Planet of the Apes thread

It also lacks Montalban.

I'm thinking Franco should at least be killed in the next one. In fact, that's the first damn thought I had after finishing RISE. It could still happen.

I don't mind the skirmish thing. I find what the film does in terms of how much ground is covered to be satisfactory. They liberated themselves. Now it's up to man to provoke them further.

Bringing a franchise star back just to kill him in the opening minutes would be in keeping with tradition.

2/3 in BENEATH.

So these are the mutants. Wow, what a 180 this flick is taking. I want some Apes action, this is very uninteresting.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Bringing a franchise star back just to kill him in the opening minutes would be in keeping with tradition.

I'd say half way through, like... well. I'll let Python watch the movies.

I'm kinda liking Tom Scott's score for CONQUEST. Still miss Jerry for it.

Makeshift Python wrote:

2/3 in BENEATH.

So these are the mutants. Wow, what a 180 this flick is taking. I want some Apes action, this is very uninteresting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7miRCLeFSJo#t=46s

The final act of BENEATH redeems the whole movie, including the silly third season Trek mutants, in my eyes.

...

So, why do they wear masks?

Because even that mild make-up is expensive for this movie's limited budget. Look at the Apes -- while all the speaking ones get the same (okay slightly poorer) job as the original film, all the background ones now get Halloween masks.

Its strange that FOX gave this a lower budget, given how big a hit the first one was you'd think they'd pour more money into it. Oh well.


So I just finished it. Huh. Well Sykes you were right, the ending kinda redeems it. Mostly because we get to see Bland Taylor get shot up by a bunch of Apes. I literally grinned at that moment, because he bored me so much throughout all of his scenes. So, Taylor blows up the whole planet. K. Now I finally understand Heston believing this would be the last.

Positives:

Heston, even when he's sleepwalking he's pretty interesting to watch

Rosenman's score. He made a great substitute for Goldsmith.

James Gregory. Seriously, there should have been more of him.

Um... Nova's tits.

Overall, I'm pretty let down. The first half is like a retread of the first film, then the second half totally makes a 180 with the mutants and their stuff. It DOES feel like a bad Star Trek S3 episode.

Rankings.

PLANET OF THE APES
BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES

Regardless of BENEATH, I actually look forward to seeing ESCAPE.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Its strange that FOX gave this a lower budget, given how big a hit the first one was you'd think they'd pour more money into it. Oh well.

The whole Planet of the Apes thing really happened before the whole idea of franchises and sequels and so on was really understood by studios as a way to create huge tentpole blockbusters. It was seen more as a way of cashing in cheaply on past successes for as long as possible, with understood diminishing returns. I mean, Godfather was the first sequel to put a 2 in the title, for cryin out loud!

POTA was really the first multi-movie sci-fi saga with returning characters.

That's a good point, sometimes I kinda forget that it was THE GODFATHER PART II that really made studios actually sit up and take sequels seriously to an extent.

For all its flaws, any movie that ends with Charlton Heston blowing up the planet is okay in my books. I love the nigh-nihilistic ending narration. It's like a darker version of the opening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It's ballsy, I'll give it that. I didn't even remember the ending so it caught me by surprise. After they killed Nova I should have suspected things would end badly.

To quote Eric McCormack, "Nova is the perfect woman: beautiful, scantily-clad, and mute."

Ha.

Also, how the fuck are these movies rated "G"? Especially BENEATH and its bleak ending. Different standards, I guess.

There were only four ratings back then, MP.

G was for family friendly films, and the Apes movies got lumped into that because they were sci-fi and after all that's just kid's stuff, yeah?

PG was for mature films, entertainment for adults. James Bond.

R was stuff like The Godfather, you don't want your kids going to this.

And X was pornography.

PG-13 came along and muddled everything and now instead of movies for kids or for adults everything wants to be for teenagers -- PG-13 is the all things to all people rating that dilutes everything to sell to the Xbox crowd.

I know PG-13 wasn't around until Gremlins and Temple of Doom made kids shit themselves, but PG seems more suitable for the Apes films at that time. I guess that's how seriously the MPAA treated sci-fi flicks "bunch of guys in ape suits? The kids will love it!" Consistency was never the MPAA's strong suit.

Everything seems to be PG-13 these days. Even animated kids flicks are rarely rated G. I remember when RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER was rated PG there was a bit of an uproar by fans claiming it was now gonna be for kiddies.

Yeah, it seems hardly anything is rated G anymore. PG is the new G.

The system in Canada is similar but produces oddly different results. The Matrix movies all got 14A (our version of PG-13). Seems more appropriate for their content than R.

Frankly I think PG is a good rating for superheroes, although I give Batman a leniency for PG-13 because he can get into disturbing storylines with those villains and Iron Man's an alchoholic womanizer so maybe that's a PG-13 as well. But Spider-Man is PG material, as far as I'm concerned.

THE MATRIX was at one point PG-13, then changed to R, then switched back to PG-13 then again changed to R. I'm not sure why it went through that limbo, as it's clearly PG-13. Then there's RELOADED with the rave orgy automatically throwing it in R territory.

Yeah, the R elements in there are totally gratuitous though -- same with most of the sexual elements in the Matrix movies, which are more or less just titillation for the story's teenage audience rather than anything real.

Some comic book characters should start at PG-13 or R. Punisher needs to be R. Wolverine has knives attached to his hands, so he needs to start at PG-13. This is just how things are.

But you're doing it wrong if your Superman movie gets an R, Zach Snyder.

Reminds me. On the blu-ray box set for the TOS films, all of them on the box are rated PG except for TMP because the theatrical cut was rated G, however the box states "not rated". It's odd how some studios out there are afraid of the G label these days. Are audiences really that concerned?

The DVD Director's Edition version got a PG rating. Who knows what for. Perhaps that CGI is disturbing to children.

Anyway, watched the trailer for ESCAPE. Definitely looks like they carved the budget real nice, but it looks kinda fun. Kind of like THE VOYAGE HOME.

I'm off to bed.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Regardless of BENEATH, I actually look forward to seeing ESCAPE.

ESCAPE is a big step up to me. Here's how I'd put it...

BENEATH - Bad TOS.
ESCAPE - Good TOS.
CONQUEST - Good, late DS9.
BATTLE - Really bad S1 TNG.
APES 2001 - VOYAGER on steroids.