But at the same time, there was something to it.
"How the hell did they take over the planet?"
Cenk Uygar, host of The Young Turks (www.theyoungturks.com) said that quote best in his review of the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBGOQvNz3vA. I mean, that's why I went to see the movie. Because as dumb as I thought it looked originally, I figured it would at least get me thinking. Either it would leave me saying, "And that's why apes will never take over," if it was illogical, or, "Now I see how they could take over," if it made sense.
After seeing the movie, now I see how they could take over.
Alright, maybe it is a bit of a stretch--and I'll get to why in a second--but if you look past a few minor logical fallacies, it makes sense. Since this was a sci-fi, intellectual type movie, I'll stick more towards reviewing the intellectual side of it. I could spend hundreds of words saying that I liked the movie and why I liked the movie, but I think it should suffice if I simply tell you that yes, I recommend you watch this movie, and yes, it was a good movie.
As for the logic of the plot. The first problem the movie had was this, the drug that made the apes smarter, wasn't really a drug designed to make apes smarter. It was designed to cure Alzheimer's disease. So to me, it's a bit of a stretch to then say that it can make people and apes smarter.
The second problem was a bit less forgivable than the first, because the movie brought it upon itself for no reason. The drug (which was really a virus), alz-112, cured Alzheimer's in people, but then the body's immune system would destroy it and the disease would return. Then the movie said that ape's immune systems were even stronger, but for some reason, Caesar--the main ape--never lost any intelligence. Shouldn't have have lost intelligence even quicker? And if the drug was going to kill people anyway, why even bother to say that its effects are temporary?
Another incredibly minor problem was that it is extremely implausible that the drug could work successful on all primates, but then kill humans. Humans and Chimps share around 98% of DNA, and yet the drug had completely different affects on the two species. Then gorillas and orangutans also just happened to react in the exact same way that the chimps did.
Other than that though, it made sense. I could see how if a drug could make monkey's smarter, then they could organize an escape like that, and band together long enough to let most or all of the humans die, and then repopulate the planet. The only question it leaves then is this: How did humans travel forward through time to reach the Planet of the Apes? Weren't all the people dead by then? And if they weren't, wouldn't they have been living in the Planet of the Apes already?
I hate to make it seem like it was a bad movie, because it wasn't, but that's what it left me thinking. And it also left me thinking about a sequel. The end of the movie seemed rather rushed to me with only about a minute's worth of screen time explaining that a pilot caught the virus, and then in the background of the credits it showed the virus spreading around the world. This leaves me wondering if there really will be a sequel. I can't imagine them not doing it, but I also can't imagine it being successful. I think the best chance of a sequel would involve the apes building a time machine as their civilization grows, but I'm not sure what the movie would really be about. Who are the good guys and bad guys then?
Speaking of good guys and bad guys, I'll leave you with one last thought. Who were the good guys and the bad guys in this movie? The antagonist was supposed to be the business man running the gen sys labs, but he didn't really do anything wrong. He didn't torture the apes like the guy at the "Ape jail", and he didn't even release the drug to the public. So in my opinion he didn't do anything wrong. And even the guy at the Ape jail can't really be the antagonist because even though he was a jerk, he was still just doing his job. So in the end who were the good guys and bad guys?
I give the movie a 7.5 out of 10. If you ever need to rent a movie, give this one a shot.
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