Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: I am not having a great deal of luck these days with movies I am seeing in the theatre. After the debaucle that was The Fall Guy, I was anticipating seeing this movie. It had been well hyped, with plenty of commercials and trailers that I have done my best to try and avoid. I wanted to see this latest installment with fresh eyes and an open mind. I was a really big fan of the original from 1968 with Charleton Heston and Roddy McDowell. The last trilogy with Andy Serkis as the focal point with Caesar I quite liked as well. The world was decimated from a man made illness that basically resulted with apes, lead by Caesar, revolting and overtaking the humans. This movie starts with the burial of Casear through cremation by open fire. Then it fast forwards through a number of generations, and the teachings of Casear are being fractionalized. We begin in this new time with three young chimpanees underdoing a tribe ritual where they are to seek an eagle’s egg, obtained from an eagles nest nearby. One of the young apes, Noa (played by Owen Teague) is the son of the tribe’s leader in charge of the eagles and rookery.
In short order, Noa is tasked with seeking revenge for a series of events for which he feels responsible. It is debateable about whether this is the case. There is a competing tribe of apes that was causing havoc. There was also the emergence of a mysterious human who has been seen nearby Noa on occassion. Things happen. There is a situation involving the aggressive apes, seemingly lead by a gorilla, but in fact there is another leader who has taken on the name of Caesar but has twisted the words to be something that seems to reinforce his own position as leader. There is a task which I won’t dive into further, along with the appearance of another human who is helping this leader ape.
For me, despite the references cinematically in scenes that are set, like an attack on the mute human colony in a field of high vegetation by the apes, the efforts to channel the story and feelings of the original fall flat. There is no real connection to the latest Caesar movie trolgy as well. Instead, it is a weak story with very good technical capabilties with the look and feel of the faces of the apes. There is this new human aspect which builds upon the Taylor “if there’s one talking human, then there would be another and another” from back in 1968. But again, it doesn’t translate as well in this instance. Human structures are more front and centre here with the ape population, or at least the leaders, thinking that they need to obtain it to have power or retain it. In short, I didn’t like this very much. The tie in back to the eagle tribe was weak, and it became evident pretty early on that this was the beginning of a new series of films. In other words there wasn’t much resolved in this episode. But sadly the opening volley has to be stronger to make us want to see more. Instead I don’t look ahead towards this future conflict with the humans who would appear to hold a military advantage along with a (possible) intellectual one. This movie made $237M this weekend globally, but I feel that it unfairly leveraged the goodwill from the latest trilogy while not having much new to offer. This is a pass for me.
The Miracle Club: This was a movie recommendation from a colleague. I wanted to check it out when it was mentioned that it was set in Ireland. I had hoped that there would be some quality Irish scenery. Starring Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Laura Linney and others it tells the tale of a small group of older people in a part of Dublin with a history and unresolved conflict.
We have different generations involved, and the death of one of the older women in the community, the mother of the Linney character brings them all together to rehash the stories from the past.
Billed as a comedy, this isn’t very funny. Instead it is filled with more drama as the women’s stories unfold and are retold. Maggie Smith is in mourning for years. Her son passed away years ago. It seems he was very much in love with the Linney character. She decided to leave many years ago to America and not return. Linney had vowed not to see her Mother again. Kathy Bates was her friend at the time. So the community has decided to try and visit a town in France (Lourdes) where in the church there is a statue of Mary which from time to time allegedly performs miracles. Within the group there is a young woman with a son who doesn’t speak. That is one of the issues that they hope to resolve.
For me, movies that try too hard to pull heart strings feel more like manipulation. There are good actresses here from which to gain a quality performance. But it is lacking in strength of plot. It all seems so very artificial. Linney has unresolved issues with her Mom, and also with the other women, principally the Smith character but also with Bates of course who is more direct in her conflict with Linney and what she has done. In the end there are tears and resolution and some apologies. I wish I could say that I enjoyed it but it didn’t really work. I cannot recommend.
Mondays With Robbie 