Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

Story. Will Rodman (James Franco) a lead scientist of a company doing experiments on chimpanzee's to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, after a test on a female chimpanzee which looking towards success seems to go terribly wrong, they discover a baby chimp which she was protecting and Will Rodman is given the task to either put down or look after the baby chimp, Will Rodman takes home the chimp which he names Caesar to look after and throughout the soon months and years he begins to notice that the genes from his mother has been distended down to him from the sheer intelligence of Caesar. Will Rodman decides to continue on with his research mainly due to Will's father Charles Rodman (John Lithgow) who has Alzheimer's but is he doing it for him or his company? With that question in place and years go by Will decides to inject Caesars genes into his father for when he wakes up the next day to the father he once knew and love. Back to Caesar, he has become even more intelligent since, Will has taught him sign language and is able to do very complex puzzles and games, Caesar has also become very close with Will's family and has practically become part of the family which he loves and cares about as much as any human would but as he gets older he also get curious to where has come from? where are his real family? And what is Caesars purpose? maybe Caesar is becoming to curious and this will lead Caesar/Will and their curiosity to a fate which they both would of never have thought.

My thoughts on this film are quite mixed but the main one I would go with so far is simply cool and mainly from Caesar , throughout most of the film it feels like its trying to purposely make you cry, you feel so much empathy and compassion for this character and for me it was not the ground breaking CGI of Caesar that made this film from the effects of Avatar, it was Andy Serkis performance, this truly shows a man who knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to cinema. Let downs I would say James Franco, giving his reputation lately due to 127 Hours and obviously the Spiderman series all to me that was special was his signature smile I've seem to have pick up on, he is a good actor but I was expecting much more from him in this film but perhaps a little bit too much. Frieda Pinto, David Oyelowo came across to been the other main character let downs, they did their job but their performances where very media core and sometimes it came across very unnecessary for them actually to be in the film which had me quite annoyed in some ways but thankfully I was brought back by Andy Serkis and the mythology of this film.

Action, there wasn't too much action or too much going on really in this film but neither was I complaining or unsatisfied because of this but they really did try to make the human species look stupid, especially with the scenes on the San Francisco bridge, I would at least had thought, hmm yes where going after a lot of apes, last time I checked apes like to climb a lot perhaps we should check below and up above the bridge but no lets even though these apes are obviously smarter after Caesar rides in on a horse.

The ending "Caesar Is home" was a great way to end the film but not the best, all the way through the film I had the feeling it was going to end in a way of King Kong did when James Franco spent most of the time chasing him across San Francisco, I had an idea Caesar would meet his demise upon almost reaching his freedom but where he did not succeed, the others made it so his sacrifice was not in vein and when this did not happen I was actually rather shocked, not disappointed just shocked, it seemed a perfect way to end the character Caesar seem so we spent half of the film learning Caesar and understanding the feelings of Caesar to why he had to do what he did.

I was rather happy to see John Lithgow in this, it brought back some Third Rock From The Sun moments and Dexter, it was also nice to see that he did quite a good performance and apart from some disappointment from James Franco it was still nice to see his career still going nice and strong.

Overall a very lovely and compassionate film, the human characters could have used some work but I guess this shows the apes are the smarter species.
8.4/10

The Happening (2008)

Story, unusual events start to occur in Central Park: New York, people are randomly killing themselves of after seizing up which has only seemed to have occurred in New York, speculation and news reports make it believe to be terrorists who have used an air-born chemical which effects the mind but soon after more attacks occur all around the north east coast of America to which are also situated in parks of major towns and cities, this will leave the remaining survivors to create speculation of their own which will lead to truth but perhaps to the insanity of the others themselves.

Characters Elliot Morre (Mark Wahlber) and Julian (John Leguizamo) bring the best out in the film, they do some very good performances of the average working joe to how people deal and the effects it cause if such a situation where to occur. Saying that these are probably the only ones I could say did a great performance, Zooey Deschanel who plays Elliot Morre girlfriends becomes very mediocre most of the time with this gormless face on her with no strong script to which really doesn't help hold this film together.

