Self-Aware Ape Film—a film that is aware that it is a prequel to a very cheesy movie about talking apes, therefore it should have an appropriate balance of classic camp/tight almost comic dialogue and stylish almost over the top action i.e. the comic book movie.
Worst trailer. For a minute there I was starting to get excited about the Rise of the Planet of the Apes—I’ve been interested but weary since the James Franco starrer was announced. Thinking all along that maybe if they pull off the right "homage" to Heston-esque cheesiness then the movie could be quite good. After the announcement that the film would have the longer awkward title Rise of the Planet of the Apes the film seemed to be headed in a my direction. Yesterday, after the WETA interview I started to believe—all the technical talk brought me around to get down right excited about this movie—really excited about the trailer. All the technical talk sounded very cool—particularly Andy Serkis’s explanation of all his intense physical work and the amazing final product of the human ape Caesar. Serkis said roughly that on one hand Caesar looks like a real ape but also he has this growing human element that is unlike what is seen on the face of any real life ape. All this sounded great, I wasn’t worried that the Caesar's screentime during the interview wasn’t that exciting. I wasnt worried that a lot of people were complaining during the interview on the WETA chat about the apes not talking—its the rise so they wouldnt have to talk just yet.
Then I saw the trailer and most of my hopes seemed dashed. That Caesar shot at the end of the trailer (really? is that all the Caesar action, the same shot that WETA has been showing off this week?) is that video of Caeser supposed be something? I just went to the zoo today and saw some gorillas and Caesar looks pretty similar. Actually the real gorillas at the zoo were even more impressive and more human like (or appeared to be). This big gorilla I saw was giving me the evil stare down…what is that 5-second spot supposed to be—subtle vague humanness. At the end of the trailer I am waiting for the monkey to turn and look at me all angry and give me the evil eye, but nothing, I don’t get it. Now as I play the we will rise WETA interview back it seems they were anticipating the underwhelming subtlety of the "human" apes that look pretty much like apes.
Another question, why is James Franco yelling all of his lines in this trailer? Looks like Harry Osborne has returned to the big screen, just when I thought Franco was starting to grow up as an actor.
Luckily the trailer is not the final say—as a matter of fact the trailer has enough solid footage for it to be possible that the movie is exactly the one I am looking for—a self-aware ape film. Everything in this trailer is wrong—in particular the Inception style music immediately puts an inappropriate air of seriousness onto the film. And then James Franco’s bad delivery in contrast to the music and cutting makes it look like a bad action drama too similar to the Wahlberg/Burton flop. Those same Franco lines could work on the comic book movie level but they don’t play in this trailer. It is hard to tell in what direction the movie is heading—not in the good suspenseful trailer way but in the bad miscommunicating, pandering to the mainstream trailer way. There is still hope, all the pieces are lined up for the success of the Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie: the bad actor, the evil monkey, the demented old guy, and the beautiful talented scientist babe—everything that a true to form prequel to the Planet of the Apes needs.
Is the below image: a screenshot from the movie or a shot of the gorilla from my trip to the zoo?