Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

This is a rebooted series miles above the original run of flicks that ruled cinemas 40 year back. A rare, dark, thinking person’s treat in the middle of summer, more interested in sparking hot debate and making audience squirm than serving up empty CGI fireworks. Seriously, put aside the Oscar-worthy 3-D motion capture effects –- all shot in forest and a city, not a sound stage –- and watch this story. “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” picks up 10 years after 2011’s “Rise,” dumping its human cast (James Franco, bye) as we follow the primate survivors (Andy Serkis, you are a god) post bloody revolt and mass pandemic. This is the last encounter of ape and struggling humans –- led by an uncorked panicking Gary Oldman -- as the latter delve into the apes’ forest, to restart an electric dam. Any chance of interspecies peace is crushed under lingering wounds of the “old” world, and we enter a dark, new dystopian future the previous films merely hinted at. Director Matt Reeves has created a razor sharp sequel that, yes, may be inevitable, but it can still shock, too -- check an onscreen murder of a youth. Serkis is flat out amazing. A-

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal 1937 children’s book “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” is concise, funny, and light in spirit, which I cannot say for director/writer Peter Jackson and his team from the famed “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in their adaptation of the newly titled “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” There is no “Back Again” here, and there shall not be for two movies, and six (!) more hours. 

This toss-in-the-kitchen-sink trilogy opener stops just shy of three hours as it spells out in detail how Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman, playing the young version of Ian Holm, who appears as well) came into possession of the powerful ring –- the Ring -– that sets in motion the 2001-2003 films and 1954-1955 books fans know so well. 

First thing out of the way: I saw “Hobbit” in 2D and regular frame rate, not the 3D and 48 frames-per-second rate that has garnered much press. Second: I read the book so long ago I cannot recall it in my memory. I judge by hunches and –- God help me -– the Web. 

Movie wise, “Hobbit” is split as Tolkein’s greatest and most troubled character, Gollum, the schizophrenic villain/victim who owned and lost the preciousss golden circle to Bilbo, who decades later will hand it over to nephew Frodo, and you know the rest. Team Jackson –- including co-writer Gillermo del Toro -– take not just the “Hobbit” book, but myriad side-stories, prefixes, appendices, and shopping lists written by Tolkein and knit out a story that is jovial, eye-popping in wonder, and maddeningly dull and repetitive to the point of tedium. Even during the big CGI action sequences. 

(There’s a fist-fight between two black-rock mountains (!) that is impressive, bizarre, laugh-out-loud ridiculous, overlong by half, and in the end, useful as a lecture on thermodynamics.) 

I could not repeat all the plot tentacles to save my soul, except this quick sketch: Homebody Hobbit Bilbo is thrust into joining 13 dwarves (led by Richard Armitage as the dreamiest “GQ” dwarf ever) as they set out to kill the dragon that took their mountain homeland decades ago. The instigator of this hunt is the wise Moses-like wizard Gandalf, again played by Ian McKellan. The troupe is hunted by trolls, a vengeance-seeking one-armed orc, and wolves. Llittle of this is in the book, but thrown in by Jackson, who seems set on making a simple fable into something far darker and massively important. 

I know that’s nit-picking. Changes were made to the “LOTR” trilogy, especially the loss of the vital “Scouring of the Shire” finale, but so much of this movie is filler created solely because the filmmakers have the budget and technology, not because it serves this story. 

As with prequels, characters are re-introduced wholesale to goose memories. In almost every instance, these are time-killers. We don’t need Elijah Wood as Frodo. Nor Holm as old Bilbo. Cate Blanchett’s elf queen, so majestically introduced in “Fellowship of the Ring,” stumbles into this film with such little fanfare, one can’t imagine her importance. Same with Christopher Lee’s Sauramon, parked in a chair and practically giving away his whole game plan of evil to come later on. Ditto Gollum and his long slow intro, now redundant I suppose. I'm muffing some of the details here, but the point stands -- especially if this film is viewed as a true prequel.

See, Jackson is making these as a man looking back, nostalgic for every morsel he can scrape, not a man looking forward with this chapter and its two coming successors as predecessors to what befalls Bilbo, Gandalf, and all our beloved characters. 

