After our marathon of the older Apes movies we went to a cinema to watch the latest entry, with it billed as a reboot, but we disagree but we'll get to that in a bit. It being a brand new film James figured it deserved it's own entry. Also, spoilers.
James: When this was first announced my immediate reaction was “Oh for fuck's sake, this was all told in Battle, do we need yet another bloody reboot?” Of course Hollywood answered with a “Yes, we don't trust anything that isn't a proven commodity these days.” As it got closer to release and the constant name changes rolled through my worry increased. Then I found out James Franco was the main character and I perked up a little, but Franco has to settings, amazing or phoning it in, and I hoped he was set to the first. As the trailer landed and the reviews started flowing I seriously wanted to see it, and it was that reaction that Danny initially disagreed with that prompted the entire marathon.
Danny: The trailer Irked me quite a bit. On first viewing it seemed okay until it became obvious it was planet of the apes, then it became obvious exactly what happened in every moment of the film. I think my big problem was just ‘why?’. Why a new planet of the apes film, why now, and why clearly trample all over a pretty good and established canon? It felt a bit disrespectful. It came out and respected reviewers were saying very good things, in fact there were very few bad things said at all. After watching all the previous movies I think the curiosity about how they were going to approach it became worse too.
I had also heard an interview beforehand with the director where he said that there are no live apes used in the movie. Apparently there is an actual ape facility in San Fransisco with around the same number of apes that are in the facility in the film. He also mentioned that it would be hypocritical to make this particular film and use captive apes in its production, which I totally get, but Christ, that’s some damn good CG!
James: Serkis is obviously long proven in this motion capture malarky, and once again he proves why he's the go to guy for this stuff. Speaking of his character, it was odd that somehow the performance actually still felt like Roddy McDowal at times. Then there's the “No!”, originally mentioned in the old series as the first word spoken by an Ape, with all the messing about with time it got changed.
Danny: I found myself doing McDowal’s trademark nose-twitch after we watched the originals. The ape performances in the originals were great, but the depth of character in these CG apes was incredible. No jarring moments at all, just purely believable.
And yes, the plot sticks to the scripture as handed down, from ape to ape :)
James: The small nods to the original film just in the background were awesome, making Heston's first flick still in continuity, and only rebooting from Beneath onwards. Something that pleased me no end. Of course there's other nods throughout the film to previous entries, the most obvious being the character names and quotes. Now most of these worked perfectly well in the film. However, the famous “Damn Dirty Apes” failed yet again. In all honesty it's a bit of rubbish line and only worked in the original because it's Charlton Heston that's saying it.
Danny: It’s not a line I think you can do any more, it’s in the same league as ‘Quite frankly my dear..’ and ‘Of all the bars in all the world..’ These lines don’t have any impact in modern films because of the people delivering them and the way the films are put together around.
As for Rise, its was a great film from start to finish. It totally panders to those who know the story with those small nods without alienating anyone and it maintains continuity with the original. It pretty much ticks all the boxes of what makes a great movie whilst tying the whole thing to an amazingly solid, and believable character, who technically didn’t exist until post production. The only thing missing was a decent trailer ;)
