Planet of the Apes: Rise vs Conquest

[samurainoir]

I went back and watched Conquest for the first times since I was a kid and it's kind of interesting to see how both are really films of their respective eras... yet had more similarities than I would have thought.

Conquest is definitely a heavy handed US Civil Rights parable. Easily comparable thematically to District 9 as only a South African filmmaker could produce within a dozen or so years after the end of Apartheid.

Rise on the other hand is all about corporate greed with a specific finger pointed at the Pharmas. With a dash of SARS/Bird Flu pandemic thrown in for good measure.

It is fascinating how Rise does lean on Conquest for a certain amount of latter half story structure, in addition to the springboards... like Ceasar's human "father".

As much acclaim James Franco has had recently, I'd have to say that Ricardo Montalbahn was easily just as effective with much much less to work with in terms of script and screentime.

Serkis over McDowell though... given the amount of his facial nuance and body language managed to shine through the motion capture vs Conquest's heavy prosthetics. All without the use of spoken language that McDowell had going for him.

All in all I think both stand up pretty well as products of their own individual time periods. Rise really works as a reinvention of Conquest, and generally hits the right emotional notes more effectively than Conquest which sags a bit under the weight of it's message.

[Hector]

Oh no...on your mark...get set...GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hector]

God...I hope there's not too much blood on this thread...but I can see it coming now...

[torgospizza]

I kind of agree. just having re-watched Conquest in the past week, it really struck me how anthropomorphic the apes were acting (the girl chimp fluttering her eyelids at Ceasar when it was mating time, f.ex.) and how small the gorillas were. The CGI clearly beat out the makeup, as great as it was for the time. It doesn't bother me so much in the films that take place later, as they've had time to evolve a bit (although that would never occur naturally in such a short time span). The new one did have some moments beyond corporate greed messages, too, such as when Ceasar refused to get in the back of the station wagon, and didn't want to be treated like a pet. It's easy to see how they are both products of their respective times: then we questioned society and viewed it as destructive to others, now we question those running society and view it as self-destructive. For it's time, Conquest was mind-blowing for a kid, but although I think kids respond well to Rise, I'm not entirely sure kids are their target audience.

[shainentinpock]

The CGI clearly beat out the makeup, as great as it was for the time

I don't know i really admire conquest because they managed to do all the effects without digital technology. I don't know why but in the new movie you could tell they used special effects which kind of made it less believable for me.
__________________
I don't like board games but Angry Birds Knock On Wood looks interesting.

[torgospizza]

I don't know why but in the new movie you could tell they used special effects which kind of made it less believable for me.

You have a discerning eye, I think. A couple people I went with were convinced the orangutan, Maurice, was an actual ape and not CGI.

[Hector]

I don't know i really admire conquest because they managed to do all the effects without digital technology. I don't know why but in the new movie you could tell they used special effects which kind of made it less believable for me.

But at the same token...in the old one...you could easily tell there was a dude behind that rubber make up as well...so not really believable either...but that's the key for all these movies...suspend disbelief...that's what movie watching is all about.

Wouldn't you agree?

[babycyclops]

I saw 'Rise' today, and enjoyed it very much, although there were one or two things that stop it from being a great film, in my opinion.

First off, I really wanted to see apes wailing on humans much more than the film showed. Every time an ape was about to smash a person, Ceasar showed up and and shook his head...LAME!

I felt pretty enganged and sympathetic with the character of Ceasar, there were only a few times that the CG effects range false, so in general I thought fx were successful.

The ape revolt came too late in the picture for me. The movie was more about Ceasars rise to power in the ape prison, than about apes taking over a city. This is fine if a sequel is on it's way, but if not, the picture did not have the epic scope that I've come to expect from an apes movie. This is meant to be the PLANET of the apes.

In general, I'm pretty amazed at how careful the film-makers were to explain every step that the apes took towards becoming more intelligent.
Personally, I can make a few imaginative leaps... I don't need every step of the process explained to me.

Having said all that, the action scenes were exciting. The camera didn't move around too much (a good thing) and it was lots of fun to watch a bunch of marauding apes.

Tone-wise, I think Conquest wore it's social message much more on it's sleeve. To me, the observations about Pharmacutical companies in Rise were more about setting up some bad guys than making any overt political/social statement.

[Nostalgiabuff]

I think it is a great staging point to jump start the whole franchise again. I know sandy had posted about the budget and profitability, and I trust his knowledge of such things, but I hope he is wrong and that the movie overall does make profit and a sequel gets made.
You know, Conquest, did not have a whole lot of action either until towards the end. it was all buildup for what was to come, even though, that movie was actually a sequel and not the start of the series.
I think, if they continue the series, part of what needs to be changed, is the amount of time that elapses between conquest and the era when Taylor arrives in the future. 3 thousand years did not really sit well (for me).

[babycyclops]

I think it is a great staging point to jump start the whole franchise again. I know sandy had posted about the budget and profitability, and I trust his knowledge of such things, but I hope he is wrong and that the movie overall does make profit and a sequel gets made.
You know, Conquest, did not have a whole lot of action either until towards the end. it was all buildup for what was to come, even though, that movie was actually a sequel and not the start of the series.

I would be more than happy if this was the first of a new series, and yes, the action did come pretty late in Conquest, too.