Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes redesigned as Planet of the Apes (1968) poster

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes redesigned as Planet of the Apes (1968) poster

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Would love to know your thoughts on the Planet of the Apes series, or at least the newest movie!
This is so kind of you, to ask!
I started watching those movies before my formal education. And they're in that teeny little corner of my brain where I just like things, without having examined why I like them. In that teeny little corner, I have my critical thinking and movie analyzation turned off, and I just enjoy things like singing animals even if the movie is objectively bad (I'm looking at you Alpha & Omega đ« ) or Transformers. So yeah, Planet of the Apes falls in there.
I know. I just made a post about how important it is to train your tastes for good stories, and accept no junk food...and then the very next post was like "the future is meaningless but the monkey movie is now" ^^" Look there's a time and place for examining why you like things and I'm just saying I haven't gotten down the list to why I like the monkey movies yet!
Until now! Partly because you're asking, partly because watching the new one made me start to think about what I liked about the first three...because the new one hit me differently. So what I'm getting at is, I'll answer you, but I'm going to be "thinking out loud" and we'll find out what I think of those movies as I type, and it's going to be rambly. Sorry! (Skip to the bottom to read about the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.)
I Miss Caesar
My favorite character in these movies is actually Koba, but Caesar is the heart and soul of them.
There's nothing particularly unique about Caesar as a main characterâhe's a coming-of-age, great-leader-from-nothing Savior-type character. He doesnât have many character flaws, heâs the idealist, etc.
But what makes you, the audience, love Caesar so much is that you get to see his story, and the whole driving hook of the moviesââapes with human intelligenceââembodied in him, from the very beginning.
Caesar has two really awesome things going for him. The first is that he is an ape, and you get to see his intelligence and his empathetic, human nature, grow in real-time. The audience is excited to see how heâll respond to the simplest thing because heâs so believably a super-intelligent ape. Youâre like, âooo, he just noticed that heâs wearing a leash, and the dog is wearing a leash, so how will he respond to that comparison? Ooo, now heâs meeting other apes, is he going to notice that they arenât as smart as him? Ooo, he just attacked a neighbor, but heâs smarter than the average animal on a rampage, so how will he feel about the moral repercussions of violence?â We want to watch an animal thatâs becoming self-aware; it almost doesnât matter what heâs doing, weâll watch it, because thatâs fascinating. Thatâs the first thing he has going for him.
But then the second thing he has going for him is that, even if he were human, heâs just a really inspiring, likeable character. If you rewrite Caesar as a human (but somehow keep the equivalent of âgradually becoming self-aware of his uniqueness as a creatureâ plot point) his story is still really compelling. Think about that scene where he learns what he is, for the first time, point-blank.
Once he learns who he is and what he is, he does not immediately turn bitter, or resent his adoptive father, or even try to change the status quo of his own life. He looks sad, and very contemplative about it, but when he loses his temper and gets taken to the ape sanctuary, he still wants to go back home. He wants to go back to living in an attic, with brief excursions to the woods on a leash. At that point he already knows, on some level, that heâs a super-intelligent freak of nature and could resent Will for making him that way or keeping him a secret. But he doesnât.
He also shows mercy to Rocket, the bully ape, and makes him super-intelligent.
He also shows signs of being interested in Cornelia, his eventual wifeâbefore she turns super-intelligent. While sheâs still significantly stupider, on a whole lower plane of intelligence, than him.
They give him all these little touches, like the fact that he wants to play ball with the other apes immediately when he meets them, instead of being shy, or treating their naked stupid selves like theyâre beneath him. Like the fact that he asks Willâs permission before he goes climbing. Like the fact that he gives them all super-human intelligence, instead of keeping that superpower for himself and leveraging it to his own advantage, or gatekeeping it for only the apes who are nice to him.
Heâs awesome because heâs got all the protective, trusting, loving, humility of our favorite pets. But then he takes all those pure qualities and combines them with supernatural intelligence, and ânoble leader of the packâ traits. So he feels like a wise king, even in the second movie, when, from our perspective, he should just beâŠa naked ape who talks in broken English and lives in a tree fort.
