PG-13, 105 min.
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Writers: Rick Jaffa, Amanda
Silver, Pierre Boulle (novel “La planéte des singes”)
Starring: James Franco, Andy
Serkis, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, Tyler
Labine, Jamie Harris
When I initially saw “Rise
of the Planet of the Apes” in theaters, I was going through some bumpy stuff. I
think I undervalued what I was seeing. I registered the cleverness in how
Rupert Wyatt and his screenwriters were setting up the history of the “Planet
of the Apes” story from Pierre Boulle’s science fiction classic, but I took
points away for the action sequences that close out the movie. I liked how they
tied the evolution of the apes to our own search for a cure for Alzheimer’s. I
liked how the plague that was created from the drug also explains how humans
could’ve diminished to the point where they were forgotten in the ape history
books as a species of equal intelligence.
The battle on the Golden
Gate bugged me at the time, though. In my second screening of it, that action
sequence didn’t bother me as much. I initially felt it was gratuitous and only
included because some producer felt you couldn’t make a sci-fi flick without
some action. This time it seemed more necessary to advance the story to a point
where it could conclude.
With such a good set up for
the series that has already come before it, I wonder how well the upcoming
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” will stack up. While there certainly will
still be some history to show before the story advances to the point of the
original story of “The Planet of the Apes”, I wonder how necessary it will be.
This movie furthered the original’s mythology, I’m not sure a sequel prequel
will have much more to add.
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