Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Great Rework of the Origin Story

The Planet of the Apes franchise had been stale for a while.  The 2001 remake of the original was a lackluster ridiculous movie with cheesy special effects and bad acting.  This decade-later remake starring James Franco, however is a lot of fun.  The number one reason I enjoyed this movie so much is the fantastic and effective performance by Andy Serkis as Caesar, the lead ape who leads an ape revolution.  The performances by all the ape in fact are fantastic, it was hard to believe that they were all CG and that there was a human behind each performance.

The story is also really good and satisfying.  The story of the rise of Caesar from the child of James Franco's character to leader of a revolution against the mistreatment of his fellow apes is compelling.  On the other side, I wondered how the writers would come up with a plausible method to display how a few hundred Apes in California could ever get to a large enough force to eventually take over a planet.  This question is answered satisfactorily in the movie.

The worst part of the movie are the humans.  James Franco does not really do much in the movie.  Event though the movie take place over almost 10 years, James Franco looks exactly the same.  Frieda Pinto is given almost nothing to do in the movie, her character is bland, uninteresting and totally replaceable.

The last third of the movie from when Caesar stands up to his oppressors in a primate facility to the end is thrilling.  It improved the movie from interesting character study on Caesar to an exciting action movie.  

*** Stars

Attack the Block: Fantastic Fun Film

As I mentioned on the podcast A Fistful of Popcorn, Attack the Block is my favorite movie of the year.  I have not had a better time at the theaters this year.  There are several reasons why:

- The lead, Daniel Boyega (Moses) is a compelling character.  Even though his character is a teenager, he is not played as an immature kid.  He is the leader of a gang and he is serious in his role.  He recognizes his role as the leader of his crew and sticks to his code of ethics for the Block.  I expect to see Boyega doing big things in future movies.

- The soundtrack for the film is fantastic.  The music in the film hit the right notes making us get exciting to see more of the action that occurs on screen.

- For an alien invasion movie, the script is refreshing fun and simple.  Compared to silly blockbuster movies such as Battle: Los Angeles and the upcoming Battleship.  There is no overblown romance story line bogging down the script or overdone plot points that become increasingly confusing.

- The aliens themselves actually are better looking than other alien movies.  They are genuinely scary and not silly humanoid slime creatures with guns.

This movie will be a sleeper hit when it eventually goes wide, I urge everyone to see it.

***1/2 stars

Another Earth

A young girl, Rhoda, during a celebration of her acceptance to M.I.T. gets drunk and crashes into another car killing most of the family members in the other car.  This is not very interesting at first, however, this happens during the night when the world discovers another planet, and it is a replica of our planet, Earth.  After serving a four year sentence for her crime, the girl returns from prison a changed woman; from a young, hopeful girl to a broken, sad, woman.  At the same time, a company plans an expedition to Earth-2 and offers an open position on the shuttle in an essay contest.  Rhoda enters the contest, in the hope that maybe she can discover what her life would have been like without the crash.  She also decides to visit the lone survivor of the crash, a former professor, who had his life destroyed in the crash.

Another Earth is well made, its themes of redemption and overcoming loss are meant to strike a deep chord with the viewer.  However, I could not get into this movie.  It felt cold and distant.  Brit Marling's performance as Rhoda is slightly boring, her character never really gives us a chance to invest any interest in her character.  The story of redemption did not work well for me, it seemed rather implausible.  It is easy to tell that this movie is lovingly made and personal to its writer/star, and I can also see how other people may like this movie, however, this movie didn't work for me.

** Stars

Captain America: Holds Up to the Template

Captain America is the newest superhero film to hit theaters.  This being one of the many superhero films this year, I thought I would try and make a template to use when writing about these movies.

Our Hero Before He Gains Power:  Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a weak, sickly boy in WWII America who wishes he could join the US troops fighting Nazis in Europe.  He is constantly rejected by doctors because of his small size and sickly composition.  He shows the traits of being a hero, but lacks the power to properly back up this words.  I liked Rogers, he is a good guy, who I root for to catch a break in life.

How the Hero Gets His Power:  Steve’s traits as a good person allows him to meet a government doctor who place him in an experimental program which allows him to given superhuman abilities.  I like the simplicity of  the steps that go into getting Rogers his powers are not convoluted or goofy, they are believable.

Love Interest:  Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is a plucky officer of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, the agency responsible for giving Rogers his powers.  She is not a timid damsel that needs to be saved.  She is a capable operative who is resourceful and supportive of Captain America.  In addition, Evans and Atwell have great personality together on screen.  

How Compelling is the Villain and Does His Plan Make Sense:  The villain, Red Skull is a direct foil  to Captain America.  The good traits that make up Captain America’s personality are in direct conflict to the evil of Red Skull.  He is a badass who definitely lets you know that he is evil as often as possible. His plan for world domination however, is rather complicated and downright silly.  He goes through a ton of steps basically so that he can create a giant plane so that he can bomb the US.

Action Scenes:  They are entertaining and there plenty of them.  The special effects during these scenes are really good.  The effects are not overdone and do not overwhelm the film.

I really enjoyed Captain America.  It is a really good superhero film that works because the hero is likable, the special effects are reserved and the villain is compelling.

*** Stars

Rubber: The Tire that Kills

Perhaps the tire is lonely...

Why do certain things happen in movies; no reason.  Rubber tells us this in an opening monologue and then spends ninety minutes demonstrating this with a movie in which events happen for no reason.

A rubber tire comes to life, discovers that it has telekinesis, then uses that power to kill people.  This happens for no reason

A chorus of people are watching and commenting on the actions of the murderous tire like guests at a play.  Why are they there?  No reason.

The tire is stalking a beautiful woman at a local motel for no reason.

Getting past these ridiculous things that happen for no reason is difficult.  However, Rubber is upfront about it.  You can't say that about a lot of movies nowadays.

** Stars

Transformers: I'm tired of this franchise

Um, stuff is blowing up behind you

The battle between the Autobots and Decepticons continues in Dark of the Moon. The Decepticon leader, Megatron has a plan to defeat Megatron and his Autobot team using ancient technology hidden on Earth's moon.

I was relatively satisfied with the plot events of Transformers. The bad guys had a plan to rule the world and they almost won.  However the movie is very long and the action not beginning until ninety minutes into almost two and a half hour film.  I am also tired of many of the things in this movie:

- I am tired of Shia Labeouf running around acting like a loud, fast talking fool.  His character has gone from slightly annoying to highly annoying.
- I got tired of Michael Bay trying to force me to find Rosie Huntington-Whiteley sexy by doing so many gratuitous, lingering shots of her.
- I got tired of the Shia's parents, they serve no purpose, are not funny and take up too much time in an already long film
- I got tired of seeing robots that for some unexplained reason have human features such and dreadlocks and beards.
- I am tired of Autobots appearing out of nowhere just because it suits the plot.  (I am talking about you Wreckers).

Even with all this, I still left the theater satisfied.  The 3D done here is really good, I didn't think that it was distracting or poorly done.  I hope this franchise is done because this movie ends definitively and satisfactorily.  I do not think I could handle another film in this franchise.  I'm done.

* 1/2 stars

Celebrate Brooklyn! Hosted by the Lyricist Lounge

I went to the Celebrate Brooklyn! show hosted by the Lyricist Lounge yesterday. The show had performances by Large Professor, Joell Ortiz, Smif-n-Wessun and headlined by Raekwon.  I had a great time, here are some photos I shot of the event.

Celebrate Brooklyn! Show