Probably the best character trait of Caesarâs is that he inherits this âfamilyâ mentality from his adoptive father, Will. He thinks that the difference between apes and humans is that apes are loyal and love one another, specifically âlike a family.â
And what that means to Caesar is that you would do anything to keep your family safe. Because thatâs what Will did. Will only made the serum that started this whole franchise because he was trying to cure his father of Alzheimerâs. Will was always willing to break rules and cheat the system and change the world if it meant he could keep his family safe, and that included Caesar, who was not his blood relation.
So to Caesar, being a family means you would never hurt the people in your family; you canât hurt them yourself, and you canât let anyone else hurt themâand you canât do things that would lead to them getting hurt, like starting a war.
And thatâs just really appealing. A noble leader whose whole heart is âfamily,â but also, heâs this really interesting animal-that-learns-human-empathy.
I was going to talk about Koba, but this is too long, so maybe in another post. Suffice to say, I think the first two movies do a really good job of pacing everything, so that you have plenty of time to fall in love with Caesar, feel like youâve watched him discover who he is and decide what to do with that in real-time, and then feel fully invested in the world heâs trying to build.
Basically what Iâm saying is, I think I just really love Caesar, and so does everyone else who watches him, because heâs really well-done. And Andy Serkis smashes this role out of the park. Itâs like my favorite thing heâs ever done. He does it perfectly. And in the fourth movie, I just go into itâŠalready missing Caesar.
War For the Planet of the Apes
I didnât like this movie as much as the first two. The first two Iâve seen over and over again. But the third one is not as enjoyable.
I think I donât enjoy it because a lot of it feels like gratuitous misery. I mean, I understandâtraditionally, in an epic-scale trilogy, you develop your main characters over the course of the first two movies. They learn who they are, they commit to a mission statement born out of the lessons theyâve learned, and then, in the third movie, that lesson learned gets tested with the âultimate challenge.â
Well, so, Caesar learned he was the leader of basically a naive species and the founder of a new worldâand the lesson he took from that was, âto keep my family safe, I must protect them from hate.â (I know thatâs broad, but what I mean by that is, Caesar initially took the apes to the woods when they were ârebornâ as their own species to hide them from humans, who would fear and hate what they couldnât understand. But then he had to protect them from a new form of hatred; the hatred of Koba, and other apes like him, who hated humans so much and hated anyone else being in power so much that he was willing to hurt âfamilyâ to satisfy that hatred.
So whatâs the ultimate test of âto keep my family safe, I must protect them from hate?â Giving Caesar hate. Caesar is not a hateful character. Heâs like the total opposite of thatâthatâs why he can single-handedly defend the ape species from Hate in general.
But you murder his wife and child in the first part of the movie?
Thatâll do it!
Plus, itâs been a long, hard fight and nothing he has done since the âwarâ against âhateâ started seems to be working, so heâs understandably tired even before Blue Eyes and Cornelia die. Then they die. And then the rest of the tribe gets nabbed. And Caesar is ready to focus all his energy on revenge, just like Koba.
So yeah, thatâs the correct âultimate testâ of everything Caesar has learned as a character, to put him through in this trilogy. But honestly, it was just too sad to enjoy watching.
And remember how I said that the two things Caesar has going for him as a character that make the movies (which are all about him) so enjoyable are:
Heâs a well-written, inspiring character outside of being an ape (we just talked about that side of the 3rd movie, how itâs the conclusion to that character.)
The movies are well-paced so that youâre fascinated by watching an animal become increasingly human-like and empathetic, without losing the best parts of a noble/niave/animal nature
Well. The problem is that, because of the way these movies go, the apes have to become less animal as the story goes on. The whole point is that theyâre as smart as humans now. So theyâll make human-like mistakes, and start to come to some of the same âconclusionsâ as âearly manâ did.
