We just finished watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes (for the third time, I think). I have been in love with this franchise ever since I was a kid. I was disappointed with the 2001 version, but Rise was everything I thought I wanted: high production values, standout performances (by James Franco, John Lithgow and Andy Serkis to name three) and, most importantly, a believable and scientifically plausible reason for the not only the rise of the apes, but the fall of mankind as well. There were lots of little "Easter eggs" in there for fans of the original films, not the least of which was the TV news coverage of the manned space flight to Mars and the later newspaper headline "Lost in Space?" But this is a very difficult movie for both Tracy and me to watch, especially knowing in advance what's going to happen every step of the way. The credits sequence of the virus spreading was chilling, especially in the COVID era. I'm not going to summarize the whole movie here, but I will reiterate my previous advice: if you don't like this one, chances are you won't like any of the subsequent ones, either. Okay, now that we're gotten that one out of the way, tomorrow we'll be moving on.
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This, as Douglas Adams might have put it, it the "fourth part of the Planet of the Apes trilogy." It happens "many generations later" and takes the franchise in a new direction. It's actually a good jumping on point because there's nothing a new viewer would need to know in order to follow the story, and if he felt there were, the first three movies are textually summarized at the beginning of the film. There are loads of call-backs to the original franchise. The Walking Dead does a good job with the "city in ruins" trope, but the locations/sets/GCI of Kingdom are absolutely phenominal. Shopping malls and military bases and the LAX International Airport have all been reclaimed by jungle-like growth. Best of all, the end seems to suggest that a certain manned spaceflight may be returning to Earth. (If they had been travelling at near-light speed, the timeline ought to be just about right.) I hope that this is the first part of a whole new trilogy.
I saw the first three films and although I enjoyed them I never felt the need to re-watch. Maybe the downer theme of the movies has kept me away - we have had enough with pandemics and unrest in the real world. I was surprised to see a fourth film released since the third seemed to wrap up the storyline. I wasn't going to watch it but your comments are changing my mind.
Hey, it's the princess chick from The Witcher. She's a brunette here.
I had a laugh out loud moment when Noa (a chimpanzee) and Raka (an orangutan) first discover a feral human female following them. [Joke Spoiler] "We will call her 'Nova'," says Raka. Just as I am thinking, "Oh, come on!" Noa asks, "Why?" to which Raka responds, "We call them all 'Nova.' It is from Caesar's time. No one knows why."
Walking Dead does a pretty good job, if we assume that, along with "Walkers" and "Roamers" and "Lurkers" and so forth, there are also "Mowers" at large. Kingdom does, as you say, a phenomenal job. Recalling the original POTA films, I go into each of these ones with lowered expectations, and then they exceed them, so that I have to watch the next one.
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