Screw your webs, guardians, and days of past and/or future. 2014 is all about APES!
I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that our generation already has at least ONE excellent Apes movie. Perhap you heard me exalt the PotA series in the past, or maybe heard me close to sobbing during Laser Time’s HATE Pack Commentaries during Tim Burton’s 2001 kick to Bright Eyes’s loincloth? Getting a solid films in the PotA series was hardly a guarantee. These films are coming from 20th Century Fox, after all, a studio who has a reckless modern-day reputation for wiping its ass with the legacy of its most famous franchises in the name of a quick buck (Please DO NOT see A Good Day to Die Hard or AvP: Requiem.) Here, WATCH:
Not only did 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes retain the spirit of the original films, right down to the heavy-handed societal themes, humanity’s arrogance reflected in the eyes of its simian brother, and let’s just go ahead and admit it, awesome looking monkey effects!
In addition to those fine details… Rise and today’s Dawn trailer has made a complete and immediate hypocrite out of me yours truly, the guy who went on record calling all prequels useless horseshit in regards to Fox’s Gotham series trailer.
Yes, I normally hate movie prequels. But that’s what makes Rise and Dawn so interesting: No one definitively knows where these movies take place in the series! They can certainly act as a prequels to the 1968 original, but instead of pulling a George Lucas by handing us a pile of meandering and contradictory footnotes that proclaim “This is how it all started, like it or lump it,” some renegade at Fox has wisely nestled Rise and Dawn rather ambiguously into the timeline where it can serve as a prequel, a canon-bridging iterquel, and a genuine sequel to almost any PotA movie that doesn’t star Marky Mark.
Maurice?!
As such, it allows us, the fans, to deliberate for ourselves where these new movies fit within the rest of the series, or outside of it, without ever being wrong or right. And I sincerely hope no one at Fox never provides a conclusive answer. Hey nerds, remember how fun it was to talk about the Zelda canon? You know, before Nintendo went and established a weird ass, official timeline in Hyrule Historia. “Huh…” replied millions of Zelda fans. “I suppose that ends three decades worth of conversation…”
I feel as if I’ve bored folks enough with the details on PotA’s lore before, but let me just say that the original series has a split timeline, and so far, Rise could serve as worthy prequel to both, as well as a potentially excellent reboot set in its own universe. Everything I’ve seen from Rise/Dawn looks as if they’re not in any way concerned with paving the way to the universe of the 1960s, but is still careful not to rule out that possibility. Trailers can be misleading (look no further than the ones for Rise, which made the entire film look like a 90 minute, Bay Area blowout between Man and Monkey), but thankfully, the plot points I can glean from today’s trailer don’t seem to retread anything from the previous films. (FYI, the charmingly awful Battle for the Planet of the Apes already showed the struggles of peaceful species coexistence, itself something of a prequel.)
Instead we see humanity has succumbed to the Franco-virus established in Rise, seemingly teetering at the brink of extinction. From what I can tell by the footage, the interactions with Caesar and his gun-toting, horse-mounted brethren, stem from humans looking to the Apes for help, as they seem immune to the plague, and/or possibly as a distractionary culprit for the plague itself, lead on by a zealous lot desperate for a scapegoat/one last shot at earthly superiority. I don’t know, I refuse to spoil it for myself any further and July can’t come soon enough!
My Current Nominee for The Greatest Image of 2014
Okay, I’ll shut up, but I can’t fucking wait to see this movie. In case your were interested, you can find links to my favorite Ape shit below.
You don’t need to sell me on this one Chris, I’m already in 😀
Before “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” I was completely ignorant of the series, and still kinda am. But I enjoyed Rise a lot, and as such, I’m very interested on seeing where they take the story from there.
The trailer for this one looks pretty good, although the plot seems a bit predictable… Then again, I thought the same thing of the trailers for Rise, and I was proven completely wrong when I actually watched the film. So here’s hoping the same will happen with this one as well!
THIS IS GUNNA BE SWEET
I am sold on the picture going to soon be all over the internet memes.
Holy shit! Confirmed goosebumps, chills, and choking back some tears. I am so happy this is coming out!
Ok, I did not expect to be blown away like that. Holy shit, Dawn looks absolutely incredible. I absolutely adored Rise, and was really worried that Fox was gonna fuck up the sequel. However, judging from this trailer, we’re gonna get an amazing film.
Post credits stinger shows one of the horses bucking a monkey off its back and staring intensely.
Planet of the Horses – 2016.
Lead by B. Buttercup I hope!
I personally love the image of the ape with face paint, it so subtly implies a depth of knowledge and understanding that could sprout into a consiousness that rivals our own without having something as ham fisted as an ape wearing armor or writing english. (Why wouldn’t they make their own language? Apelish? Anyone? No. Okay) With the face paint there is obvious intent, artistic symbalism, a sense of individuality and belonging within society, and a structured culture, I just seeing that poster and thinking about everything that painted face could mean, more than just the awesome, but obvious, image of apes holding shotguns.
It surprised me how much I enjoyed Rise. Dawn might be my most anticipated movie of the year.
stray observation. the tune in the background is lifted wholesale off Leaving Earth from Mass Effect 3.
but who cares, this movie looks original, fascinating and awesome. can’t wait
Go..w-Where..?
Definitely glad they are paying such respect to this lore after the marky bomb
“THE BEST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER”
Hey, that’s not Godzilla. Seriously, though, I was really surprised with how much I enjoyed Rise. I was a little skeptical about Dawn, considering it seemed like they were going to, as Mike put it “jettison everything that made the last one so successful”. After hearing Matt Reeves was at the helm, though, I’m looking forward to it all over again. I love Cloverfield, and while I haven’t seen Let Me In, I’ve heard it’s surprisingly good for a remake.
am I missing something? this looks goofy and not-good, just like the last one.
At this point, not sure if you’re just trolling, or if you just like being a contrarian 😛