http://youtu.be/LaK6khs8aMw
Last weekend my entire family went to the theater to watch “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” “Rise” is the prequel to the 1968 movie starring Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell. In a nutshell, “Rise” is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in a theater. Where shall I begin? Well, star James Franco utters only one word, i.e., Caesar, for roughly 30 minutes of this sloowwww-paced bore. Franco’s girlfriend, who appeared in “Slumdog Millionaire”, rarely speaks and is present for no apparent reason. Alas, the actors should not be held accountable; the script is totally lame. And if you intend to watch this movie, stop reading now.
The “Rise” writer(s) stole/copied the plot’s ending from a book that really, truly shook me when I read it years ago. The book, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, was written in 1994. Preston wrote about the ebola virus, which originated in Africa amongst the apes. Preston theorized that the virus could somehow leap from apes to humans and then spread exponentially, given our ability to travel the globe via airplane. “Rise” used this concept to explain the paucity of mankind when apes became rulers.
Even if you go to the theater only to see special effects, my advice is that you should skip this release.
– Mark Erickson
