Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Rise of the Planet of the Apes




Yesterday I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Blu-ray and it was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I thought the first two thirds of the movie were excellent far exceeding what I was expecting from the film but then it all started getting very silly towards the end, the final action sequences were over the top and spoiled what could've been an outstanding movie.

I did enjoy the various nods to the original movie, they were fun apart from one which was clumsily inserted because fans were probably expecting to hear it at some point.

I understand why the chose to do CG apes instead of using real ones or people in makeup that was kind of distracting for me, while computer effects technology is advancing in leaps and bounds all the time and these apes looked pretty good but they just didn't blend in with their environment, I can't quite put my finger on what it was but the end result was that the apes all looked like they weren't really there, the one thing Tim Burton got right with his Planet of the Apes remake was the excellent use of makeup and prosthetics.

The Director and Producers seem to have left things open for a potential sequel and I have to admit I'd probably be interested in seeing one but if it happens hopefully they will resist the temptation to use ridiculous CG action sequences and get back to telling a good story.