Well after two weeks of silence, I finally caught up with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and came away loving it. I'm an Apes fan, who hated the Tim Burton reboot. The only good thing about that sorry effort was Rick Bakers Brilliant makeup. I'd been watching the production news for the latest addition to the franchise and I was sort of fearing the mo cap system being used to bring more Ape like characters to the screen. I needn't have been. This is a first class tale, with Weta Digitals efforts coupled with the efforts of Andy Serkis bring class to the whole enterprise.
The story thematically fits in with the originals, there are neatly hidden easter egg references to Planet of the Apes. I was about to give up on summer but this film has restored my faith so hats off to director Rupert Wyatt for delivering a great film that hit this viewers sweetspot.
Cowboy & Aliens I saw last week, I sort of had to psyche myself up for it after reading some of the bad press this film was generating. I could write war and peace about this film, but the bottom line is yeah its not perfect, didnt like the last third of the story, it just got a little clunky and didnt gel. I found myself questioning certain essential points of the plot, disliked the alien designs which bore too much similarity to Super 8's alien .
But there are some outstanding character actors in this film and for the first two thirds the movie kinda works for me as a western. It was great to see the Kurgan (Clancy Brown) and Sam Rockwell is just great. Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig play well its just all that effort is lost in the last 25 minutes.
Its not a travesty but its not the best film of summer either.
Westerns can make for great horror tales but not great sci fi and this film just proves the point.
