Movie Reviews # 47…
War for the Planet of the Apes. Matt Reeves, dir. Andy Serkis (of Lord of the Rings fame, as Gollum) does another incredible job as Caesar, the leader of the apes. I liked the ape actors better than the human ones, and for good reason (see below).
Starting with Boule’s book, these stories have never been good or believable sci-fi. Sure, a virus can cause major changes (see my More than Human: The Mensa Contagion, for example), but producing intelligent apes who spend most of a movie on horseback doesn’t qualify as a reasonable futuristic extrapolation. For this movie’s plot, some reviewers have mentioned a parallel with The Ten Commandments (curiously Charlton Heston was in that one as well as the first Planet). I’d go further: This is the biblical Exodus story!
I was sitting in the theater thinking, “The screenwriter has plagiarized this story from somewhere. It’s too familiar.” Walking to the parking lot, it hit me. Can you plagiarize the Bible? Guess so. That aside, you can’t help cheering for the apes; human beings are definitely the bad guys here. The apes are the Jewish slaves from the Exodus story; the nasty humans are the enslaving Egyptians.
I’m not sure who the little girl represents. She’s the only good human around, that’s for sure, but both she and the evil human colonel can recognize the humanity in the apes, especially Caesar. Maybe Reeves wrote her in so not all humans are bad, or he was trying to avoid critics who might scream that he’s sexist. Unlike the original with Heston, there aren’t really any women in Reeves’s trilogy.
This movie is better than the average summer drivel that’s been served up by Hollywood. Wonder Woman beats it as an action flick, though. We’ll see how Spidey does—I wasn’t impressed by the previews.
Aren’t you getting tired of these franchise remakes? Maybe the remake of Murder on the Orient Express will finally kill you with indigestion—I hope not. Can’t they do anything original anymore in Glitter City?
***
Rembrandt’s Angel (a mystery/thriller from Penmore Press). To what lengths would you go to recover a stolen masterpiece? Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone goes the extra mile. She and paramour/sidekick Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, set out to outwit the dealers of stolen art and recover “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Their efforts lead to much more, as they uncover an international conspiracy that threatens Europe. During their dangerous adventures, their relationship solidifies and becomes a full-blown romance. This book is available in ebook format at Amazon and at Smashwords and its affiliate retailers. It’s available as a print version at Amazon, B&N, or your favorite bookstore (if not there, ask for it). Happy reading!
In libris libertas!