What Iâm saying boils down to, they stop acting so much like believable apes in War for the Planet of the Apes. They talk out loud more often than they pantomime or speak through obvious body language. Heck, Caesar has full on monologues or confrontations with the human villain, the Colonel, in the third movie.
What made his interactions with humans before so appealing to watch was that he would still act like an ape. When he wants the humans to drive him to his old home, he just lays in the back of the car and grunts and taps the window when theyâre getting close to make them stop, without explaining himself. Like your dog might, straining at his leash toward home when he wants to be done walking. But we, the audience, like that sort of thing because with Caesar, we know thereâs human levels of understanding behind all the appealing animal actions that make us think of our pets.
Itâs that sweet savage naivety. Itâs that fascinating simplicity meeting human wonder. You like watching Malcolm try to explain why they need to get the generators on, while Caesar just silently looks back and forth from him to the machines, because itâs fun to try and figure out whatâs going on in his head. Itâs fun to watch how the animal with superhuman intelligence will communicate that he sort of understands what the stranger wants. Itâs also fun to see how the new species of superhuman apes will still act like animals with each other.
The whole fact that, even though theyâre just as smart and technically non-savage, mentally, as we are, but thereâs still a part of the apes that will just follow Koba if he beats Caesar in a fistfight, is fascinating. The fact that Caesar is the most âevolvedâ of the apes, mentally and emotionally, but when Koba challenges his leadership or insults his love for his family, Caesar will just straight-up start ripping him to pieces with his fists, is fascinating. You keep watching to see what an anthropomorphized animal really looks like, because they make that part so believable.
But in War for the Planet of the Apes, the Apes donât have that contrast as much. Youâre not getting to see civilized, fully-realized human characters share you, the audienceâs, fascination with apes who are still figuring out what it means to be empathetic. Youâre not watching anthropomorphized animals anymore as much as youâre watchingâŠhairy, superstrong humans. Which brings us tooooâŠ
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Sorry it took so long to get to the part you asked me about đ
Theyâre just hairy, superstrong humans in this movie. Thatâs all. Theyâre very clearly super-humanly intelligent, they walk less like apes and swing through trees almost not-at-all after the first climbing part of the movie. They talk out loud (even though sign language wasnât completely abandoned, which I appreciated) even when theyâre just talking to themselves. They look more human, in the face. Itâs just a joy to watch Koba, and in this movie, Proximus, even though theyâre bad guys, because those two characters have the most animal-like faces. So you love to watch their snarly, long snouts and teeth speak human words, in ape-tones.
But the main ape characters all have human-like faces. Too human-like. They look uncanny-valley-y in some shots. (Except Anaya, who I liked best out of the new main three apes.)
And like I said, they have these more-advanced cultures, which just makes them feel more human. It felt like I was watching a movie about, like, a tribe of post-apocalyptic humans meeting the leftovers of civilized humanity. Not anthropomorphized animals meeting the leftovers of civilized humanity.
I kept waiting for the apes to have those fascinating interactions with the human characters. I kept waiting for May to teach something to Noa and the other apes, and for them to get all fascinated and have like, an animal reaction. That never really happened. The closest moment to that was when she switches on the lights in the bunker and the apes whoop and stumble around confusedly. Or when Noa learns to curse. đ« Also, the apes donât have any kind of interesting reaction when May murders the other human of her own kind. They just stand there, looking sort of surprised, while dramatic music plays and May looks stressed. It felt like that shouldâve been a moment where the apes realize something profound or scary about humanity (that sheâd turn on her own so quickly,) or respond to her like they might an alpha-animal who just killed a challenger, or something like that. But that doesnât really happen.
The movie was kind of full of moments like that, where it felt like they were building toward something profoundâŠand then concluded on a vague or undecided note. Can humans and apes live side by side? âŠWe donât know. Was Caesar using apes for his own gain, or was he a noble elder? We donât know. (Well, we do, but the main characters donât.) Was May just trying to re-establish a communicating human community, or are she and the other humans out to retake the apesâ world? We donât know.
