Fred and Loathing on The Internet

King of The Apes Usurped By Guerilla Warfare

2025-Jan-12

The fires of editorial burn bright early in the year! We have yet another blog post, mere days since the last one. Although there have been a few books I have read to completion lately, none of them leap out at me as amusing writing pursuits. There have been some long-running commentaries I have stacked up in my head for some sitcom with which I have become acquainted. If they stay too long, those witty thoughts will wither away. What a shame! I know there are people out there clamoring to hear my thoughts on the plight of the urban poor presented so blithely in the 1970s sitcom Good Times.

My thoughts on the latest release in the Planet of the Apes franchise will be enough to hold down the clamor until then. I believe this would be the fourth movie since the re-dawn of the Apes, Planet of The franchise. This new imagining I believe began over twelve years ago with that one with James Franco. Where he raises a smart chimp that gets smart drugs, which inadvertently causes a pandemic among humans; thus bringing the apes other than humans as the now dominant species of the planet.

It looks to be about ninety-five percent chimps in this latest movie. In most of these Planet of the Ape movies chimps (or possibly bonobos?) get all the screen time. Maybe because it is easier to commit to one type of costume/makeup setup. No matter the reason, this latest film relegates the gorillas and orangutans to one character a piece. Gibbons are mentioned by the orangutan character, yet have not made any appearances in any of the films, to my recollection. Perhaps a more casual movie audience or even a studied cinema critic does not take notice of this at all. The apes part is a big draw for me. Frankly though, this ‘new’ trilogy cycle that this fourth movie is supposed to be starting might as well have been called Planet of the Chimp(anzees).

I do remember finding the first two of these recent Ape Planet movies. Not enough to watch them more than once. Neither to dig any deeper about their production or creators. I can’t fathom a good reason why I ought not like a movie that does a decent job of presenting apes that can act.

The original movies were too deep in 1970s movie production techniques for me to enjoy. They tried their best, but what I saw as a child was British actors wearing werewolf makeup. Charlton Heston also had a grandpa vibe despite being not that old. The idea of this movie tickled my fancy as a kid. Enough to give the movie a try. It was no Star Wars. That was a 70s science fiction movie that had enough splashy effects to not feel so cheap as Dr. Zaius did.

The Tim Burton edition was released when I was in high school. When my taste in cinema was inchoate, not the very refined taste I have now. At the time, the idea of a Tim Burton world of apes sounded plausible enough. What I saw did not have any Tim Burton flair. No heavy black and white contrasts. No black and white stripes. Once again The Plant of the Apes looked like British (or sometimes American now!) actors hamming it up. This time with improved makeup and costumes. Not cheap looking at all. Yet still looking theatrical rather than natural. I kinda remember some very choreographed looking fights of humans in chimp or gorilla suits fighting each other with ape kung fu. Why did they hire Tim Burton to put that together?


What I admire about this round of smart apes in post-human society movies was the special effects had reached the level where chimps could be convincingly rendered. Not just looking like a chimp when still, or sounding like one from a heavy ape mask. Now the chimps had dynamic faces and bodies. They were moving, climbing, and jumping like tree dwelling creatures! I say this with glee because apes just somehow delight me.

That is what I think is most important in the Planet of the Apes movies. The apes! And this one has the most screen time for apes as main characters. There are only two speaking parts for humans. Well, from what I’ve gathered, the actors portraying the voices had some motion capture done to aid the animation process. On screen, there are only two human faces.

A primal revenge tale is what the main character pushes through in the first two acts. A story that could very well fit an origins story for a Conan the Barbarian remake. The film begins what seems to be generations after the third movie, that I suppose ended with some conclusion about the first generation of smart apes v. human relations. However that did end, generations later Caesar, the hero chimp of the prior three movies, has become a mythical hero. This fourth movie has a new young clever male chimp protagonist, part of a pastoral clan, seemingly unaware of their clan’s long term history and unaware of Caesar, or humans, or anything beyond doing what his clan does best. Which is raising eagles as pets.

The movie then puts the big scary world inside this village, and then puts our protagonist on a journey through the world outside his clan’s hunting grounds. Even before our hero ape is out on a quest going across scenic vistas, the director uses wide angle shots right away to show scale. Chimps are swinging around derelict skyscrapers, nestled in squarish blocks of dense urban jungle. This movie not only gives you plenty of apes, it gives you sweeping landscape vistas. Essentially a movie about a war orphan going out on an adventure to right the wrongs of his people.

For the first two acts of the movie I enjoyed this sparse dialogue and sumptuous scenery. The story is exposed by showing rather than telling. Those actors playing grandiose roles are stymied in their chances to ham it up with British accents. Instead it's an expertly shot adventure film, with old fashioned horseback tricks. How much was actual horsemanship or well made animation, I can’t say. I immensely enjoyed the hunt in the tall grass that mimicked the scene of the original film. Most of the complicated action scenes were handled with care; to give the audience an idea of what is happening.

The third act of this very long film faltered from my attention. Once the quest was over, bringing our ape hero’s journey to its final setting, there was so much talking instead of action. Which in itself is not an indictment on any movie. All the talking was very predictable pathos for the warlord monkey and the self-righteous young human girl. The other human speaking part besides the teenage girl that puts the kibosh on the ape warlord’s plans is William H. Macy, playing a cynical advisor to the warlord. I would have liked to have heard from him more.

The very last thirty minutes or so does include more of that expertly shot action that made up the Western adventure in the first two acts. These thirty minutes are in an enclosed space that feels more artificial than the natural vistas from before. Whatever the reason, I found it to be computer generated imagery soup instead of a sensational kinetic display of apes swinging around.

As far as Planet of the Apes movies go, this one might be at the top. I do remember the second of the new ones having some cool monkeys on horseback fighting humans with machine guns scenes. Why did I not seem to enjoy it enough to recall what the import of the story was? I do not know. I do remember the third one felt tired. The ideas of ‘humans can be so cruel’ in the first two acts and then finding out in the third ‘it’s only because they don’t understand’ was not as fresh as the last two. On its own, it was an OK retelling of a primal hero rising. A regular Joseph Campbell special.