Movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I'm not sure I have words to express how much I loved this movie.

Now, I've never been a huge *fan* of the first movie. I mean, I've seen it, I enjoyed it. Chuck Heston chewing the scenery and all. It's a classic and I watch it whenever it's on. But it was never one of those movies that caught fire in my brain or anything. Originally, when the previews for Rise came out, I was pretty 'meh' about it. 'Oh, James Franco, pretty!' and that was pretty much it. But the more and more previews I saw, I got excited about it. It looked good, regardless of whether or not I was a fangirl over the first one.

And we're not even going to *talk* about the *spit*remake they made back in '01. I just rewatched that because I'm a masochist and ugh. Oh, Mark Wahlberg, why? WHY?

Back to the movie. I thought the effects were well done. The apes were beautiful and Andy Serkis is much loved around these parts, let me tell you. I felt so *sorry* for the apes. They did a fabulous job with their expressions and making them, even when they weren't 'intelligent' look so sympathetic. The story line made sense and I caught several references back to the original movie. Some subtle, some not so much. The bonus surprise! Tom Felton and David Hewlett were great too.

It was fun and exciting and heartbreaking and actually not that far fetched. The genius ape thing, yes. Far fetched. But the experimenting that led to the apes? And the consequences for humanity? Yes. The drive and the strain between the one man who is in it to make money and the one who is just trying to save his father was very human, very real.

And the- right, this is probably a spoiler. So you are warned, just in case!



We all know that the apes talk in the original movie, right? Right? I knew that, eventually, the apes would learn to talk. But I wasn't expecting it when it happened. That first shouted "NO!" from Caesar literally made the entire theater go dead freaking silent. I have never had that happen before. Never. There was no movement, nothing. I'm half sure that people stopped breathing.

I want more.

I also admit to wanting Caesar to go back, grab Will (his human dad/creator) and take him to live with the apes so he'll be relatively safe from all the crap that's about to go down.