Other random notes:
The cinematography was really good. There were moments where I felt like I was standing in the scene, or like I was on a ride at Disney World that believably sprays you in the face with water even though itâs a virtual environment, or pumps the smell of trees into the room to make you feel like youâre there. I donât know what it was about the way this was shot, but I felt like I could feel the sun, and the wind, and smell the rain, etc. I actually canât remember the last time a movie made me feel that way, so the cinematography was great. The animation is good, too, despite the uncanny valley ape faces.
I canât decide if I like Noa. I could tell they were being very protective of the value of slow pacing, and maybe that âfeel-like-youâre-inside-the-screenâ cinematography was meant to help with this, but I also felt like they were trying to make us feel like we were vicariously on Noaâs long, scary, melancholy adventure with him. It was definitely supposed to be an epic-scale coming-of-age for that ape character.
But I was a little bored. I didnât need to see him walk from one end of a field of vision to the other every single time he entered a new area. (Especially not when heâs just walking, or worse, sitting on a horse whoâs just walking. When heâs an ape. And all you want to do is see him climb and swing and flip.) I also thought the actor did a really good job of emoting, but there were so many scenes of him choking on blood after a hard fall or a fight, or crying, or gazing sadly into the middle distance for a long time. It was like, âI get it. I donât need so much of this.â
Also, there were things I didnât care about emotionally that I felt like I should have, in order to empathize with Noa. First off, his father and his fatherâs death. Noa made lots of anxious expressions and clearly wanted to please his father, I guessâŠbut there wasnât really an indication that his father was a tough guy to please. Or that they were super close. We didnât get enough scenes with the father before he died to make us feel emotion that would carry us all the way through Noaâs journey, in my opinion. Even his two best friendsâI felt like they were building up to some thematic thing about growing up together, doing everything together, etc. But they didnât. That sort of went nowhere.
I also felt like the most compelling parts of the movie were when May had not yet revealed herself to be intelligent, and Noa didnât like herâŠbut they were slowly starting to trust and understand each other. When she stands up and calls his name, that was my favorite part of the movie. Not because it was a great callback to the impactful, iconic âThe Animal Spokeâ moments of Caesar. But because it was her, a dumb brute, learning to trust and rely on this alien-like creature that was so much smarter than her, and building that dynamic.
It was just that I was missing âanimal interacts with humanâ fascination. But then it turns out theyâre both human. Noa is just hairy and strong, and May is not.
Also I didnât love the whole spin they took to communicate ânature over unnatural progressâ with Proximus. I get it. The eagles are symbolic of nature and living in harmony with it. Proximus is symbolic of trying to cheat nature and jump the gun unnaturally. But Iâm a Christian. I donât find anything compelling, inherently, about the idea that itâs ânatureâ that causes us to âevolveâ to what weâre âmeant to be.â It also doesnât even make sense within the context of these movies. You canât have it both ways. You canât have the reason apes become super intelligent and free be a non-natural drugâŠand still say that the non-natural drug was a bad choice with world-ending consequences. Which is it? Try to control nature? Or donât? Because if you donât, the apes still get treated like dumb brutes and rounded up for experimentation. And Alzheimerâs is never cured. But if you do, yes the brutes get freedom, but all of humanity goes through a brutal virus, your fatherâs suffering is prolonged, and your girlfriend tells you âsome things arenât meant to be tampered with.â
So like, which is it? Should the vault be opened and shared with the apes? Or should the eagles knock the mean unnatural King Ape off the cliff? I donât know.
I donât love that the movie ends with so much of that. But I guess it had to. Thats the logical next step of a series that is about a new species continually growing to be more human, and itâs the next step for setting up the next phase.
So thatâs how I felt about all of that! Thanks for asking. Maybe I will talk about Koba someday.
The sweet Maurice makes clear his intention to Nova jajajj( Ë âĄË)ăâ„Â
Cornelius has stolen Caesar's bananas and eats them in the tree (àč>âĄ<àč)~â€

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