I thought that despite its mouthful of a title, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES was not only a fantastic film, but a pretty sleek prequel that transitioned nicely into the events of the original.
But unfortunately, it was cursed with the scourge of actually being successful, meaning that a sequel to the prequel (which would be another prequel) is in fact being discussed. Director Rupert Wyatt had a few ideas that he decided to share with Bleeding Cool:
“The ideas I’ve had are all sorts of things, ranging from Full Metal Jacket with apes… you could start this story again eight years from where we left off, the next generation of apes, those that have come from our protagonists, perhaps going in to a conflict with humans and showing real fear, in the same way as going into war for young soldiers in this day and age, telling their story. Or how apes are taking over cities, and being moved into human environments and having to interact with them and deal with things that are part of our culture and understand and evolve through them. Spies that are in the employ of the apes, working against humans and humans maybe existing underground, because that’s a way they can avoid the virus, coming up above ground wearing gas masks, and maybe that’s what dehumanises them.”
Yeah that all sounds…pretty awful. Granted, I didn’t think a PLANET OF THE APES prequel was necessary or a good idea, and this proved me wrong, but yeah, this just seems like an awkward transition movie that doesn’t need to exist.
Just because a movie was great, doesn’t automatically means it needs a sequel. But for as much as I’ve said that recently, I might as well be relaying that message to a wall.