Monday, August 08, 2011

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Went to watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes yesterday with YeeMaggio. Why did I choose this? Because James Franco is in it. Seriously, that guy is like perfect, no? There are many handsome actors out there. There are many talented actors. While some are handsome and talented at the same time, to be like James Franco who's really handsome, talented, and actually really intelligent (the guy is pursuing a phd and also teaches in a university) is rare. In fact I cannot think of any other actor who's like him. He's really handsome that I relished everytime he appeared on the screen :P I guess for that same reason, I don't like Freida Pinto's character much and to be honest her character didn't really make much a difference in the movie. I was actually pretty annoyed when they had to kiss before James Franco's character dashed off to talk to Caesar, the chimp. It's not because of the fact they kissed (which wasn't a really good kiss by the way) but more because it was so typical Hollywood to insert something like this just before the climax. Despite of this cheesy part and some other parts which perhaps are totally predictable, the movie was actually pretty good. I think Caesar the chimp was really really cute when it was a baby and when it was so young. It didn't look cute anymore when it was older. I do have to praise Andy Serkis who did the motion capture for Caesar. It was really really good. I'm amazed with what special effect can achieve. The apes all looked totally real. I also have to comment about Tom Felton a bit. He's also one of the reason I wanted to watch this movie. First comment is, he looked pretty handsome :) tall and with his original hair colour. Second comment is, it's a bit of a shame that the role that we see him next fresh from Harry Potter is pretty much the same like his Harry Potter's role :( It's rather disappointing. He should have chosen other thing, so that we can see more range from him. But I supposed to reject the opportunity to work on such big movie like this would be so stupid.

I totally recommend this movie. It has a pretty good story and many touching moments brought to you by Caesar the chimp and John Lithgow who played James Franco's dad. The movie also got me thinking about a few things. The first scene of the movie was so moving for me. It showed how poachers hunt these chimps and get them shipped into medical labs in the US. It was really really sad and I don't wish this fate on any animal. I also don't wish a life of being a test subject for any of these animals :'( However I do realize the importance of animal testing. As illustrated in this movie, James Franco's character is trying to find a medicine for alzheimer. It kinda torn me a bit :( Sometime I try to justify things like these using the argument that if there's reincarnation then it is in the karmic duty of the animals to go through this. Yeah, I know it's such a weak argument but I really have nothing more to say. Alright, I'm gonna stop now and relax a bit. It's so hot now in Singapore, I'm really having a bit of a hard time with it :( I wish for rain tomorrow though I know Singapore is hoping for a sunshiny day. Oh well. For all the Singaporeans out there, enjoy your break tomorrow! God bless!

:) eKa @ 9:05:00 PM •