Movie Series Review - Planet of the Apes (Reboot)

I think its fair to say that a lot of us now are really bored of all these constant zombie apocalypse films that play out the same way every time. But when I came across this franchise, I felt a sign of relief in that people are trying out other ways of seeing the human race struggling for survival against a race that are rising from being nothing to a force to not be reckoned with that aren't zombies. I've seen two films in this franchise and glimpses of the older films and other media so for today, we'll be talking about the reboot series and we'll look at the older films and other media at a later time. For now, let's see if this can be enough to kick the a** of those zombie things:

Rise

So we come to this biotechnology company called Gen-Sys where scientist Will Rodman (played by the charming, but always cast as the jerk sort of character in every film he's in, James Franco) is testing a viral-based drug called ALZ-112 on chimpanzees in the hopes to find a cure for brain ailments. Bright Eyes, one of these chimps, is given this drug, but as a result, she goes on a rampage and gets killed. However, as the research is terminated due to this incident, Will is convinced to save Bright Eyes baby and raise it as his own. This baby has managed to get the drug that Bright Eyes had into him and Will's ill father Charles (played by the shortest lord ever, John Lithgow) names him Ceaser (motion captured by motion capture legend Andy Serkis). Ceaser is then set into the wild and in turn, Will uses the same drug on his father to cure him and is successful in doing so. This then leads to a series of events where Ceaser questions his identity and origins and begins a rebellion of chimps to go against the humans for control. I thought this film was very good and a welcome reboot that was very much needed to help balance the amount of zombie things. Its emotional, dramatic and one film that tells us all to never underestimate the power that an ape can have which I think was the message that this film was trying to get across and it did that very well. 9/10

Dawn

So with the better than expected film being so good, a lot of pressure was put onto its sequel and honestly, its even better than the first one. So the same drug that Will used in the last film has caused the human race to collapse following martial law, civil unrest and economic collapse of every country in the world. In San Francisco, a group of humans immune to the virus are living in a guarded tower in the hopes that someone can find them and take them to a more secure place. In the nearby forest, Ceaser has managed to create a family of apes that are prepared to defend their home from whatever comes their way. They meet a small group of armed humans and ask them to leave. Ceaser and a large group of apes, go to the human refuge where they tell the humans to remain in their refuge and they do not want war, but are prepared to defend their home if need be. In turn, the apes will stay in their home too. The leader of the small group of humans Malcolm (played by Australian actor Jason Clarke), goes to Ceaser's village and convinces Ceaser to allow the humans to restart the generator with help from the apes. Ceaser allows this, under the condition that no weapons are to be used and must be given up to the apes. But when one of Ceaser's forces decides to take matters into his own hands to start a war against the humans, its up to Malcolm, Ceaser and whatever forces they may have from preventing the war to happen. As I said, this is better than the first in that its more about both sides not wanting to make war, but are prepared to defend each others turf from anything that comes to them and its basically a desperate struggle for survival on both sides and its very enjoyable and once again, makes it clear to not underestimate apes because they are from the same family of animals as us and in turn are just as intelligent as us (even if they don't show it). 9/10

I have to admit, I had my doubts about this series because I wasn't really that convinced that it would be that good and yet having seen at least 2 of the films in this franchise, I do enjoy them a lot. It tells us never to underestimate things that we find to be less inferior than us as well as that we all need to survive somehow because who knows, maybe an apocalypse will happen and maybe something will happen that will cause the human race to collapse and leave only a handful standing. 9/10