Review-ish: Planet of The Apes (non-spoiler)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the kind of movie that can get a film critic in trouble. It’s smart, unexpected, and so skillful in its nearly endless use of computer-generated imagery that you kinda want to scream hosannas.
Of course, it may just be that this film deserves them.
It struck me about a third if the way through the film that the Next Spielberg will be someone who takes the technology, which has gotten so incredibly good and just keeps taking next steps (the CG eyes in this film are CRAZY), to someplace we haven’t even considered yet. Avatar and Gravity both raised the bar breathtakingly. But they were two great films by two great filmmakers who brought magic to the technological possibilities. It would be idiotic not to include Peter Jackson on the list of those changing the idea of what’s possible in astounding ways and in some ways, he has – with WETA – raised the bar so fast that things that were absolutely stunning just a few years ago now seem commonplace.
And I was thinking that Matt Reeves was doing a great job, but this was not that film.
I’m still not sure it’s THAT film. But good gosh, did he make a real run at a CG-driven film that was in a completely realistic setting that could have almost done without its human characters completely.
Love Clarke, love Oldman, love Russell… but this movie belongs to the monkeys. No question.
Serkis is more disappeared here than before. It’s an excellent performance and I can’t put that voice in Serkis’ mouth, but also, the animation is eye-popping. And Toby Kebbell. Lots of people betting on him. Great work here, really outside of his physical boundaries. (Also in the film, Judy Greer… who you won’t recognize… at all.). Can I mention Kebbell again?
And in that evolution (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), this film really becomes The Dark Knight to the first film’s Batman Begins. You spend much of the movie anticipating which weird, never-before-seen turn the thing might take next. It’s Shakespearean, it’s Biblical (Old and New Testament), it’s The Walking Dead, it’s The Lion King, it’s Lincoln it’s The Godfather, it’s Titanic. It’s all over the place. Yet… it really comes together.
SIDEBAR: Here’s another “problem” for serious critics… the film is about 50% a silent/foreign-language movie. How often do you see that from a studio movie?
I will admit, there is an action beat late in the third act that was absolutely unnecessary and, in my opinion, self-defeating in terms of the ongoing story. And yes, it involves the humans. (Always in the way.)
The film smartly works without the first movie (though having seen it is helpful at times). But it really feels like a set up for the more movies. Will it take 5 movies… 6… 8… to get to humans ending up back on The Planet of the Apes? I suspect that the next one will have to leave San Francisco. But how far along will it take us? Don’t know. Don’t care. If it’s as good as this one, I’ll enjoy it and look forward to more.
This is the fifth CG spectacle of the summer. And thought I like most of the others, this one kinda puts the rest to shame. However beautifully done, those films are amazingly free of deep “human” emotion and intimate intensity, though they certainly try. (There are a few moments.). This film, with more CG than any of them, is heavy. Entertaining, but man… lots of life and death and power in which to wallow.
I have no idea how big this thing will be. But it feels like it can be leggy and big for repeat viewing. Whoever is streaming/airing the first film… get ready for some seriously increased numbers on that. Most of all, it feels like a piece in a big Apes puzzle that adults will enjoy for years to come. Huzzah.
(And after this review, do you have no idea of what happens in the movie? Good. Go enjoy it without anticipating it. You’ll be much happier that way.)
Great review. It expresses something beyond just “thumbs up/thumbs down” and yet doesn’t bore us with plot descriptions, which NOBODY wants. If the film’s good, we don’t want it spoiled by plot summaries. If it’s bad, who cares?
Small correction: chimpanzees are not monkeys. Easy to remember, monkeys have tails, great apes don’t.
“Monkeys”? How speciest of you, David!
Kidding aside, I agree with Daniella. If I want a plot synopsis or “hey, there’s this one part where…”, I’ll go elsewhere. Excellent review for those who haven’t seen the movie yet. I was already eagerly anticipating seeing it next week. Now, more so.
8. Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes”
7. “Beneath The Planet of the Apes”
6. “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”
5. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
4. “Escape from the Planet of the Apes”
3. “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”
2. “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
1. “Planet of the Apes” (1968).
If they hadn’t chickened out on “Conquest’s” ending, that may well have been my favorite. “Dawn” is night and day ahead of “Rise.” Nice review.
andy serkis is the new roddy mcdowell … sadly no linda harrison
I have never seen an original Planet of the Apes movie. They’re selling the full set on Blu-ray for $20 on Amazon. Worth it?
I’d advocate Schaffner’s original, but then…
Yeah, the original is a good film, but the sequels have none of its style or edge. Some are interesting for fleshing out the characters and narrative, and if you’re into pulp sci-fi you might want to see them. But cinephiles need only bother with the first.
