One of cinema’s first science fiction franchises Planet of the Apes saw an unlikely resurgence in the 2010s with an Andy Serkis-led trilogy, and now fans are ready to call it one of the best in cinema history.
2011 saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes hit cinemas, with audiences shocked by its quality and surprisingly deep character work with Serkis as Caeser the ape. The motion capture performance from Serkis followed on from his ground-breaking work on The Lord of the Rings films, and it’s no surprise he’s in the conversation for being in another stellar trilogy.
Film fans are now giving Rise, Dawn, and War some much-deserved love as we close in on a new era of Planet of the Apes films from Disney.
Well worth noting while Reeves directed Dawn and War, it was Rupert Wyatt behind the initial reinvention of a series that became bogged down during the 1970s. Reeves of course went on to direct The Batman with him reuniting with Serkis, so we have apes to thank for arguably the best Batman movie.
A standout moment from the series comes in Wyatt’s outing, with it expertly making its way up to the moment Caeser finally yells “No!” at his human captors. The feeling on yoru arms right now is goosebumps, because the scene kicks absolute butt.
It’s astonishing how far Planet of the Apes has come as a franchise, with the sequels to the 1968 original of increasingly poor quality. The desire to one-up the ending from 1968 shadowed the films, but nothing will be as shocking as the Statue of Liberty scene.
The Planet of the Apes saga is available to stream on Disney Plus, with a new set of films currently in development.