Thor, Captain America, X-Men: First Class, Cowboys Vs. Aliens, even Harry Potter, as much as I've been wanting to see them all, none of them have monkeys.
Seriously though, this is the movie for me. I hadn't gotten super into comic books until my teen years, and then it was Spider-Man and Batman more than X-Men or the Avengers (although X-Men were close to follow). I gave up on the Bayformers movies after Fallen, I still want to see the third one at some point, but i'm definitely in no rush. Cowboys Vs. Aliens looks really cool, and Fright Night & Don't Be Afraid of the Dark are a pair of remakes I'm also quite eager to see. (Incidentally, I find it a little interesting that two Roddy McDowell movies are being remade this summer)
Deathly Hallows is another one that i've definitely been looking forward to, and I certainly enjoyed, but it wasn't my movie. Don't get me wrong, i've seen all the others, read all the books, I even have my own wand from Phoenix Wands in Whimsic Alley, but I don't have the feeling of 'childhood ending' that some of my friends do. Maybe it's because I was a little older than harry when I started, I didn't get started with Harry until 2004, seeing Azkaban is what got me hooked, but it was a full 7 years after Sorcerer's Stone first came out, and I was 19 at the time. Should've been the right age to start when the books did, I'm not sure why I didn't.
Maybe because I was too busy watching Planet of the Apes.
I LOVE Planet of the Apes.
Charlton Heston. Roddy McDowell. Rod Serling. Jerry Goldsmith. I think maybe I should do a full APES retrospective leading up to RISE, or at least all the films. I'm proud owner of both TV series' as well.
I love the dystopian future, the social commentary, the music, the story, the adventure, the effects, all of it. After the original, my favorite entry in the series is Conquest. Roddy becomes one of the few (if only) actors to continue on in a series of movies after his character is killed, by playing his own son, Caesar. We also get Ricardo Mantalban. We get some valuable life lessons, and we get to see Monkeys fuck shit up.
When I first heard they were remaking Conquest, I was skeptical, as I'm sure we all were. After the Tim Burton Disasterpiece, I didn't really pay it much mind. I'd see things pop up occasionally as the remake Caesar was retitled (to Caesar: Rise of the Apes, then just Rise of the Apes, and now Rise of the Planet of the Apes). Then I started seeing some bits of casting. James Franco, ok, interesting choice, he's usually pretty good, did they best he could with Spider-Man 3. John Lithgow, good, good, another fine actor, you saw his season of Dexter right? and his segment on the Twilight Zone movie? Who's next... Andy Serkis, well they'd be fool not to use him as Caesar, King Kong and Gollum? So we know he'll be able to bring it in the ping pong balls, but it doesn't matter unless the monkey looks good. What's that you say? WETA's doing the effects? Can I see?
You got my attention, now what?
That noise you heard... that was my jaw dropping, followed by some gentile weeping.
This.
Could.
Be.
Good.
Wait, scratch that.
Great.
There we go.
It's so different from conquest, but that's good. Honestly I much prefer that Caesar be something of our doing, rather than the product of Cornelius and Zira after they travelled back in time somehow when the world exploded. I'm totally on board with a cure for Alzheimer's being the cause of the accelerated evolution. The Apes so far look good, I'm totally buying them, I know they're CG, but it's ok, because they look good, and my fingers are crossed they will look better on the big screen. Then at around 1:05 that's when the goose pimples start. Everything from here on looks sooooo goooooood. Ok, now i'm seriously starting to get excited for this movie. Fast forward a couple more months to this lil beauty.
Seriously, i'm holding back tears a little bit. Look in his monkey eyes, when he's helping Lithgow, and tell me you wouldn't want him at your kitchen table. I love the nods to the original. I love the shot of them on the rooftop with the spears. I love when Caesar hugs the other chimpanzee. I love the monkeys running through the trees. I love the gorilla whipping the parking meter like it's nothing. I love it all.
There've been a few more trailers, more of the same with a few new bits here and there. They also snuck out this little gem.
I love this, not only is it adorable, but it reminds me of something Ray Kurzweil said in The Transcendent Man about monkeys, the Hundredth Monkey Principle. While it's validity is still up for debate, basically it says that a monkey learns to wash a sweet potato, he tells two friends, then they tell two friends, then once it gets to the point that enough monkey's know to wash their potatoes, all monkeys know to wash their potatoes, regardless of whether they've been taught or not. Could be an interesting if that's how they explain enough Monkeys getting wise enough to take over the world.
Lastly, while I had been avoiding most of the press junket, behind the scenes interview type stuff (I don't really want to get spoiled much more than the trailers already have). I did watch this today, which prompter me to come over here, so I figure it's only right I mention it. It's a couple of scenes, set up by Andy Serkis.
If I can just get 90 more minutes on par with that, I will be quite happy. While I miss the charm of those identical latex appliances, I think WETA and Andy are going to do quite all right. Until next time...
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