Analyzing Rise-O-Apes (SPOILERS)

Cracker Funk

Cracker Funk

SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!
DO NOT READ THIS THREAD
IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES!

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Spoiler tags will not be wrapped around anything, because they would need to be wrapped around basically the entire thread. So, just stop reading if you haven't seen it.




Okay, for those of you who've been around long enough to see my uglier side, I promise not to get all Avatar-y. But I gotta talk about this movie; I love it so much!

First of all, I admire it for being rather unique. Actually, there are a ton of reasons why I like this movie. And, I do think it true that in some ways, it's almost cliche. But in one specific way, I think the filmmakers made a rather daring, bold move.

How many movies have a freaking chimp as the protagonist?! That's unusual, to say the least. And if you ask me, the fact that they were able to allow so many in the audience to connect so deeply with a non-human is quite the feat of awesomeness.

I've spent a little time deconstructing the film, from the perspective of the traditional 3 act arc, and I find myself stumped, in more ways than one.

First, there's the issue of the protagonist. I don't think the movie starts with Ceasar as the protag, rather it's Franco's character. But somewhere along the way, our focus transitions. It's not a clearly defined moment, but rather gradual. By the time Ceasar spends his first night in his new confines (right about the time of the "mad-house" line), there's no doubt that this is his story.

I have no clue whether or not this bait-and-switch protagonist method was intentional, but I think it works, brilliantly. We enter the movie prepared to see the apes as bad-guys, but are instead introduced to a chimp character full of vigor, passion, and love for his world. I think that by initially seeing Ceasar through Franco's characters' eyes, we're able to come to accept him as more than just an animal. The first part of the movie, detailing Ceasar's younger years, are so crucial to humanizing him to us, that by the time the balance of the story tips, and he becomes the real protag, we're able to accept him as an extension of us.

On the surface, this is a story of a super-smart chimp rising above his surroundings, demanding the most basic of rights, that of self-determination. Beneath the surface, however, this story is 100% human, a universal message of self-empowerment that's been told time and time again, all the way back to (and before) a tale of a man who parted a sea, in order to set his people free.

Another deconstruction issue that's baffled me is how the story fits into 3 acts, if at all. And, does it have the magical midpoint? If I were forced at gunpoint, I think I'd say that the first act is really long, and that we don't even kick into the 2nd act until Ceasar first enters the communal area of his new confines (when he gets punked by the dominant male of the group). If I had to choose a midpoint (this one, a false-low), I'd say it comes when Ceasar makes the difficult decision to turn away from Franco's character, shutting himself into his own cage. And then, I'd say the 3rd act begins with the big confrontation against Malfoy (which, by the way, just might be my favorite scene).

That's all I've got, for now. Your thoughts?
 
Im not going to spend as much time as you analyzing the movie because i dont have the same feelings for it as you do. I did like it. I thought it was a B, considering what we have seen this year.

One of the things i liked about it kind of goes with ur analysis of its 3 acts structure. I liked how it did not have the mandatory action scenes now and then throughout the movie. I liked how they waited, developed it and then went for the big finale.

Having said that, they did rush the ending imo. If they had just spent a little more time on it and tied it in emotionally with Franco in a better manner, i think the whole thing wouldve had a larger impact on us as we left the theatre.
 
Ernest Worthing said:
Having said that, they did rush the ending imo. If they had just spent a little more time on it and tied it in emotionally with Franco in a better manner, i think the whole thing wouldve had a larger impact on us as we left the theatre.
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I think I can agree with that. It's almost as if his character was forgotten. I really like the ending, insofar as how it ended with the apes simply escaping from the city, but the connection between Franco and Ceasar definitely could have been given more time and space to resolve itself, more naturally.

It's kinda subtle, but I do think it's fairly clear that Ceasar harbors some animosity towards Franco. He sees his fellow chimps being taken away, sees the GenSys tags, and obviously makes the connection that the man who is basically his father is also a major reason why he and the rest of the apes are being mistreated. I definitely think the story could resonate on a deeper level, if they had spent more time exploring that inner conflict, and the impact it had on his relationship with Franco.
 
