Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

4/5

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a prequel to the original Planet of the Apes. It tells the affecting story of young scientist Will Rodman (Franco), who is researching a novel medication to cure his father (Lithgow) from Alzheimer's. They start testing the brain booster on lab monkeys, but the operation is shut down after one monkey escapes and shows signs of aggression. Rodman is forced to take care of that monkey's baby, Caesar, which he manages to accomplish with the help of veterinarian Aranha (Pinto). As Caesar ages, the newly-formed family grows quite close, in heartwarming, Disney-esque montages. But Caesar quickly learns that not all humans are fond of apes or Disney montages.

The story has considerable range for what I'm sure everybody was expecting to be a simple action flick. The action itself comes in spurts, giving the overall movie a realistically tense and unpredictable atmosphere. The CGI was pretty close to perfect--it was so good that I actually had no idea it was CGI and kept wondering how they filmed the movie. But the picture is not all rosy. The acting was mediocre at best, forgettable at worst. The dialogue was equally bland and unremarkable. The characters were flat archetypes, and Pinto's veterinarian character was the worst offender. She was worthless, serving as nothing more than a pretty face in an otherwise drab, hairy film. But these niggles are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things, especially in the vanishingly rare genre of action movies that are actually good.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1318514/

Zodiac (2007)

4/5

Zodiac is a 2 hour and 40 minute epic about the real-life unsolved case of a serial killer terrorizing the California community in the late 60's and early 70's, the media sensation covering it, and one cartoonist's obsession with it. Fincher's directing was phenomenal throughout; despite the film's running time, I was tense and terrified the entire time. The acting by all was equally stellar and a real pleasure to watch. The music did a great job at setting and maintaining mood. The cinematography and editing were just as amazing, and probably Fincher's best to date. Eye-catching shots were crisp and clean with a glossy sheen; I loved the silky smooth shadows flowing across people's faces, cars, and houses. The beginning had a lot of unique point-of-view and tracking/following shots, but they were gradually replaced with more traditional shots as the bulk of the content began. This film's greatest strengths are the flawlessly-captured time and place and the thoroughly-detailed characters. And the script was witty and fun.

The biggest detractor from the movie was its length. The movie consists of several main stories that could each have their own film, and if you're not interested in one, that's half the movie that's gonna bore you. None of the stories felt tacked on because they were all given a great amount of depth, but perhaps too much for everyone's tastes. Luckily, I loved all the stories and didn't really mind the length because of the great acting and great directing. The movie needs to decide what it wants to tell and tell that; instead it provides a great many details from a great many number of sources with no main driving force. Characters appear and drop off when the details bring them to the forefront. Many subplots seemed forced, as if every lead in the case and new piece of evidence required a thrilling story to go with it. Also, the movie loses a little steam at around the 2/3 mark, when a typical movie would be approaching its end and this one has none in sight. All in all, however, I highly recommend this film if you are at all interested in detective stories or movies about serial killers. This one is fantastic, and it goes past the surface of a simple story and into the real effects on the lives of those following the case.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0443706/