bought a nice little boxset of all 5 Planet of the Apes movies. I didn't get around to seeing them until after I saw the Tim Burton reboot and I haven't watched that since. The one movie I saw before the reboot was "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" when it was on television one evening. I'd thought it was pretty daft, but I'd found myself intrigued by it even so. There was all sorts of intriguing ideas (some of them absurd, but anyway) and some of Roddy McDowall's lines (particularly a speech at one stage) were really well written.
Okay, truth time, Charlton Heston is not good in the first Planet of the Apes movie. His lines are often dreadful and this is a great example of Zap Brannigan-style acting.
Click here for the opening scene of Planet of the Apes with Charlston Heston in full slurring Zapp Brannigan style.
Click here for Zapp Brannigan to compare.
The really awesome actors in Planet of the Apes were Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans.
Leaving Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter out of Beneath the Planet of the Apes wasn't really a good idea. Still they were best off out of it. The newly evolved/mutated form of humans living underground seemed a bit dodgy and, considering the end of the first movie, the odd choice by Charlton Heston towards the end just didn't appear at all consistent.
Anyway, their absence in Beneath the Planet of the Apes made for a decent loophole to make them the main stars of Escape from the Planet of the Apes. This was by far my favourite of the Planet of the Apes movies. It's just a joy to watch. It doesn't take itself too seriously and they really get to play with ideas in the franchise. (And there's time travel. That's always fun.)
So that leads us to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes where Roddy McDowall gets to continue the franchise by changing his facial mask. The main difference I can see is that they give him a larger nose than before:
Now I can see why they've decided to use Conquest for the reboot/remake thingy recently. With some wonderful lines alongside some rather more ludicrous elements, it was clear that it had a lot of potential. It's a pity that early trailers for Rise made it look like "Deep Blue Sea" only with apes instead of sharks.
The problem that Conquest leaves for the franchise is that it basically contradicts the first movie. However, for the new reboot that could actually be a positive thing. Escape from the Planet of the Apes and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes introduced something rather special to the series which went beyond the general daftness of the first movie.
The first movie expects us to take for granted that our protagonists believe it is possible for humans to have independently developed on another planet along with apes. It also expects us to imagine not only that apes could develop speech, but that they would then be speaking English. Not only that, but we are expected to imagine that humans could revert back to animal-like grunting during that time. When overwhelmed by the general originality of the whole concept, you can suspend your disbelief and let a lot of things slide. However, a revolution while humans are the dominant species is very different from a slow gradual development over millions of years after a nuclear holocaust. It seems to me that the plot of Escape and Conquest is incompatible with the premise of the original Planet of the Apes, but in the new reboot perhaps they can resolve this?
The conflict between Escape and Conquest on the one hand and the original movie and Beneath on the other was made very clear when they released the fifth and final movie Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Over the course of just 10 years we are expected to believe that a nuclear holocaust has left the humans mutating and living underground while the speaking apes live in a beautiful natural environment, somehow unaffected. It's utterly ludicrous, but the only way to connect the previous four movies together was to somehow create the scenario of the original movie in an extra short time frame. It was a pretty poor way to end the franchise.
Tim Burton's reboot failed mainly because of its "twist" ending. The movie wasn't great anyway, but the ending just left everyone stupified. A sequel might have explained what the heck was going on, but nobody was really impressed enough to care. Instead it just made it a deeply unsatisfying movie experience. It's a pity, because asides from the ending it really wasn't at all bad by Tim Burton's standards.
So here comes the interesting bit. What with Rise having already been a success, they director is (unsurprisingly) willing to consider a sequel. He sounds quite excited about the possibility of what he calls "Full Metal Jacket with apes". The idea would seem to be that they spend rather longer sorting out how we get from an ape uprising to a genuine Planet of the Apes, possibly without going down the 'complete nuclear holocaust' route.
Presuming I don't hate Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I'm actually pretty excited. :)
(Via Filmdrunk)
(Source for director's sequel ideas)
I'm about to go through some of my views on the Planet of the Apes movie franchise. But don't worry if you haven't seen them yet. I'm planning on having minimal spoilers. If you've seen the trailer for Rise and you've seen the front cover of the DVD for the first movie then you probably don't have too much to worry about.