I loved loved loved the movie. I saw it last sunday and it's still stuck in my head.

re: the ending, it was more than just the apes escaping to the forest! It was also the beginning of a deadly global epidemic.
 
Franco was there to sell movie tickets and because the studio didn't have enough faith in an ape protagonist. However once you've watched the movie it's Caesar that you empathise with, start to finish and Dr Franco gets somewhat forgotten.

I thought that things escalated very quickly and, personally, the action sequences weren't of much interest to me. That said the 'Get your stinking paws of me you damn dirty ape'/'NOOOOOO!' moment was just awesome. I rarely get that sort of gut feeling at the cinema.

I have to say that for a movie that was a foregone conclusion, it was actually very riveting and attention grabbing. Not sure spoiler tags would be necessary on this thread because the rise of the planet of the apes is a plot synopsis as well as title...
 
Dready, when I was earlier talking about the ending, I was just referring to Ceasar's arc, and that ends with that beautiful shot of him (and the other apes) up in the treetops. Anyway, in reference to the end of Ceasar's story, what I like about it is that the apes had no interest in trying to kill a bunch of humans, they just wanted to get the hell away from them.

Nick, the movie definitely has a lot of spoilers. When Ceasar first speaks, for example, that scene is a total shock to most people I've spoken with. And yeah, that is an awesome scene!
 
Yeah a dude in the theater actually yelled out 'WOAH!' when Caesar spoke. Kind of hilarious because it sounded almost exactly the same as the way Caesar said 'NO!' But then it was weird because it caused half the people in the theater to laugh right after the most intense moment in the film.

I really loved the fight at the end. I'm not sure if apes move quite that gracefully and, what's the word I'm looking for... awesomely?... in real life, but they did such a cool job with the apes' movements. Not to mention the strategies they would employ. Not for one second did I think of them climbing up the steel wires or swinging along the underside of the bridge, but it makes perfect sense for them.

Oh and the gorilla with the helicopter... freaking awesome!!

Another highlight of the film: John Lithgow. Really great performance and the character added a lot to the story without being too sad or overshadowing Caesar's story.
 
Cracker Funk said:
Nick, the movie definitely has a lot of spoilers. When Ceasar first speaks, for example, that scene is a total shock to most people I've spoken with. And yeah, that is an awesome scene!
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I have to say that that scene is great and that they couldn't have chosen a better word and sound for the roar, but I was waiting for it all movie! Doesn't everyone know that the apes will learn to speak? :lol:
 
NickClapper said:
Doesn't everyone know that the apes will learn to speak? :lol:
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Sure, we know they will eventually, but honestly I wouldn't have been surprised if that scene hadn't happened. They made everything seem so real and plausible (in a hollywood sort of way) that speaking actually seemed too soon. Until it happened and then it made perfect sense. Like you said, it was the right word and sound for a progression into speech from an apes vocal chords.

But then at the very end with the whole "Caesar is home" line, that surprised me a bit since in no other way had they established that he could produce anything more than rudimentary speech.

But that's not really a plot hole so it doesn't bother me. The plot hole that bothers me is this: so Caesar makes his fellow inmates smart and then they break out. Then he goes to the lab and breaks out the other smart labs. So far so good. But then they hit up the zoo and immediately high-tail it to the forest. But the zoo apes aren't smart. How could they be organized in the fight? Hell, how could they even know what they were doing at all?

And what about the future then? Is Caesar going to lead a break-in at GenSys to steal some more smart-smoke? Or what?
 
NickClapper said:
I have to say that that scene is great and that they couldn't have chosen a better word and sound for the roar, but I was waiting for it all movie! Doesn't everyone know that the apes will learn to speak? :lol:
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Maybe it's the nerd in me, but I assumed they wouldn't. It's physically not possible. Chimps have more than enough brain-power to speak (even without the magic smart-virus), but their tongues are so much farther up their throats that they don't have the same supra-occipital cavity (space inside mouth) that we do. What that means is that they aren't able to manipulate their tongues, or the space in their mouth, the same way that we do, and that capacity is what makes complex language possible. Without it, at best you could have a rudimentary language consisting mostly of grunts.

