This movie feels like a stand-up comedy routine. In fact, I'd wager that if you read the script there would be notes in it that include the comments setting up the jokes and scenarios in the film. That would all be fine though if the script did not work so hard to get the viewer to hate the characters so much. Ryan Reynolds is particularly unlikable which is a shame because Reynolds is generally a pretty good actor. Here though he is a cad who is filled with so many douchebag tendencies that you can never get behind him. As a single person with married friends I personally try to be conscious of how I act around them. You never want to be in a position where your friend evaluates why they put up with you in the first place. Here though it's hard to understand why Bateman's character is friends with Reynolds. I say some off the wall things to my friends and their wives but telling your friend's wife you want her to sit on your face while you recite the alphabet is a pretty bad thing to say in front of your friend. There are funny moments in the film but they come too infrequently and the rest of the time you are wondering why the radiant Leslie Mann is putting up with all of this stupidity around her.
With Super 8 in June and this film in August it gave me some great relief to the future of summer blockbusters. This film, much like Super, flashes big action sequences but surrounds it with a completely compelling story making the impact that much more satisfying. The film got slagged a little early on because people were expecting this to be a film where apes destroy everything and run roughshod over the city of San Francisco. This isn't that movie though. This is more about the apes starting to gain a stronger foothold in the world as the human race begins to eliminate their own. They explicitly show in a tag scene during the closing credits how this will happen. The real fun here though comes from Andy Serkis. His acting in the film covers a wide variety of emotions as he plays Caesar as a wide eyed youngster, a rebelling teenager, a person questioning their identity and finally a defiant leader. There is a debate going on about his Oscar chances and I think he really deserves strong consideration. I know it is a computer and everything but it is him infusing the character with emotion and really elevating the story at every single turn. It's a great performance and probably his best work so far.
At this point in the franchise you know what you are in for and that carries some good and bad. With these films though you know people are going to die so from there it becomes a matter of how effectively they milk the scenarios for tension. This film improves over the last one by leaps and bounds in that regard. A few of the kills are incredibly intense and are nail biting. The one scene from the trailer shows a gymnast on a balance beam with a nail looming on the beam. In the film though that sequence is about 5 minutes long and the camera sets up about 4 different things that could go wrong and every time the camera cuts to them- with the cuts increasing in frequency as we move forward- you feel angst for the woman. The kill then comes and it is completely out of left field from the rest of the sequence and just works perfectly. The 3D here is top notch as the director (Cameron's second unit director on Avatar) uses the device to full hilt and launches things at the camera without the viewer ever seeing the launch. The ending too is hinted at throughout but it is still a surprise when it happens and works extremely well. Here's a hint (AND SPOILER OF SORTS)- the male is going to Paris for cooking school. Remember Paris? This is a nice infusion of blood to the franchise and hopefully leads to a nice new direction.
I really don't know what to say about this film. It gets so much wrong and is so off base throughout that it never feels like a movie that was completed. You get the impression that this film was only about half finished and then hustled through the production phase to get to theaters. The actors are all wrong, the script is terrible, and other than the first 25 minutes there is little to no enjoyment in this film. And apparently the 3D makes the film even worse, and I only saw it in 2D.
This film had all the earmarks of being something special in the horror genre. Del Toro has an affinity for these films, and Pearce and Holmes are both pretty good actors and the television movie in 1973 is good source material. Somewhere along the way though this film came off the rails and never recovered. The young actress in the lead role is really good and without her this movie would've been considerably worse. She begins hearing whispers in the vents at the house and being a child explores this until she lets loose ancient creatures that only want to take her back to their lair and feast. And while the creatures are in the shadows this film works and then some. It is scary and the tension is high. But then, they show the creatures and what we see are one foot tall simian like creatures with humpbacks that are off some CGI demo reel. To make matters worse, the creatures begin talking, and everytime they talked the laughs in the theater were audible. The scenes were they talk too are played for comedy even though it is clear that is not what the intended effort was. As the creatures are battering the young girl in the library she is screaming "What do you want," as she is getting closer and closer to the bookcase. At this point the lead creature pops up and yells, "We want YOUUUUUU." It was stupid and silly and it ruined whatever good will the film had created up to that point. By the end then we get a cliched ending and a silly tag to the end of the film designed to drive home the point of what has happened. It just feels off. Had they kept things in the shadows this movie works so much better.
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