Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011
As a kid I loved The Planet of the Apes and I think maybe even had the lunchbox. I got to see the movie in the theater and eventually it became a TV show which I watched. It was such a great concept. But they kept coming out with new Apes movies and I didn’t see all of them. Mark Wahlburg did a remake and I didn’t watch that, and then starting in 2011 they released the origin story, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I never saw. They kept making movies, releasing two more which got better and better reviews. And then I felt like I was missing out. So last year I bought the first two movies for a great price on Black Friday and a month or two later added the third, War for the Planet of the Apes. I still didn’t watch them until now, almost a year later. You know going in you are going to see apes mistreated, so that’s no fun. It’s maybe not quite as bad as King Kong which is horribly depressing, but not that uplifting a story. Anyway, I finally watched the first movie.
For a movie that depended very heavily on CGI apes, I thought they just weren’t that good. Admittedly, this is 7 years ago, but Caesar doesn’t really look, move or express himself like a real chimp. In some ways he can’t be a real chimp because he is a special type of chimp, but it was a little disappointing. Some of the other CGI also is also lackluster. I think maybe they made the movie a little too early to do a really good job, though they did a good job on some aspects like the eyes. Also, the story is a little bit of a letdown because you kind of know how everything has to go, so you get this new setup, but once that is established you know where things are going. And there is a greedy genetic research company involved that makes some awfully bad decisions, which I have a hard time buying, but some of that has to fit the timeline of the story. I feel like the evil genetics plot has been done a lot of times already. In the end, it isn’t a terrible story, but it is kind of heavy and a little clunky with some not so great CGI, but a few good concepts. It was a risk buying all three movies without seeing the first, but the ratings of the movies goes up from here, so I am hoping for better as the series goes on.
Written: 14 Oct 2018
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital