Title: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Year: 2011
Length: 105 minutes
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Writers: Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, based (very loosely and distantly) on a novel by Pierre Boulle
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis
With: Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, Tyler Labine, Jamie Harris, David Hewlett
Music: Patrick Doyle
Cinematography: Andrew Lesnie
Editing: Conrad Buff IV, Mark Goldblatt
I saw it: in the theater, a couple weeks ago
Synopsis: intelligent apes escape from San Francisco
My reaction
Concept:
Remaking the fourth movie in a franchise that never should have had a sequel in the first place? Who could have thought this was a good idea for long enough to figure out that it would work?Story:
Characters:
The apes are very good. The humans are crap.Dialog:
It's great that they go without dialog as much as they do. Especially since every time someone opens his mouth, a steaming pile of crap pours out.Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design:
Acting:
The human characters are just kind of there, but the apes are all excellent. Serkis is amazing.Music:
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great,
). It's badly marred by the persistence of James Franco's character, staying prominent in the movie long after he no longer serves a purpose. But that's not such a big deal, since the movie is otherwise completely awesome.Objective Rating (Average):
Wow... blunt, but very true. Good review.
ReplyDeletePretty much agree with all of this. The film is elevated from OK to good by comparison with some of the other blockbusters around at the moment.Apes is actually quite well structured. Other big movies tend to resemble long video games.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because I haven't been bothering to see movies that don't have good reviews, but I've actually been having a pretty good time at the movies this year. The handful of big summer blockbusters I've seen so far have all been enjoyable and watchable, which is really saying something for big summer blockbusters.
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