Veni, vidi, vici

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

NoHa

The opening scene draws an unsubtle parallel between the capture of chimpanzees for medical research and the capture of humans for the slave trade (yes, either a very reckless or a very brave brave parallel, but bear with me), and soon the research apes are subjected to genocide, and later the one survivor finds himself in a prison movie, and finally he gets to lead a full-fledged revolution of his oppressed comrades.

In other words, even though big-time movie star James Franco plays a well-intentioned human, there is never a moment's confusion about which species deserves our sympathy. Fortunately, there aren't enough well-intentioned humans to cloud that issue, so when one of the nastiest homo less-sapiens-than-he-oughta-be's quotes Charlton Heston's "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" from the 1968 film we're kinda stoked to know that things aren't going to go well for him.

Much has been made of the smart and sensitive use of special effects, including those that translate Andy Serkis into Caesar. In the inevitable sequel (hell, the epilogue essentially reveals the plot of it), the apes will presumably have learned to drive Hummers and fly planes and tweet, but it is way cool to see them bound in huge numbers--and to see them negotiate the Golden Gate Bridge high and low. One gripe: when Caesar finally speaks to his estranged stepfather, was it really necessary to have him refer to himself in the 3rd person, like Tarzan or Deion Sanders?

Trailers

• In Time--I came in late (yeah, I know--but this whole trip was a last-minute decision), so I really shouldn't judge, but it looks like an excuse for Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried to look terrific. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
• John Carter--Similarly, there seems no reason for this to exist other than to tell us Friday Night Lights fans what Taylor Kitsch (Riggins) is going to do now. Go to Mars, apparently.
• The Sitter--Jonah Hill seems to be determined to become the Olivier of dumb.