PLANET OF THE APES is an entertaining and very clever satire. Unfortunately, Charlton Heston's performance and the music score are too over-the-top. The camera work is all over the place. The biggest flaw is that, during the last part, it stops being subtle about it's messages.
Its ending is one of the best in the history of cinema. Speaking of it, the DVD poster includes an image of the Statue of the Liberty. Who's the genius who thought of that?!It doesn't matter how famous a twist ending is, spoiling is uncool.
9/10
BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES is as smart as the previous one, but it's a lot less subtle about its messages. Also, during the 1st hour, it's just a rehash of the 1st movie. NOVA has a bigger role, which is a problem. Yes, she’s nice to look at but, since she can’t speak, the scenes where she’s alone with BRENT get boring after a while. No, I’m not saying he needed a fast-talking black sidekick. What? Fast-talking sidekicks are usually black. The biggest problem is the beginning. After re-playing the ending of the 1st one, where TAYLOR discovers that the planet of the apes is actually planet Earth, he's shown travelling with NOVA like nothing had happened. He sure got over the discovery very quickly!
6/10
ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES
4/10
CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
3/10
BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
3/10
There’s a reason why all the previous installments had social commentary. The idea of talking apes played by humans with masks is... well... kind of silly. Without that commentary, they would’ve been just B-movies. PLANET OF THE APES 2001 is because it doesn’t have commentary. Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan and Paul Giamatti's performances are good; Mark Wahlberg and Estella Warren's performances are bland. Do you see the pattern? Most of the human characters were underdeveloped, while most of the ape characters are well-written. In fact, THADE is the best villain of the entire franchise. For the most part, the movie is uninteresting but never boring. It’s passable until the stupid ending.
Bonham Carter explained in an interview that THADE got out and traveled to Earth and, because the storm can send anyone to any time, he went back to a time period long before the one LEO was when he returned at the end. There are many problems with this:
1) How did THADE get out?
2) How did he get a functional medium of transportation in a planet with no electricity and barely any technology?
3) How did he know how to use it?
4) How did he know how to get to our planet?
5) Wasn't he captured by humans when he arrived, the same way LEO was captured by apes at the end?
6) Assuming he could communicate with the less developed apes, how could he convince them to rebel? Every incarnation of CAESAR has been a true prophet. THADE is a big baby who most likely became general because of his family.
The ending of the original movie is excellent because, while it may be confusing at first, the audience can take the time and eventually figure it out. You can't leave it at a cliffhanger if it's an ending where we have to assume too many contrivances. In the original movie, the kiss between TAYLOR and ZIRA was awkward. There just didn’t seem to be any reason for them to do it, even though TAYLOR makes it clear that it’s not really a romantic kiss. Here, LEO and ARI were written as love interests from the start. They do have chemistry, but all the scenes where DAENA stares at them jealous started to annoy me. When she kisses LEO at the end it seems like he maybe liked her too, but I just didn’t care at that point because, again, they were underdeveloped.
2/10
When AVATAR was released, people were discussing if motion-capture performances should be eligible for Oscars. I didn't care for that debate because I didn't see anything special in the performances from that movie. In RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Andy Serkis proves we need to have a system to rate those performances, because his is excellent. The directing and effects are great. While I had a good time watching this movie, I felt the payoff wasn't completely worth all the leading up.
The marketing made it look like the apes were going to take over the planet, but instead they just run away to the forest. W.T.F.?!
Also, I didn't feel that it did justice to the franchise. You see, the original was about how all the major issues in our society would eventually destroy us. This one focuses on one theme only (animal rights), and script writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver mix it with discrimination.
However, the scene during the end credits shows the disease spreading all over the world. That disease was a result of the lab experiments, which were a result of greed and maybe pride.
6/10
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is very repetitive. "Apes get mad at humans. Some humans make it clear that they want peace. A misunderstanding. Apes get mad at humans. Most humans make it clear that they want peace. A misunderstanding" and so on. That being said, it’s well-acted and it handles the themes in a very smart way, which is admirable considering that this is the 8th installment in a franchise.
6/10
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