Can we get some love for the new Apes trilogy? (NON SPOILER)

[The Curmudgeon]

There was a thread a few months back about the best trilogies of all time. If I remember it was fairly hotly contested, but the crux of the discussion was this; great movies are common, great sequels are pretty rare but great trilogies are like movie gold-dust. Well, friends, we now have a genuine top tier addition to that esteemed list.

I can't remember but I probably groaned and rolled my eyes when I heard they were making a prequel to the original Planet of the Apes. It didn't seem that far away from the horrible Tim Burton effort, and surely we hadn't learned our lesson from that so soon?

Turns out we did. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was great; an intelligent blockbuster with great, sympathetic characters, eye-popping visuals and a new movie icon in Caesar, the Ape who would change the world. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was arguably better, getting the pesky origin out of the way and now showing us the real conflict between man and ape. So could the third movie sit comfortably alongside those two?

Fuck YES. War For the Planet of the Apes is an absolute blast, set 15 years after the second it shows Caesar fully in control of his own army and a hate figure and target for the human military. I won't go into any more detail than that if you haven't seen it, but needless to say the new Apes movies are some of the best science fiction movies of the century, and I would say can claim the title of Best Trilogy of this century. Genuinely great.

Are you a fan?

[trashcanman]

Hard not to be. I don't see them in theaters, but I have definitely enjoyed them thusfar. I still kind of prefer the classic movies since they are brilliant conceptual sci-fi landmarks and the new ones are just really straightforward drama. They are great at that, but it's a lot of themes about social injustice and aggression that we've already seen before many times coupled with typical action scenes that have an aura of unintentional comedy to them. The story is basically a really drawn out version of this:



That said, yeah, these movies are pretty great because they overcome the inherent silliness of watching animals act like people. Kudos are in order.

[Ben]

I love Planet of the Apes. I've never watched the Burton one because of its reputation, but I've got nothing but love for the new trilogy, and the original slew of them is great fun.

Dawn is possibly my favorite sci-fi movie of all time, and I say that having gone into it with unrealistically high expectations. I thought it was perfect. Rise didn't wow me the first time, but I've enjoyed it more with each viewing. I was not blown away by War last weekend either, but I'm still digesting it and am optimistic it will age like Rise for me. Since this thread is spoiler free, I won't elaborate other than to say that I thought the middle act was going to go in an entirely different direction and was disappointed when it didn't.

Still, I can't think of any modern franchise that has churned out three movies this good, let alone three movies this good without some stinkers in between.

[The Curmudgeon]

I would continue to avoid the Burton movie, Ben. It's dreadful.

I actually watched the original 60's movie last weekend after seeing the new prequel to see if it synced up in anyway. No spoilers if it did or didn't, but the original really is a strange movie. I've seen it a few times before, but not for a good few years. I forgot how talk-heavy it is, like it really is a science fiction film more than an action film, even if it's the action you remember and that iconic ending.

I didn't even know it was written by the guy behind the Twilight Zone, and it makes sense when you watch it again because it really does feel and sound like a feature length Zone episode, from the metaphor heavy dialogue to the twist sucker punch ending. Intelligent premise with a really strong "science vs religion" aspect, I'm surprised it didn't attract any major controversy at the time because there is a lot going on there, more than in the modern movies which really do seem to be more of an action franchise. Brilliant, but lacking the punch of the original.

[trashcanman]

That was the trick with sci-if back then. People weren't allowed to really express these things in "real" stories, but if you made it unreal with talking apes or aliens or whatever, then they let it slide.