Yeah, yeah, I know that this is specialized information, and most people are not aware of that very important physical distinction between humans and all other animals, but nevertheless, based on all the trailers, and the first half of the movie, I thought they were going the scientifically-believable route, never letting the apes do anything other than sign, and wow, is this a run-on sentence or what?

Dready, Lithgow was great! Loved him in this movie. Also, how awesome was the way that Ceasar signaled the rest of his troupes to begin the attack, by riding in on a freaking horse? Badass!
 
Dreadylocks said:
Sure, we know they will eventually, but honestly I wouldn't have been surprised if that scene hadn't happened. They made everything seem so real and plausible (in a hollywood sort of way) that speaking actually seemed too soon. Until it happened and then it made perfect sense. Like you said, it was the right word and sound for a progression into speech from an apes vocal chords.

But then at the very end with the whole "Caesar is home" line, that surprised me a bit since in no other way had they established that he could produce anything more than rudimentary speech.

But that's not really a plot hole so it doesn't bother me. The plot hole that bothers me is this: so Caesar makes his fellow inmates smart and then they break out. Then he goes to the lab and breaks out the other smart labs. So far so good. But then they hit up the zoo and immediately high-tail it to the forest. But the zoo apes aren't smart. How could they be organized in the fight? Hell, how could they even know what they were doing at all?

And what about the future then? Is Caesar going to lead a break-in at GenSys to steal some more smart-smoke? Or what?
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Smart-smoke, hehe, nice. Here's my prediction for the sequels:

Human population decimated by virus. However, the few humans that do remain are not cool with those apes hanging out in the Redwood forest, cuz they did attack us, after all (from the human perspective). So, the humans see the apes around SFC as a threat, and try to eradicate and/or capture them.

And that's when the in-fighting amongst the apes begins. Ceasar wants to remain mostly pacifist, only fighting to defend themselves, and/or to escape capture. But then that scary-looking one with the gnarly face (Koba?) wants to lead a violent revolt. Koba gets some supporters, and now it's all-out war.

I don't think they'll need any more smart-smoke, I think their population is large enough that they can just make babies and survive that way.
 
I agree with Dr Funk's predictions, seems very plausible.

I also think that they made a big fuss about the genetic passing of the intelligence as a way of explaining how the clever population would grow, without more of the drug.
 
NickClapper said:
I agree with Dr Funk's predictions, seems very plausible.

I also think that they made a big fuss about the genetic passing of the intelligence as a way of explaining how the clever population would grow, without more of the drug.
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But would you want to mate with a retarded person? Wouldn't it seem like you were taking advantage? Because at the end of the movie, those zoo apes were basically 'special ed.'

I'm assuming any offspring with the gene, even from just one parent, would be 100% smart-normal, so like you said, it'd probably just come out in the wash..
 
Something I noticed on my most recent viewing (last night, was disappointed bt Fright Night, so got my money's worth by sneaking into Apes) -

The compassionate, mostly-peaceful Ceasar has a light face, whereas the angry, violent Koba has a dark face. Now, I highly doubt the filmmakers were racially-motivated, but some people might see it that way. And considering the strong anti-racism theme of the original, I would think they might want to be a little more sensitive to these kinds of issues.

On a seperate note, how many nods to the original are there?

1. There's a chimp named Bright-Eyes.
2. There's a chimp named Cornelia
3. Young Ceasar plays with a toy Statue of Liberty.
4. Fire hose used to supress captives.
5. "It's a madhouse!"
6. "Stinking Paws off me!"

Any others?
 
Haha i just read this whole thing... i totaly agree with all that best part was were Cesar talks, and the bridge fight scene. Im not quite sure why im obsessed with this movie i just thought it was fucking awsome!

On another note.... I feel every movie that malfoy is in, it just makes me not like him even more :lol:
 
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