Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
#5 in my Ranking of the Planet of the Apes Franchise. This is a much smarter way to reboot a moribund series, taking the aesthetics into a new century while also updating the narrative to match with new technology. It also trusts the audience to empathize with a non-human character using that new technology, and… Continue reading Rise of the Planet of the Apes
#7 in my Ranking of the Planet of the Apes Franchise. It's hard to talk about this movie without touching on its production history. This is a poster child for a studio using a recognizable name to hit a release date. They were going to release this in July of 2001 no matter what, and… Continue reading Planet of the Apes (2001)
#8 in my Ranking of the Planet of the Apes Franchise. What a sad situation to watch a movie stretch its budget as far as it can only to end coming off looking cheap. By all reports, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was made more cheaply than Battle for the Planet of the… Continue reading Battle for the Planet of the Apes
#4 in my Ranking of the Planet of the Apes Franchise. This is the return to form worthy of a sequel of the original Planet of the Apes. The unrated version (the version originally screened for test audiences before those reactions forced some changes that softened the film) is the same kind of damning of… Continue reading Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
#9 in my Ranking of the Planet of the Apes Franchise. This has a similar structural quirk to its predecessor, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in that the movie doesn’t really seem to start until the halfway point. Everything up through the first forty-five minutes of both movies are almost entirely about justifying the… Continue reading Escape from the Planet of the Apes
David Vining, Author 