It’s funny, right after I posted I turned on the TV and lo and behold – Burton’s version is on. I don’t think it’s a total disaster, but definitely pales in comparison to the new one.
I had been chomping at the bit for this movie! I loved it. Like others have stated, the CGI ranged from good to poor (yes, the baby chimp was poorly done) but one could totally become carried away by the story enough to not notice the CGI drawbacks.
I also had a good theater…it was fun to be walking out of the theater, then all stop in our tracks with a giggle when the credits stopped for more action. We all kinda just took the seat that we were standing in front of to finish the scene.
I loved the window frame symbol…the way it was turned into a revolutionary symbol was hot. Did you see it as graffiti on a stop sign during the uprising?
The girlfriend lead was pretty useless, but she sure is stunning to look at. But if we are talking eye candy, then I’ve got my money on Jacobs. Jesus, I could look at him all day. Hate the voice though. Is he a native Brit? Or was that accent put on for the film? Either way, he sure can wear a nice suit!
Great, fun film.
Just got back from seeing it and I agree, it was excellent. Franco was good but Serkis was great. It’s funny if you think about it that Ceasar has some of the same facial expressions as Gollum :).
The spaceship to Mars that was lost was called the Icarus which I believe was the name of the ship in the 1968 movie, right? I hope they’re setting up a sequel/remake because they did such a good job with this one.
I like the tie-ins to the original movie series. For example, Ceasar’s first word was consistent with the original movies, and the iconic “damned dirty ape” line, and the Icarus, and the violent tendencies of the Gorillas and the wise orangutans, and other stuff I’m forgetting.
Great movie. Caesar was a compelling, sympathetic character. The movie had a sense of mounting tension; despite mostly good intentions on everyone’s part, disaster was inevitable. It works beautifully as a prequel for the original.
I could nitpick a few bits here and there, but it was still a smart, thoroughly entertaining movie.
Nods to the original that I happened to catch:
[spoiler]_ Caesar making a Statue of Liberty model
_ a space probe goes missing
_ video of Heston
_ apes named Cornelia and Bright Eyes
_ mounted police attacking, reminiscent of apes hunting down humans in original
_ “Damned dirty ape” line
_ Caesar being hosed down in a cage
_ The name Caesar, of course.
Someone else mentioned the ape named Maurice. Are there others? [/spoiler]
Enjoyed it quite a bit. Two quibbles:
- I know it is a fact of movie making but some of the geographic leaps were pretty jarring if you know the Bay Area at all (I want a San Bruno location with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge).
2. The spread of knowledge among the chimps was a bit magical. Apparently the virus not only gave them the capacity to learn but simply gave them the knowledge. And the zoo apes that escaped at the end apparently just got it via osmosis.
Oh, and the biggest gaping hole in the movie: The thought that you could ever go to the main tourist part of Muir Woods and be alone.
Even the number of apes that escaped from the first facility, courtesy of the overhead shot, had to be triple the number we ever saw in the cages or enclosure
Or find parking right at the entrance 
Also, the nets used to capture the humans in the originalNice list!
I had to run to the men’s room at the start of the credits. What was the extra scene?
The scene (starts about 15 seconds into the credits) was:
They show the airline captain neighbor arriving at SFO for a flight and a drop of blood hits the floor from his nose. Signifying that he’s going to spread the virus around the world, thus explaining the other half of Planet of the Apes, not just how the apes got smart but how they managed to dominate humans.
Sweet!
The guy was a jerk, but I felt kind of bad for him. I wouldn’t want neighbors like that either.
He wasn’t really a jerk. If I saw an ape running around the yard my young children were in you can be I’d be after it with a bat too. And also when John Lithgow smashed the guys car. Sure, he had alzheimer’s, but he was cured of it for years. The neighbor probably didn’t even know he had it at this point.
I loved the movie.
[spoiler]Maybe I’m a chicken but I’d get the kids in the house, follow them, and call the police.
But in general people in this movie did not at all react to the chimpanzees in any realistic way. Draco take on a chimp in an open space with just a cattle prod. The police (though I do like the 5-minute response time to get a phalanx of SFPD infrantry out to the mid-span of the Golden Gate Bridge) charge a gorilla with just a baton. Hikers react with just mild surprise at running into a very large chimpanzee on the trail, restrained by only a dog leash.[/spoiler]
Just saw it. I liked it but I felt it was missing something that was vital to the original (The original being Conquest of the Planet of the Apes). In Conquest, Society treated Apes terribly. They were our slaves and were treated like disposable objects. When the Apes revolted, you felt, on the whole, the Humans got what they deserved.
Here, while some individuals treated some apes poorly and I liked Caesar (and Maurice, the Orangutan), I found myself feeling bad for the victims of Ape attacks and while I didn’t want to see the Apes get slaughtered, I found it hard to root for them either.
Given the story line, I am not sure how they could have fixed it but it was a flaw in an otherwise entertaining film.
The film’s shades of grey is its strength, not its weakness. I think you’re pitching a different movie, one where the Apes actively take over the world rather than the subtler take this film goes for, where it’s our hubris that is our downfall.
I’d read similar comments, but the reason struck me while I was watching the movie. Those weren’t the main characters. They were just the supporting cast. The monkeys were the leads, and their characters were much more developed. James Franco and the rest were just window dressing.
All in all, I have to agree that it was the best movie I’ve seen this summer. As most surely did, I caught myself cheering at the ending. After a moment realized exactly what I was cheering for. I thought that was a particularly nice touch. As is the case with the Nolan Batman movies, this one makes up for the rubbish that came before it. It’s easily worth the ticket price.
As others have said, it’s not a remake.
Check your assumptions at the door and go see it.
Most people have no idea how incredibly strong apes and their brethren can be. Draco should have known better, but I think people’s reactions were believable.
Like Raygun said above, this is one of the things that makes the movie so good. By the end, I felt bad for the people and I felt bad for the apes. It was a lousy situation all around, and certainly made for a more interesting conflict than “hero vs. villain.”
I did too, but I’m responding to your spoiler of my spoiler, re: the put-upon neighbor. He’s a bit of a Scheprock, the guy with a constant cloud over his head. As I said, I feel little sorry foor him, but he responds like a jerk. Who the hell treats an old man like that? Ironic? that he becomes a vector for the sequel!
I’m going to call my father, Dr. Frankenstein, to tell him I love him. Then monster smash.
:mad:
