Movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

[Pandadice]

Cinema is alive and well, just not in Hollywood.

Hah, that's actually how I originally phrased that line, but then I felt bad excluding good current "hollywood directors" like Aronofsky (Despite him only marginally/recently becoming "Hollywood"), Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen Brothers, or hey, even Christopher Nolan (It's awesome what a competent director can do with generic comic book material).

The Island was a good movie, and at the time it was timely commentary on the potential corruption of stem cell research and cloning. I'm not a Scarlett J fan, but she made the movie worth watching, especially in white leather.

The Transformers is a franchise older and more time-tested than you. It deserved a third movie to try to make up for the second one, but needed a new director and direction.

"Elitist art house claptrap"? Really? I blame The Wire (Along with pretty much anything else HBO puts out), but I just find it impossible to tolerate mediocre writing/characters/execution etc. these days. I was never into that mindless explosion stuff, and would much rather watch something like Magnolia, Rocket Science or Children of Men (Which, sure, has plenty of explosions and shoot outs. But there's also a lot more to it, and doesn't let excessive sfx overshadow it's characters and writing). I disagree about The Island. Maybe it was just because the trailer spoiled the entire film, but I just could not get into the movie.

The Transformers is more time-tested than me? What does that even mean, it's been around longer? Tformers started as 30 minute commercials for kids toys. Sure it had awesome characters, and that 80s animated film is super awesome. But don't try to act like the new movies are genuinely trying to uphold some honored franchise. They're just trying to make cash. Sell toys, sell cars, sell whatever else they can get in the movies, all while getting the director and producers a sweet paycheck. Maybe you could say something about the first movie honoring a time-tested franchise, but (And this is true really for all sequels) two and three are nothing more than cash cows. It's like, I want to enjoy a movie because the director has something to say, or it's a legitimately interesting story and setting, not just because it has massive explosions and characters from some show I watched as a kid. Is an interest in legitimate story really grounds for being labeled elitist? I completely agree that the third tformers needed a new director and to go in a new direction, unfortunately it did not, in anyway, go in an even slightly different direction.

Planet of the Apes is a time-tested franchise older than you, and no matter how time-tested it is, I highly doubt this new movie is going to do it justice.

ps. on the double "of the" name conversation, I don't mind it. The old movies all have that "Escape from the...", "Conquest of the..., "Battle for the...," so it's keeping inline with the old movie titles. And that'll probably be the only noticeable link between this new movie and the old ones.. I mean, if they didn't keep the naming scheme, it could've passed as some completely different project.