1905 Movie Network Special Article After nearly seven years, the fourth film of the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" series, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World" (hereinafter referred to as "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 4"), is back again, and the conflict between the apes has escalated again!
In the first three days of its release, the film grossed $129 million worldwide, $56.5 million in North America and 82 million yuan in Chinese mainland. For this $165 million blockbuster, this is off to a decent start.
According to the word-of-mouth performance displayed by major rating platforms, CinemaScore is rated B, IMDb is 7.3, MTC is 66, and Rotten Tomatoes is 81%, all of which are the bottom scores of the first three parts of the series. On the domestic Douban platform, it currently has a score of 6.5, which is also the lowest score in the series.
The weakness of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 4" may affect the trend of the subsequent box office, and it may be difficult to surpass the $480 million of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2: Dawn of War", $710 million of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2: Dawn of War", and $490 million of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 3: The Ultimate Battle".
Series Rotten Tomatoes freshness comparison
Comparison of MTC scores in series
Comparison of series of Douban scores
After the conclusion of the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" trilogy, Fox once again used a new production team and cast to start the next trilogy chapter with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 4".
The reboot of the classic series has become the production norm in Hollywood at the moment. Especially in the past two years, there have been a number of reboot movies, such as "The Matrix: Matrix Reboot", "The New Batman", "Raiders of the Lost Ark: Wheel of Destiny", "Transformers: Rise of the Super Warriors", "The Hunger Games: A Song of Songbirds and Snakes", "Kung Fu Panda 4" and so on.
After "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 4", this year there are also sequels to classic series such as "Despicable Me 4", "Garfield", "The Lion King: The Legend of Mufasa", "Mad Max: Berserk Goddess" and other classic series that have been rebooted again after many years.
In the future, there will be a new stage of "Avengers 5", "New Blade", "Captain America 4", "Superman: Legacy", "Star Wars" trilogy, as well as the reboot version of "Pirates of the Caribbean", "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Bald Detective", "Screaming" and so on.
Hollywood has been feeding the market by rebooting classic series and re-frying cold rice, can it work?
01
Going back to the entire "Planet of the Apes" series from "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: New World", the story of the Human-Apes War was first brought to the big screen in 1968.
In 1963, a French science fiction novel "Planet of the Apes" was born about "the future apes ruling over mankind", which caused a global enthusiastic response, and then quickly prompted Hollywood to shoot "Planet of the Apes", "Lost Planet of the Apes", "Escape from the Planet of the Apes", "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" and "Battle of the Planet of the Apes" between 1968 and 1973, which became a legendary series in Hollywood science fiction films.
The entire "Planet of the Apes" series takes time travel as the conceptual clue, the story spans nearly 4,000 years, and the last part is closed in a loop, during which the conflict between humans and apes reflects the criticism and thinking of race, class, religion, the Cold War, the nuclear threat and other practical issues of the times, which is why the series can become a classic in film history.
In 2011, Fox restarted the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes Trilogy", with the ape Caesar as the core protagonist, using a new perspective and advanced motion capture technology to epic build the world of apes, and using a more grand pattern vision to show the demise of mankind and the rise of the ape race. The trilogy has been a huge success with a global harvest of nearly $1.7 billion.
Seven years later, the new chapter of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was launched again, but the global evaluation of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes 4" after its release was generally lower than that of the first three parts of the series, and the advantages and disadvantages are obvious.
Wes Ball, director of the "Moving Labyrinth" series, brings his expertise in teen adventure storytelling to the new series "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", which takes place hundreds of years after Caesar's death at the end of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: The Ultimate Battle", and focuses on the problems faced by Noah, the new protagonist of the ape race, as he grows up, under the inheritance of Caesar's spirit.
"This is a major adventure for a character who encounters very different perspectives as he learns about the world around him, the history of the ape, and the relationship between humans and the ape," the director said. ”
Noah has to deal with Saiza, a tyrannical ape leader who tries to establish a new order, and he can see the strife between groups within the ape tribe. At the same time, he also faces a mysterious human girl, Nova, and unravels a crisis of trust between humans and apes in the changing relationship between them.
The interweaving of Noah's journey and the relationships between multiple characters presents the conflict of survival and values between different ethnic groups, which is the highlight of this story.
The first trilogy used a high level of motion and facial performance capture technology to create realistic images of the apes, bringing them to life, and each was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The film also continues to work with the visual effects team behind the first trilogy, New Zealand's Weta Visual Effects Studios.
The film was produced immediately after "Avatar: The Way of Water", and further applied the motion capture technology and accumulated experience that was upgraded in "Avatar" to the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" series. At the same time, Andy Serkis, a mocap actor who played the lead Caesar in the first trilogy, was hired as a special consultant to help the characters fine-tune their voices and personalities.
The visual effects of the film are still at a high level, the image of the ape characters is vivid, and the decaying landscape of the future world - the abandoned reinforced concrete buildings are intertwined with forest vegetation, and they are also very realistically constructed.
The audience's dissatisfaction is mainly due to the lack of brightness in the overall story, and many critics have mentioned that the plot is not exciting enough to support a long 145-minute duration.
The movie begins with an action scene that is gripping enough - the adult apes climb to find eagle eggs to complete their coming-of-age rituals, as Noah's family tribe is killed by villains led by Saisah, and his father is killed, Noah embarks on a journey to find the tribe, encounters the orangutan Raka who pursues peace, and the human girl Nova, but the film has entered a more routine mode, and the narrative rhythm is relatively slow.