Oddly, though, the sequels don’t follow the usual pattern of gradual decline: the second film in the series is the worst, almost unwatchable toward the end, and then they gradually pick up again from there.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes had more Linda Harrison than anything else that year except Bracken’s World, so it rules
I remember watching the original five for the first time on TBS one week over a summer vacation from junior high and being amazed by the whole thing. Just the commitment to the dark, twisted world creation through the last three films still gets me each time I watch them. (Spoilers) From killing off Caesar’s parents in 3, setting the human world on fire (and the audience rooting for it to be set on fire) in 4, to the final battle with the evil humans in 5 – this was dark, heady stuff. (End spoilers) I know the effects aren’t great, and they’re really just B-level sci-fi flicks, but they were a formative experience for me and I will always think fondly of them.
@Sam, “Conquest” doesn’t have edge? It’s one of the most insane films ever theatrically released by a major studio. Not to mention the fantastic trial scene in “Escape.” “Beneath” sucked because they fired Fox’s studio chief halfway through production, but he was allowed to finish the film first, and manipulated it as a giant EFF YOU on the way out the door.
@Mike, interestingly, “Battle,” the series conclusion, was going to be even darker, with the gorilla leader chanting like Hitler, and Caesar straight up killing him rather than the “oops he fell from a tree during the fight” ending. That, for me, kept it from being as good as the previous two installments…it wasn’t willing to fully commit to the dark tone. But still, it’s shocking that such subversive and cerebral material was released into mainstream theaters.
@berg, Linda Harrison’s cameo with Marky Mark in the cage is the only good part of the awful Burton remake.
“I have never seen an original Planet of the Apes movie. They’re selling the full set on Blu-ray for $20 on Amazon. Worth it?”
the full set for 20 bucks on blu sounds pretty damn good to me, and i’m thrifty
BENEATH sucked?!? Fox wanted “visual shock and surprise” and they sure as heck got it with mutants worshiping a doomsday bomb, an idea the “Wasteland” and “Fallout” computer games shamelessly stole. The bomb forced the series into an entirely new direction and that direction was awesome! (Ricardo Montalban? Ape hairdressers? Holy crap!)
And talking about awesome, thanks to my new Netflix subscription I’ve become an “Archer” junkie and Judy Greer voices my favorite character in the show. I might go see this just for her.
Yes, I am prone to bouts of obsession. Thanks for asking.
(I have nothing to say about Burton’s remake because I fell asleep less than twenty minutes into the DVD–bought sight unseen–and never bothered to try again. Whoops.)
I loved the original set of Apes movies. Heck, I even watched the TV show as a kid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-wCImOruQI
“@Sam, “Conquest” doesn’t have edge? It’s one of the most insane films ever theatrically released by a major studio.”
It’s daring and dark in terms of story, but anybody can tell a dark story. The original film is just so much smarter and richer and thus has an impact that the sequels don’t pull off as well. The sequels are also a lot more conventionally shot; that is, the filmmaking style does little to assist the story in establishing a tone. (Well, Beneath has some kooky cinematic work that completely misfires, which is a different problem.) In the original, just the early shots of the three men walking through the desert are nightmarish.
That’s true, but that’s also owed to the fact the budgets declined with each installment. The original had quadruple the budget of “Conquest” and triple that of “Escape.”
Can’t really blame the studio for that; the box office for each film was nearly half that of the one before.
Each earned back around 5x its budget, but how long would a franchise like TRANSFORMERS last if the take for the third in the series was 1/3 of the first?
“Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” is even better if you pretend Costa Gavras directed it.
Given the cost of marketing in 1972, it’s hard to see how a $1.7 million film making $9 million isn’t profitable. That’s roughly (I know) equivalent to a $9 million film making $42 million in inflation.
Yes, the movies were insanely profitable compared to their costs (mostly prosthetics and prop guns and horses by the end), but when you continually feel hot breath down your neck from accountants who see fewer and fewer asses in seats, the creatives behind the camera must’ve finally said “fuck it”.
CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is amazing, the best sequel to the first film, and would not be made today. It terrified me in the theater. The director’s cut is more hardcore and disturbing. Roddy McDowell’s finest screen performance IMHO.
Interesting to read on the movie’s Wiki page that it had to be recut after the initial screening, with a beating played backwards and Caesar’s eyes filling the screen to hide the fact that his final speech had been rewritten just a week or two before the premiere because the director’s cut did indeed freak people out.
THIS is why people use science fiction to hide what they’re really talking about; do you think CONQUEST would’ve played in any Southern theaters–even in 1972–if it justified slaves rising up and killing their masters?