I liked it. It’s was very powerful, emotionally. The friend I went with said she had to turn away at the scenes of the apes getting abused, and even though I reminded her that they were all CGI apes, it still felt too real for her. I really liked how Caesar was discriminatory in which human were meant to be killed and hurt. Draco (who could not hide his British accent well, btw) definitely had what was coming to him, but the other sanctuary worker was left unharmed. Caesar definitely pulled the blood thirsty chimps off the humans a couple of times until he reached a breaking point after seeing his Gorilla friend die. Up until then, despite the humans basically going “KILL ALL THE APES!”, Caesar showed a whole lot of restraint when it came to mindless brutality. Can’t say the same for humans in the movie (and in real life!).
And, the relationship between Caesar and Charles was so sweet. Will really did treat him like a son, or as much as a human can treat a chimp like a son. It still gives a subtle prod to the fact that no matter how much you love animals, for a species like a chimp, you can’t just put them in an enriched enclosure and expect them to be happy. They’re not domesticated like cats or dogs… their happiness is swinging around in the trees with their own social order. Even with someone as caring as Will, Caesar would never live to his full potential until he was with his own kind.
Great movie… I do hope they come out with a sequel to it; this reboot seems to be taking its own path in plot, and I like where they were going with it.
It reminded me a little of Frankenstein, in which a well-meaning scientist wanted to help humanity but in the end just created a tragic monster. Perils of science and all that. Maybe not a strong resemblance, but I can kind of see it.
I don’t think he intended for Draco to be killed - he turned the firehose on him but didn’t expect that he would get electrocuted. In fact I can’t think of a single human that Ceasar allowed to be killed directly. As opposed to Juba, the chimp with the scarred face, who nudged Jacob’s copter off the edge of the bridge.
I thought it was great. Andy Serkis seems doomed to spend his career doing motion-capture, but his typecasting is our gain, it seems, since he’s really good at it.
I thought the plot neatly tied everything together, though there were some moments that required suspended disbelief, as in:
[spoiler]
Too many apes - where did they all come from?
The apes not only got smarter, but seemingly learned infantry-style discipline to carry out complex plans - even though many of 'em had just met up that very day;
Ditto with other skills - spear-throwing, horse-riding - being smart isn’t the same as learning how to do stuff like that, which takes mucho practice;
Some of the apes - the ones from the zoo - weren’t even exposed to the virus. [/spoiler]
That being said, those bits were not the centre of the story, which was really Caeser’s comming of age and realization of his destiny. That’s what gives this movie heart, makes it work. Serkis again pulls it off magnificently.
[spoiler] Ceasar does turn away from helping Jacob, and seemingly to allow Juba to kill Jacob in a sort of ‘here, you can do it, he did you wrong’ kinda way.
Also, I assume that in the next movie, there will be a conflict between Juba and Caesar … [/spoiler]
I was assuming the next movie would just jump forward a few centuries to the Icarus, though I wouldn’t mind seeing another chapter in Caesar’s biography.
After all, to the extent that this movie is successful, it will be because audiences care about Caesar. They will want to see how
[spoiler] a small group of fugitive apes takes over the world and makes it into “the planet of the apes”.
My prediction: that in the next movie, the remnants of humans who survive the virus are confronted by the apes, now multiplied because humans are too busy coping with the virus/dying to wipe them out; and that the true conflict is between Caesar, who wants apes to live more or less in harmony with the surviving humans, and Juba, who wants apes to dominate or eliminate surviving humans. [/spoiler]
…
Yeah I got that feeling, too. Ceasar seems like a reasonable ape and would be happy just chillin’ in the redwoods with his bros. Juba seems like the evil kid who wants to take over the world. There will be conflict. A sequel that focused on the two factions of apes would be pretty cool.
Just got home from the early matinee and like most of the rest of y’all, loved it. Got swept right into the story and easily forgot that I was watching CGI. Can’t wait for the sequal to see what direction they take it in.
God I hated it when Buck the gorilla died! Sat there muttering no, no, no no… LOVED the chimp on horseback th, that little moment gave me shivers!
Saw the movie yesterday and really loved it. But the one thing that bugged me was WHY didn’t the scientists notice that Bright Eyes was pregnant? Didn’t they interact with her on a daily basis? And how did she get pregnant anyway. The apes were all kept separate.
I saw it earlier today with my 17-year-old nephew and 12-year-old niece, who have never seen the original films. I’ll try to see if we can rent at least the first one.
That she was pregnant when captured makes sense, but what doesn’t is that they didn’t monitor the pregnancy. They should have been aware that she gave birth.
Another problem I had was with Franklin’s illness.
They should have been more concerned when he was exposed to the aerosol, and should have then quarantined him. Certainly they should have been a little more concerned when they noticed that he missed work for a couple of days.
Film is still hanging in there at the box office, and yesterday I read that the writers/producers have said this film is planned as the first in a trilogy.