With all honesty I enjoyed half of the films story, it was really unusual and a new idea of how the world could end which did leave me quite gripped and willing to sit to want to know more, at first you know yourself that these attacks are not the work of terrorists but you do dwindle the thought and almost made to believe that it actually could be with the reinforced news broadcasts. I have to say as well that there was some quite uneasy moments put into the film, the memorable old lady Mrs Jones and the scene with the un-occupied swing grinding on top of the tree branch certainly left a little chill down my spine.

At about half way through the film people start to ponder the thought of nature itself to be the cause of the recent events , at first you may think this is some form of crazy unusual behaviour caused by the situation (with added odd camera angles) or perhaps by the problem itself but then you remember who the writer of this film is then at the precise moment when you realise what is going on you soon no that this story isn't going to portray out well, it slowly crumbles with only the chilling scenes as the memorable ones, the story is left floating in the wind.

The director, M. Night I'm not sure to why he makes such movies, the only one that really got to me would be the Avatar: The Last Airbender film, a film that could destroy the lovely reputation of its animated series but before I set of on that I think to me some of his ideas lately seem to becoming from childhood thoughts, dreams and games which we played when we were young, the feeling of what started to give that off would be The Lady In The Water film, it really tried to give some form of hope in that film that there was some childhood story's to which are really are real and hope to adults not to give up in hope in such things. The Happening in scenes where they are escaping the wind really reminded of a childhood game where I used to run away from the sun when I was little when it would start to shine through the clouds, an odd link for me to make between the two but that's just my analysis of M. Night.

Overall a film that starts of with great promise but like so many others it doesn't keep it.

Saw (2004)

"Rise and shine, Adam. You're probably wondering where you are. I'll tell you where you might be. You might be in the room that you die in. Up until now, you've simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives. But what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Now I see you as a strange mix of someone angry, yet apathetic. But mostly just pathetic. So are you going to watch yourself die here today, Adam, or do something about it?"

Well first of I had to at least throw one of them into here, it wouldn't be a SAW review without a quote from the scrambled up voice of Tobin Bell, anyway onto the game that has begun. Most of us see Saw, haha seesaw as a film with quite a few undeveloped characters which it tries to overcompensate with its extreme gore and I have to say this partially is true but on other note out of the many gore films in my time I have seen this is far the most timid.

Story , Adam (Leigh Wannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) wake up chained in a mysterious lavatory to where they eyes are first awoken to a corpse a gun and a lot of blood. It doesn't take long for trust and personalities to conflict, lies to arise and the truth fold into the world of Jigsaw. John/Jigsaw I know serial killer, who never really has killed anyone him but seems to find ways for them to kill themselves spends most of his time repeating the sentence "I'm sick of the disease rotting inside me" in this film, hinting and trying to show why he is doing these terrible things and is it justifiable.

This film really tries to enforce the point not take life for granted, we are all give the luxuries in life to succeed to the top of the food chain in this society, so we are told never take life for granted but in the end most of us in this world try and take one advantage or another, it's sad to say this point will never get across to some people so in a way can make the film with its whole story completely pointless.

Now In all honesty, out of all the horror series/ franchises out there, this is possibly my favourite mainly due to its never ending twist and turns throughout all the films, as well as its very brain drilling soundtrack. To the fact it went on towards eight films and pissed allot of peoples of soon dwelling towards an teenage horror flick towards the end which made me quite disappointed but I still love it. I think one of the key elements people miss in this film and its franchise as its following events happen straight after its last film or just before its predecessor to try and fill in the gaps, the questions we want answering or maybe to just string us along?

Anyway I'll leave you with that question and overall all I can say this film is a definite horror film to see, its many follow-ups perhaps not.
6.5/10