It is not until the appearance of the villain Saisa in the third act that a fortress of the apes converted from an abandoned ship and a mysterious huge arsenal of weapons appear, revealing that Saisa has mastered the information and technology of humanity in an attempt to revive the ambition of the ape to rule the kingdom. Noah is caught in a dilemma of choice between humans and his kindred, and the film has renewed vitality and stronger dramatic tension.
Noah's character aura in this part is not as charismatic as Caesar in the previous work.
Caesar was born with a very complicated life and fate, his relatives were killed by humans, raised by humans, and finally forced to return to his own people to live again, and he also had to face the threat of humans to the ape race. Caesar's predicament in the first part is more tortuous and heart-wrenching than what Noah is endured now.
From the "Planet of the Apes" five-part trilogy to the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" trilogy, the greed and tragedy of human nature have been deeply explored around the racial struggle between the apes and the social reality.
And is there anything more incisive and unique about the newly launched trilogy of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" that expresses the theme differently from the past? I haven't seen it in the first part so far, and we still need to wait for the second and third parts to tell us the answer.
02
Looking at the reboots of classic series movies in recent years, the response has been mixed.
Some box office word-of-mouth collapsed: the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series opened "Raiders of the Lost Ark 5: Wheel of Destiny" 15 years later, with a loss of up to $143 million, which is the top five net losses of Hollywood movies in 2023, and has become a "tragedy".
Some didn't get the IP dividend: Although "The Matrix: The Matrix Reboot" used the original cast, this sequel to both literary and martial arts dramas still ruined the classic in the minds of the audience, and the global box office reported $157 million, less than the production cost of $190 million.
But Warner Bros. did not "give up", and will continue to develop "The Matrix 5", no longer directed by the Wachowski sisters, but directed by "Cabin in the Woods" and "The Martian" screenwriter Drew Goddard, and is responsible for the script.
Some have a poor reputation, and the box office is not as good as the previous work in the series, but they have no losses, and they have even made a profit:
The "Hunger Games" four-part series has pushed the adaptation of popular teen novels to a climax, with an average global box office of about $700 million each, and the previous game in the series, "The Hunger Games: A Song of Songbirds and Serpents", which was created eight years later, cost $100 million and earned more than $300 million worldwide.
"Transformers: Rise of the Power Warriors" won $439 million at the global box office, the lowest box office of the seven films in the series, but because it only cost $200 million, it was considered a return on investment.
Director Stephen Kapoor Jr. once said that he was planning and creating this "Transformers" as a whole with a grander trilogy, and the ending also predicted that the movie "Special Forces" will be linked, and this new linkage film has also been officially confirmed by Paramount a few days ago.
"Kung Fu Panda 4", which debuted in March this year, has been 8 years since the last film, and the box office appeal of the IP is still strong, although the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes and the MTC score are the lowest scores in the series, the global box office won 530 million US dollars, and the production cost was only 85 million US dollars, the revenue has increased several times, creating the highest box office record in the series, and it has also become the most successful work of DreamWorks over the years.
These reboots are based on the foundation of IP hits, but they are produced at a lower cost than the previous works in the series, so they are conservative in their creative routes, and they dare not show their strength to make innovative breakthroughs. For example, "Kung Fu Panda 4" lacks the characters of the Five Heroes who are loved by fans, and does not continue to expand in depth.
"The New Batman" directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson is a relatively successful reboot project over the years, with a bumper box office reputation. According to statistics, the film has a global box office of $772 million and a revenue of $177 million, making it one of the most profitable Hollywood blockbusters in 2022.
"The New Batman" opens up a different temperament from the "Dark Knight" trilogy, adding a new style of noir detective films, and the main theme of the story focuses on how to uphold justice, reinforcing the charm of Robert Pattinson's version of the young Batman, and giving the series a new life. The success of the film also prompted DC to make "The New Batman" into a trilogy series.
The completed "Jurassic World" trilogy is a prominent representative of the continuation of the classic series. Jurassic Park, released in 1993, was the world's highest-grossing film that year, and the trilogy series it spawned also swept the world.
After 14 years in "Jurassic Park 3", "Jurassic World" directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard set a global box office record of $1.7 billion as soon as it was released.
The shocking scenes and realistic special effects presented in 3D, the larger and more ferocious new dinosaurs, the adventurous love of the hero and heroine, and the linkage of classic feelings have made "Jurassic World" another Hollywood blockbuster series, and the trilogy has also exceeded 1 billion box office in Chinese mainland.
Universal Pictures will not let go of the opportunity to continue to make profits from this popular IP, and after the "Jurassic World" trilogy concludes, it will use a new story line, new production and cast to create "Jurassic World 4". By the time of "Jurassic World 3", the quality of the film has actually fallen into a weak state, and it must be innovated and remade in order to have a new endurance.
In the current Hollywood production system, which is less original and overly reliant on classic IP sequels, the number of reboots and new versions of films emerges in an endless stream, and there are still opportunities to make money by playing the emotional card, which is a trend caused by the feedback of the entire market and the choice of the audience.
If the reboot movie blindly "bows" to the classic series, restarts, ends, and restarts again and again, without closely following the current era, telling fresher content, and using innovative forms, the audience will fall into aesthetic fatigue and wear out their good impression of the classics.