It just wasn't exciting or interesting enough. It touches on a few ethical and family issues but never really explores any of them. The pacing is haphazard, with some scenes going on for far too long and others not getting the attention they deserve.

The apes look and act weird as well, like Andy Serkis was animating them. Maybe it's just because I've been playing Enslaved this week, but the apes which are computer animated really look quite fake and unrealistic.

There have been worse movies out this year, but seriously, don't waste your time.

Well I wasn't planning on it, but thanks for the heads up. Should have been Planet Of the Apes the musical.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnG3gOqigE

Manager: Did you ever hear from the plantes of the apes ?

Troy: The planet or the movie ?

Andy Serkis was animating them

Yeah, I just found that out, but some of them aren't. You can tell which ones were mo-capped by Serkis and which ones are actually apes. There's a huge difference in movement between them and it's jarring.

It's funny because that's pretty much the exact impression I got from the trailer. Sometimes you can tell a book by its cover, I guess.

I wonder how Rise of the Planet of the Apes ends, though.

Not well and not in tandem with the past Apes movies.

I'm not going to lie, I liked the first 90 minutes of the movie. The first 90 minutes or so didn't really feel like a Planet of the Apes movie, and actually flowed pretty well. However, the movie quickly went downhill once they started to rebel.

Characters in movies tend to be dumb. It's their stupidity that drives the plot and actions forward. Without a naive character, an important event may not occur. It's usually the villain's own stupidity that allows the heroes to dramatically win. However, this movie crossed the line. For the last 30 minutes or so of the movie (that's pretty much the length of their rebellion, because it goes by so quickly), the characters were so dumb that I actually got a headache.

Allow me to demonstrate how fucking retarded some of these characters are (all without spoiling anything, since the scene I'm about to describe is pretty much predictable and viewable in the trailers): Caesar (the smart, chimp protagonist) has just made all of the other apes in the ape habitat smart using the experimental drug. In order to start their escape, he dramatically stands in the main atrium, intimidating one of the guards (played by Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies). After locking up all of the other chimps, Malfoy goes out into the atrium with an electric prod, as if he's going to attempt and force Caesar back into his cage. Watching over them is Malfoy's coworker (let's call him "Dumbass"!), who is armed with a tranquilizer gun and a perfect sight over the whole atrium. Malfoy and Caesar start to circle each other. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar starts to hit Malfoy. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar starts to wrestle with Malfoy over electric prod. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar knocks Malfoy to the ground. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar takes the electric prod and threatens Malfoy. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar knocks out Malfoy. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar drags Malfoy's unconscious body back to the cages, slowly. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar puts Malfoy in a cage. Dumbass stands and watches. Caesar frees all of the other apes. Dumbass decides that it's time to go downstairs, into the caged area, to try and threaten the fucking monkeys with the tranquilizer gun. All of the apes turn and look at Dumbass. Dumbass notices that there are now a ton of angry apes, shits himself, and tries to run away.

Stupid shit like that happens throughout the entire last 30 minutes of the movie, and it's just ridiculous. Great exposition is supposed to lead up to an amazing climax. Instead, we get an amazing exposition that leads up to a very disappointing turn of events, climax, and finale.

Wut, how did I miss this thread? I saw this movie last night and thought it was great. CGI was sketchy, there were times where it looked flawless and times where it looked like it wasn't complete. And like with most movies, the sub-plot with Franco and the hot chick was completely useless and ultimately served no purpose to the story at all.

But Andy Serkis was incredible in this. The character Caesar never says a word, but you can see what he's thinking at all times. Fucking astounding.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n8XTBVGLD8

You're both kind of right. The climax felt empty but Serkis needs Oscars and crap.

*SPOILERS* (Although it shouldn't be surprising at all)

Unfortunately, he does speak near the end of the film. When Caesar and James Franco are together at during the final scene, Caesar says an entire sentence (although it was very short and very primitive sounding).

I remember it specifically because it was absolutely fucking retarded. After Franco did his generic final speech, Caesar looks at him for a few seconds before speaking. I remember thinking to myself, "Please don't talk. Please don't talk. Please don't talk. Oh, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" during those 5 seconds of silence.

Serkis did do an amazing job with Caesar, though, despite most of the CGI looking terrible.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'm ignoring that, fuck you!!

I didn't think the CGI was that terrible. Like I said, there were times where it was sketchy, movements were too light. For instance, the scene where the silverback gorilla flies towards the helicopter? That thing weighs 600 pounds, no way that's possible.

Best CGI ever still goes to Jurassic Park. Nothing will ever top that.

Yeah, the gorilla's leap was dumb.

Another moment that I thought was stupid was the orangutan throwing the manhole cover. Don't get me wrong, I know that an orangutan can be a pretty powerful beast, but I find it very silly seeing an orangutan simply pick up a 300+ pound manhole cover and chuck it like a Frisbee with as much ease as in the movie.

Splync, you forgot about what Caesar says to Malfoy in that atrium.

And then says again.

And again.

And again.

"No" is not speaking. "No" is just fucking moaning. Coming right out and saying "this is our home now" is speaking.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize that this was a terrible prequel. That's not to say that it was a bad movie, but it just did a shitty job at telling the backstory of Planet of the Apes. In the original film, the apes had evolved past the humans and found them to be inferior, thus taking over. But in this, the apes just got smarter.

Christ, they didn't even rebel to take over. They simply rebelled to get their own land. They didn't want to conquest and conquer, they merely wanted freedom. They didn't want power over humans, they just wanted to not be treated as pets and lab rats.

And as for the drug killing people... don't even get me started on how poorly pulled off that was.

Think of it as a reboot!

I don't even think it's canon. Wasn't there a virus that wiped aout all the cats and dogs, apes became the new pets and then one smart baby ape from the future led them to rebel?

Its been a while since I've seen the original. The only things I remember are the ending and that Rod Sterling wrote it.

This was Conquest OTPOTA I'm talking about.

It's a reboot of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, which was a prequel to Planet of the Apes. The whole "apes as pets" and "no cats and dogs" thing was just some bullshit thrown into Conquest, which caused that film's Caesar to rebel. In this film, it pushes more towards experimentation on animals being the reason for the rebellion. And due to its references to the original film, it's hinted that it's supposed to be a prequel to the original (unless they reboot that one as well... preferably without Tim Burton this time).

@Dog: You wouldn't remember the cats and dogs thing since it wasn't in the original. And yeah, Serling did an amazing job with the twist ending, especially since it's completely different from the book (at least what I remember from the book).