Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011]
I don’t know why the studios and filmmakers feel it’s their responsibility to dumb down and oversimplify every piece of summer entertainment but, as Rise of the Planet of the Apes shows, it’s still common practice. This film does not do justice to the terrifying and riveting concept of an ape uprising. It’s tame and it’s boring. Not scary enough, not bold enough, not original enough or smart enough. It’s funny, though, but it shouldn’t be.
As hard as I tried to take this movie seriously, I couldn’t. The acting’s campy and the narrative clichéd. There’s only one properly developed character among a sea of caricatures. That is, of course, Caesar, a truly compelling character, halfway between complete innocence and pure evil. If there’s something to be praised about this film, it’s Andy Serkis’s masterful, heartbreaking, Chaplinesque performance, which should earn him an Oscar nod, the first ever rendered from motion capture. Aside from that, I definitely wasn’t impressed by what I saw.
Whoa! Hadn’t seen a bad review for this film until now, Sorry you didn’t like it. I was pleasantly surprised. I’m such a fan of Andy Serkis I guess.
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I actually had read bad reviews for this film before but was surprised at how overwhelmingly positive the response has been. I was NOT impressed and bored out of my mind. Thought it was very silly. I’m also a big Andy Serkis (who I met at Comic-Con, by the way 😉 )fan, and I loved his performance but, for me, that was the film’s only great accomplishment.
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I have to say, I avoided this film, thinking I was going to hate it. I was very pleasantly surprised. Granted, it is cliched and takes it’s time to get somewhere but I found myself glued to it. I suppose a lot of the time when you expect something to be crap, you take the most from it. In some ways, I’m embarrassed to say I liked it so much. But I did.
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I agree. Here’s my review:
http://themoviefreakblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/review-rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes/
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