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Up and at 'Em: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

BLOG POST posted on Août 27, 2011 by isaac

Blog posts are the work of individual contributors, reflecting their thoughts, opinions and research.
Up and at 'Em: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
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First of all let me say I'm not your average film reviewer. Case in point: this review was written after finishing packing for my third move this year, from East to South Van. You know, because packing made me think about uprising. Packing reminded me of my first time coming into this country, which reminded me how today a man told me how stupid it was to celebrate July 1 as Canada Day if one doesn't celebrate the day the British Raj conquered India, which reminded me how it would be awesome if indigenous peoples in Canada might one day have their own independence day, which made me think it would be great for me to have an independence day I could actually celebrate instead of be ashamed of (colonial division of India and the Gulf Middle East, etcetera), which made me think about Rise of Planet of the Apes: a very quite rather terrific film.

To put it into perspective: the only film I've seen in a theatre twice.

The second time I saw it, I also snuck a peak at the Harry Potter finale. And while the internet overfills with analysis of the latter blockbuster production, I'd like to humbly tip my hat to the Apes.

I have to say, putting aside any sort of political bent, you have to love it when people put their minds to actually building a mythology instead of just turning it into a bloated franchise for money (Barbershop 2, man I don't even need to put any more examples on here). And whoever it is that made this film (not a big credit person either, I am) really nurtured their love for the original films and maybe even series. It took me a second look to realize that the symbol Caesar (the arguable protagonaist) keeps drawing becomes the symbol for the apes in the series'. You get to very much watch the beginning of something excellent.

But yes, let's get to the politics of the whole thing.

It's just brilliant to see a film where a white dude doesn't fetishize a culture and then save it (bloody Avatar bollocks). No, this is very much about uprising, coming from a realization that one is a slave. The comparisons could fill the refrigerator of a supermodel.

And it's just filled with enough explosions and crap that you can take someone apolitical to it and then grin afterwards. Little seed and all that.

There's an emotional pull to this film that cannot be denied. The moment the apes pull together their escape, you're with them. And that's something. And what a rebellion! Well worth the watch.

And let's face it, you're with Caesar the moment he's revealed: this little ape that makes funny faces and just wants to be.

From my dear anarchist friend and former roommate: "The only thing I didn't like was that Caesar was against beating up the cops."

Yeah.

There is an uncomfortable bit of primitivism here as well. With it comes the usual Hollywood 'Merican-driven paranoia of technology and genetics. Frankenstein, end of humanity, that sort of thing.

Absurdly delicious when put next to the info given to me by the industry-knowing Indigenous artist I went to Rise of the Planet of the Apes with the second time: "Umm that Indian gal the scientist is dating had a total nose job. You know, to look more assimilated."

But this is why one gets attached to the apes so much: the humans really have quite lost it. Unlike the original mythology that the apes becomes slaves and then get so depended on that they take over, here the humans are the progenitors of their own downfall. It's something to watch.

Quite literally, you get to watch the beginning of the end of the world as you know it, and you do for the most part feel fine(ly).

Oh, but don't get sucked into the extra $3 for the special screen at Metrotown cinema. Yeah it was nice to get a reclining seat, but I honestly couldn't see the big difference in image and sound quality. Wankers.

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Commentaires

dim, 08/28/2011 - 02:30 — dawn

yes!

more please. brilliant!

dim, 08/28/2011 - 12:34 — Megan K (non vérifié)

Thanks for this review! i

Thanks for this review! i thought it was a great movie and deserved a deatiled review on media coop...

I loved the prison organizing in the movie, and how he had a chance to get free but stayed to free his comrades. Best line in the movie "one ape, weak. many ape, strong"!

dim, 08/28/2011 - 17:42 — J Stevens

What sort of editing did this piece receive?

Aside from the glaring grammatical errors and run ons, why has this blog been chosen as a featured article?  It is a review of a hollywood film which spent 93 millon dollars to create a make believe world whilst ignoring the harsh realities of the real, finite world in places like Vancouver, San Fransisco, and Oahu, Hawaii (all locations for the shoot).  The author went and bolstered their efforts by seeing it twice at a Sony owned theatre.  Are they aware that one could download it for free?

 

 

dim, 08/28/2011 - 18:25 — isaac

Edited

So Megan pretty much explained why this film is on here, so I won't go into that.

But damn J, I do love a piece admonishing grammatical errors and run-ons that is full of the very same. Well done.

And it contained localized content - last para hmm? Slow week bhai, kindly adjust.

Download? What is a download?

lun, 08/29/2011 - 10:46 — J Stevens

Are you an editor? A very quite rather terrific editor?

Thanks for the snarky, condecending remarks.  I was asking about why this has been feautred by an editor when it is poorly written and about a billion dollar hollywood film.  Also, your "localized content" is a joke, and hardly more important than the actual news of struggles below.  My concern is that this makes all of us in the national coop seem confused, insensitive and full of shit. 

Having this featured alongside important articles is offensive in so many ways. 

I'd like to hear something more thoughtful than "more please. brilliant!" from an editor.

lun, 08/29/2011 - 16:25 — isaac

Wow didn't think you'd take

Wow didn't think you'd take it that personally. The answer to your question is in the last post.

mer, 08/31/2011 - 06:00 — Zoe (non vérifié)

Spelling and grammar fail

"condescending"

"featured"

"poorly-written"

"billion-dollar"

"Hollywood"

F

lun, 08/29/2011 - 14:33 — gwalgen (non vérifié)

Apes

I'm sorry, but I HAVE to get this off my chest.

First of all, I worked with apes for about a year in the jungles and now have spent the rest of my life being that annoying guy who does the following:

The apes in this film were ridiculous. Seriously.

You really think an adult male orangutan will just hang out with a bunch of chimps?  Do you know why they are called 'solitary apes'? 

And that orangutan's vocabulary?  The best orangutan knows about 700 words...and 'ape' probably wouldn't be one of them.  I had a sign language conversation with an orangutan once.  They said 'do you have anything to eat?' about ten times.  This is a more accurate representation of what an ape would say.  Not a back and forth chinwag about the intelligence of their general genus.

And the Gorilla in this film was a gong-show.  He was kept in a cage for years.  You know what happens to an ape that's kept in a small cage for years and never let out or given stimulation?  The same thing that happens to humans: insanity or a severely deteriorating mental state.

Beyond that, since when did intelligent apes decide that a smart way to move around would be to violently crash through windowns while swinging.  I know that when I'm hauling ass, the first thing I'd do is just crash through a window rather than breaking it with a stick or chair or something.  I suppose those brain enhancing drugs also had the side effect of making them immune from glass shards.

Two more things:

Chimps don't talk because of the shape and development of their voicebox, not because of a lack of intelligence.  The lead-ape in this film wouldn't have all of a sudden developed that if their brain had grown.

Same with their walking.  If you've ever seen an ape walk you'll know that these jokers just put a bunch of CGI over a human body.  Apes are not bi-pedal...they do waddle when they walk on their feet, because they are not evolutionarily designed to do so.

From a standpoint of revolutionary zeal, I'm sure this film was a nice wild ride.

But from a primatologist point of view...this film was a crock.  Seriously, Louis Leakey and Diane Fossey are rolling over in their graves.

Ok, thanks.

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