Rise of the Planet of... Mojo Jojo?

[Puff Hunter]

Tell me if you've heard this one before:

A scientist develops an experimental chemical formula that gives his pet chimp superior intelligence. Said chimp then steals the scientist's formula and uses it to create an army of super-intelligent apes. Finally, the chimp leads his brethren in an epic city-wide battle to overthrow humanity.

That's right, folks. It's The Powerpuff Girls Movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, premiering August 5. The theatrical trailer was released today and, uh, yeah. Probably not grounds for a lawsuit. Definitely grounds for mockery.

[blossomgb]

Impersonation is the sincerest form of worship!!!

Cheers,

Blossomgb

[Deleted]

This is assuming the the PPG Movie did this concept first, which I am unsure of.

Over the thousands of movies Hollywood spat out since the early days, you can't tell me that this has never been done before.

Anyway, this movie is getting hyped a lot on YouTube, though I'm not sure if I want to see it.

[Puff Hunter]

I can't tell you for certain that it was original, but on the other hand I can't think of any other movies that match the concept this closely. Some of the individual parts are fairly played out. Treatment to increase intelligence? Genius leading to evil genius? Monkeys turning against humans? All familiar. Together in this combination? Not so much. The nearest examples I can find are a particular Gorilla Grodd comic (that I can't get a citation on -- thanks a lot, Wikipedia) and the old PlayStation game Ape Escape, but even those stories have obvious differences that I can point out if asked.

What irks me, though, isn't that this origin story rips off a children's cartoon movie, even if (one hopes) unwittingly. It's that the Planet of the Apes franchise already had an origin story, and this isn't it. It was more like an old fashioned robot uprising. Humans used apes for manual labor, we bred them for intelligence so they could perform advanced tasks, eventually they got too smart, and next thing you know Charlton Heston is hitting on cave chicks. The movies added some nonsense about nuclear war and time-traveling Roddy McDowall, but the basics remained the same. And the Tim Burton movie... we don't talk about the Tim Burton movie. This new movie's plot device is a cheap cop-out to get from "now" to "Jesus Christ, it's an ape, get in the car." It insults the audience and it insults the franchise. The director compares it to Batman Begins, but it's more like a Batman movie where Bruce Wayne is bitten by a radioactive bat. (Like Halle Berry's Catwoman, now that I think about it.)

[Deleted]

Meh, this is Hollywood we're talking about. Reboots/remakes of older franchises rake in big money, that's the sole reason they're doing this for. They'll probably be retconning the franchise with this movie, especially if it does well (which I'm sure it will).

Were certain parts taken from the PPG Movie? Maybe, maybe not. Better question is, should I care? Well, even if I should, I don't.

[Puff Hunter]

You're not obligated to care. I just thought it was funny is all.

(But yeah, if I were a betting man, I'd take even money on "this movie will suck" and "this movie will make enough to justify Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2: Rise Harder.")

[blossomgb]

Well I'm going to go and see it for the laughter value. Wearing a Powerpuff T-Shirt.

Cheers,

Blossomgb

[Deleted]

Jun 7, 2011 17:19:29 GMT -5 Puff Hunter said:

You're not obligated to care. I just thought it was funny is all.

(But yeah, if I were a betting man, I'd take even money on "this movie will suck" and "this movie will make enough to justify Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2: Rise Harder.")

*Must resist making any connection to a certain male appendage.

[dynamoe]

I'm not sure about this one either. Obviously, it's a "Let's reboot this and make money" formula. In the 69 francise, apes were domesticated because a virus killed off all the dogs and cats. Here, it's artificially done with mind altering drugs and conditioning.