"Rise of the Planet of the Apes 3: The Ultimate Battle"

Nathaniel 2022-04-24 07:01:04

If we look at the oriental aesthetics that we are familiar with, the most charming part of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 3: The Ultimate Battle" is Caesar's revenge for the murder of his wife and children, who insists on going to Longtan and Tiger's Den to find the human colonel desperately. After being caught up by the three generals, the gorilla Luca offered advice: "The soldiers' camp is always moving, my guards know the location of the camp, let me go with you." Bonobo Rocket pleaded: "You need me Please help, I know how it feels to lose a son." But Caesar insisted: "I may not be able to come back." Morris the orangutan responded immediately: "That's why we're going together so you can come back. ." Just a few dialogues, showing the touching brotherhood between the apes. A group of four monkeys rode their horses in the magnificent snowy forests and golden beaches, which had the taste of swordsmen and heroes fighting the rivers and lakes.

This scene seems to be the epitome of this film. The main line of the whole film is, in a nutshell, Colonel Caesar. It is said that one of the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" trilogy is not as good as the other. From the perspective and pattern, this is true. The epic meaning of the three films is constantly shrinking. Caesar's "No" in the first part is deafening, no less than a miracle of creation; in the second part, Caesar was seized by Koba, staged a "Return of the King", and showed the inevitable decisive battle between humans and apes ; In this part, the pattern is further reduced, and it has become a drama of "revenge" and "prison break", which is not the same as the first one.

However, there are always two sides to things. As the epic sense shrinks, the legendary sense of the entire series expands. The "ape nature" in Caesar is constantly being discovered, and the character shaping becomes more and more full. If the first part is Caesar's awakening, the second part is his attempt, and the third part is his introspection. There are scenes in the first two films where Caesar misses or recalls his caregiver, Dr. Will Rodman. In the third part, the image of Dr. Rodman no longer appears. On the one hand, the film does not stick to the fate of an individual who is connected with Caesar, and highlights the realism of the end times. On the other hand, it focuses more on the conflict in Caesar's heart. On how to achieve self-reconciliation, so that the "ape nature" will be sublimated again.

When watching the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" series or the old "Planet of the Apes" series, I often think about a question - as a human audience, why is it more psychologically biased towards Caesar and apes? In fact, this is one of the main themes of this series. Apes are not human, but they are more human than humans. Caesar is the representative character. He is a hero and must have a tragic side. His tragedy lies in the fact that he was raised by a human family from a young age and established a relationship of mutual trust with humans. After arriving at the primate shelter, he shouldered the mission of enlightening the ape family and leading the revolution. It is precisely because he has experienced the different living conditions of the two ethnic groups that he can view the relationship between apes and humans more comprehensively, but it also leads to his contradiction. On the one hand, he has to think about the rise of apes, and on the other hand, he has to take into account the peaceful coexistence with humans. . This is essentially different from Koba's unilateral hatred of mankind.

In contrast, the humanity of humans in the series is progressively regressing. Dr. Rodman in the first film is a representative of kindness, and Malcolm in the second is also looking for a way to peacefully coexist. In this book, not only did humans lose their language ability a little bit, but even the big villain didn't even have a name, just called "Colonel". How similar is this imagery to Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", the "Colonel" here is the "Colonel Coates" over there, and Caesar here witnessed the Colonel's suicide, which is equivalent to the Colonel Coates over there Through Willard's hand, the long-desired death was accomplished. So, will Caesar, or some future ape leader, face the same desperate fate as the colonel? While Willard in Apocalypse Now chooses to go aboard, our Caesar leaves the question to the audience in a contented, ephemeral way.

The ancients wrote articles about "crested pork belly and leopard tail". Although "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 3: The Ultimate Battle" has many flaws, for example, the process of escape of the ape family seems quite childish and cannot stand scrutiny, but the last twenty or thirty minutes can be used. Called "Leopard Tail", it completed a relatively perfect ending for the entire series. The drug originally used to treat Alzheimer's did not expect it to become a deadly ape flu, which wiped out 90% of the earth's population, and the remaining people gradually became dumb and stupid. The human army who retreated to a corner was smashed, trapped and beasts still fighting, trying to eliminate the ape tribe, but unexpectedly encountered an avalanche at the moment of victory and wiped out the entire army. This series from ridicule of the expansion of ambition and self-inflicted cocoon, to lament that people are not as good as God, and has exhausted the fate of mankind's demise.

Throughout the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" trilogy, to a certain extent, it inherits the philosophical core of the old "Planet of the Apes" series, that is, humans degenerate into apes, apes evolve into humans, and human nature and ape nature continue to converge. But the difference is that the old version generally blames the demise of mankind on nuclear explosions, while the new version does not simply copy the framework of the old version, but adopts a more fashionable "virus", and details humans and apes in a more realistic way. class change. At the same time, today's sci-fi movies tend to focus more on the analysis of human nature rather than the presentation of the apocalyptic world. The same is true of the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" trilogy, which applies humanism to orangutans, and portrays the apes represented by Caesar in great depth.

Of course, in the end, we can't forget Andy Serkis and motion capture technology, the two have made each other. The "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" trilogy has witnessed the development of motion capture technology in the past ten years. If there is no delicate and complex facial capture, there will be no humanism on the orangutan. Even in the third part, even Andy The bloodshot in his eyes was recorded in Caesar's eyes when he was emotional. And Andy's ability to control the character and his professionalism are also worthy of our hats off. No one has ever been able to interpret a virtual character like him. It can be said that "Caesar" is the most charismatic character in sci-fi works in recent years, and it is also the greatest crystallization of acting and technology.

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Extended Reading

War for the Planet of the Apes quotes

  • The Colonel: We find ourselves on the eve of battle against this beasts, and years from now, you can tell your children: I fought... to protect this world.

  • The Colonel: Have you finally come to save your apes?

    Caesar: I came for you.

    The Colonel: For me?

    [pause]

    The Colonel: My God. Look at your eyes. Almost human.

    [pause]

    The Colonel: How'd you know I was here?

    Caesar: I was told... you were coming. That more soldiers from the north were will be joining you here.

    The Colonel: Joining me here?

    Caesar: To finish us off... for good.

    [pause]

    The Colonel: Who told you that?

    [pause]

    The Colonel: Ok. Let's go.