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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Ron Tackett

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July 18th, 2014 - 01:05 PM

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Have you seen the latest Planet of the Apes movie, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes?

A friend of mine dragged me to it. I tend to like science fiction and fantasy movies, and I admit a great affection for the original movie with the iconic Charlton Heston, but the last ape movie I saw was the horrendous remake with Mark Wahlberg (not his fault, I know, but I can't remember the exact name of the director or writers, so Wahlberg takes the hit on that one).

Evidently, there was another Ape movie after that, and my amigo assured me it had been great. Great, I tell you! So I agreed to go, if he could find a place that would only charge $4 to see it. Actually, I knew there was such a theater in the town next to us. If you're ever in Wisconsin, check out the Watertown theater Towne Cinema. If you go to a matinee it's only $3 for first run movies. I saw Captain America there three times.

Now, I'm not going to do a full blown review here, but the movie is well done and engaging. But I have to admit what absolutely blew me away were the apes themselves. The CGI is phenomenal. The artists perfectly catch and communicate emotion and the expressions are all spot on and appropriate for whatever point in the story they're at. It was a delight and a wonder to see the apes striding across the screen, fully realized as every emotion from love, wonder, fear, anger, gratitude and hate were written clearing on the ape faces, and in their body language. and magnificent, or venal and evil.

Wow.

But..it made me think, we're about this close to resurrecting every dead movie star from the past--or even current old movie stars--through CGI. How about a sequel to Casablanca? (Yeah, David Soul tried it an it sucked.) But what if you could have Bogie do it? A sequel to Gone With the Wind with Clark Gable? Or a Star Wars movie with a young Han Solo?

Okay, we're not there yet, but I don't think we're that far away from it, either. In the future, maybe every actor will be a voice actor. If we manage to keep the planet intact, I look forward to the day when I can see a brand new Ape movie starring Charlton Heston.

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