Back before I had DVDs but when videos were beginning to go cheap I bought a nice little boxset of all 5 Planet of the Apes movies. I didn't get around to seeing them until after I saw the Tim Burton reboot and I haven't watched that since. The one movie I saw before the reboot was "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" when it was on television one evening. I'd thought it was pretty daft, but I'd found myself intrigued by it even so. There was all sorts of intriguing ideas (some of them absurd, but anyway) and some of Roddy McDowall's lines (particularly a speech at one stage) were really well written.
Okay, truth time, Charlton Heston is not good in the first Planet of the Apes movie. His lines are often dreadful and this is a great example of Zap Brannigan-style acting.
Click here for the opening scene of Planet of the Apes with Charlston Heston in full slurring Zapp Brannigan style.
Click here for Zapp Brannigan to compare.
The really awesome actors in Planet of the Apes were Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans.
Leaving Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter out of Beneath the Planet of the Apes wasn't really a good idea. Still they were best off out of it. The newly evolved/mutated form of humans living underground seemed a bit dodgy and, considering the end of the first movie, the odd choice by Charlton Heston towards the end just didn't appear at all consistent.
Anyway, their absence in Beneath the Planet of the Apes made for a decent loophole to make them the main stars of Escape from the Planet of the Apes. This was by far my favourite of the Planet of the Apes movies. It's just a joy to watch. It doesn't take itself too seriously and they really get to play with ideas in the franchise. (And there's time travel. That's always fun.)
So that leads us to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes where Roddy McDowall gets to continue the franchise by changing his facial mask. The main difference I can see is that they give him a larger nose than before:
Now I can see why they've decided to use Conquest for the reboot/remake thingy recently. With some wonderful lines alongside some rather more ludicrous elements, it was clear that it had a lot of potential. It's a pity that early trailers for Rise made it look like "Deep Blue Sea" only with apes instead of sharks.
The problem that Conquest leaves for the franchise is that it basically contradicts the first movie. However, for the new reboot that could actually be a positive thing. Escape from the Planet of the Apes and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes introduced something rather special to the series which went beyond the general daftness of the first movie.
The first movie expects us to take for granted that our protagonists believe it is possible for humans to have independently developed on another planet along with apes. It also expects us to imagine not only that apes could develop speech, but that they would then be speaking English. Not only that, but we are expected to imagine that humans could revert back to animal-like grunting during that time. When overwhelmed by the general originality of the whole concept, you can suspend your disbelief and let a lot of things slide. However, a revolution while humans are the dominant species is very different from a slow gradual development over millions of years after a nuclear holocaust. It seems to me that the plot of Escape and Conquest is incompatible with the premise of the original Planet of the Apes, but in the new reboot perhaps they can resolve this?
The conflict between Escape and Conquest on the one hand and the original movie and Beneath on the other was made very clear when they released the fifth and final movie Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Over the course of just 10 years we are expected to believe that a nuclear holocaust has left the humans mutating and living underground while the speaking apes live in a beautiful natural environment, somehow unaffected. It's utterly ludicrous, but the only way to connect the previous four movies together was to somehow create the scenario of the original movie in an extra short time frame. It was a pretty poor way to end the franchise.
Tim Burton's reboot failed mainly because of its "twist" ending. The movie wasn't great anyway, but the ending just left everyone stupified. A sequel might have explained what the heck was going on, but nobody was really impressed enough to care. Instead it just made it a deeply unsatisfying movie experience. It's a pity, because asides from the ending it really wasn't at all bad by Tim Burton's standards.
So here comes the interesting bit. What with Rise having already been a success, they director is (unsurprisingly) willing to consider a sequel. He sounds quite excited about the possibility of what he calls "Full Metal Jacket with apes". The idea would seem to be that they spend rather longer sorting out how we get from an ape uprising to a genuine Planet of the Apes, possibly without going down the 'complete nuclear holocaust' route.
Presuming I don't hate Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I'm actually pretty excited. :)
(Via Filmdrunk)
(Source for director's sequel ideas)
