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You are here: Home Leisure Cinema review Cinema review: Shock the monkey

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11/08/2011Cinema review: Shock the monkey

Cinema review: Shock the monkey Picturenose's James Drew is pleasantly surprised at the latest ‘remake' of a classic and addition to a not-so classic movie franchise.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Here's a film that, it's fair to say, was dreaded rather than awaited. Firstly, because it bears the signature of one of the most legendary sci-fi sagas, which began with a masterpiece in 1968, Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes and was followed by four movies of varying quality, a TV series, cartoon and, most recently, Tim Burton's disastrous 2001 remake.

Add to this a promotional campaign that has placed near-total emphasis on the film's special effects and has by-and-large concealed the identity of the director and actors, and you would be forgiven for thinking that you had the perfect recipe for a USD 90 million disaster.

Planet of the apes

But no... director Rupert Wyatt (whose previous work The Escapist (2008) only received a quiet DVD release), also takes his inspiration from Pierre Boule's original novel Monkey Planet, but it is initially somewhat difficult to place his masterly film in the time-frame of the original franchise. It comes across as a variation on J. Lee Thompson's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) but by and large disregards all the other films, except the first. Thus, it is set in the present day, and provides enough to lay the foundations for an explanation of the final sequence of Schaffner's original:

George Taylor: Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was...we finally really did it. [screaming] You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Planet of the apes


In telling the story of Caesar, the first ape to gain human-like intelligence thanks to man's genetic meddling, Rise of the Planet of the Apes in fact benefits from a classical narrative structure, and, in its CGI depiction of the apes themselves, the medium appears finally to have found its finest hour since Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993). And the rest, as they say, is history.


105 mins.
James Drew


Please check local listings before travelling. For more reviews, check out  www.picturenose.com. Expatica's weekly cinema-review section is brought to you incollaboration with Picturenose.com. About our reviewers: Putting you in the picture. 


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2 reactions to this article

all done posted: 2011-08-12 16:52:49

Daggers drawn. "whose previous work only received a quiet DVD release" why is this important? One thing is for sure. this review is not a promotion it is more of a 'other way around'

James Drew posted: 2011-08-22 09:28:59

All done,

"Important": I wasn't saying it was important, it was just FYI, and would you mind putting that last sentence into English, so I could understand what on earth you are trying to say? Many thanks. :-)

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2 reactions to this article

all done posted: 2011-08-12 16:52:49

Daggers drawn. "whose previous work only received a quiet DVD release" why is this important? One thing is for sure. this review is not a promotion it is more of a 'other way around'

James Drew posted: 2011-08-22 09:28:59

All done,

"Important": I wasn't saying it was important, it was just FYI, and would you mind putting that last sentence into English, so I could understand what on earth you are trying to say? Many thanks. :-)

Add a comment
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