All gripes aside, I have hope for “Hobbit” parts 2 and 3. Freeman -- Watson in BBC’s “Sherlock” -- turns in a star-making reading of Bilbo, a man (Halfling?) who finds his worth far from home. He’s funny, irritating but sincerely so, curious, bold, and thorough, a wonderful homage to Holm’s take. 

When Bilbo and Gollum meet –- toward the end -– the scene crackles and brings “Hobbit” to Must Watch status. (Andy Serkis as Gollum again shine as the MVP of this series. As well, the CGI work to bring this foul creature to life is still the best use of computers in a life-action film, ever.) As Bilbo holds a sword to the neck of a seething, panicking creature, Jackson and all the wizards behind this tale put us in the hot seat. We know striking down Gollum will prevent much agony later, and I thought, “Push it through.” Knowing full well that won’t happen. 

It’s a twisty definitive, solid moment in a film full of holes, not the Hobbit kind. B-

The Adventures of Tin-Tin (2011)

When Steven Spielberg said he was making a Tin-Tin movie, I was stoked. I was born in England, and although I can’t recall my time there, I did inherit piles of “Tin-Tin” books. The boy reporter and his little white dog, Snowy, are huge there. In America? Not so much. Which is why “The Adventures of Tin-Tin” crumpled at U.S. cinemas. Despite the Spielberg name, some of the best motion-cap animation ever made and 3D effects that make the format a blast of wondrous pop-up fun. The plot is Tin-Tin simple, and very “Young Indiana Jones”: Our ginger hero buys a model ship on a lark and gets wrapped up in a worldwide conspiracy that nearly gets him (and his little dog, too!) killed. Spielberg works with physics-defying action as if he’s thrilled not to worry about reality. It’s all too much, but this is a boy’s adventure. How else to explain a 120-pound boy fighting men three times his size? Bummer news: The ending is a let-down, a promise of cinematic godliness left to a sequel. Jamie Bell is Tin-Tin, Andy Serkis is a drunken ship captain, and Daniel Craig (smartly nasty!) the villain. B+

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is a solid summer flick with killer special effects and a fairly solid brain, and a cool reboot/reimaging of the 1960s/1970s “Planet of the Apes” film series that scored golden box office hits, inspired a TV cartoon series and a whole bunch of lunch boxes. (Many a friend sported one in first grade. I was jealous. And, yeah, I’m ignoring Tim Burton’s ass hat 2002 remake.)

Not a prequel, this entirely new take on the apes-rule-humans story focuses on our hairy primate cousins who leap massively forward genetically after being exposed to a “miracle drug” that a young pharma scientist named Will (James Franco) has created to cure Alzheimer’s. Will has a literal deadline: The disease is wasting away his musician/academic father (John Lithgow). It all goes so ape shit wrong.

The leader of the “Rise” is Caesar, a chimp that Franco has raised since it was born, living at home as a pet-cum-child, one who can draw, use sign language and cleverly leap and climb kitchen furniture to snatch cookies atop a cabinet. A trip to San Francisco’s redwoods park leaves a mark on Caesar: He is on a leash led by Will and encounters a snarly dog … on a leash. The wheels start turning. His eyes narrow. A violent encounter with a prick neighbor pushes the house of cards over.

The plot and pacing is smart using elements, lines (“Get your damn hand off me…!) and names from the earlier “Ape” films but to new effect, and there is a real mission to Mars on the telly. “Rise” hints at being a franchise set-up but doesn’t play like you’re watching one-third of a film. The classic 1968 “Apes” was seen as an anti-war pic and a (I would think freakin’ offensive) satire on Civil Rights. (Charlton Heston appears on a TV in a rare wink-wink tip.) Director Rupert Wyatt and writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver seem intent on steering clear of big messages here, but slyly play on man’s insistence that he can do whatever he wants to who and whatever he wants, as long as it means more coin in the bank. And, yes, animal experimentation takes a walloping. But none of this is in-you-face preachy.

When the apes attack at the end wrecking havoc on the Golden Gate Bridge, it’s one of the best action sequences of the summer, a wild scene where chaos finally reigns in a summer tent pole movie. How rare is that? Franco gives a sleepy-eyed performance that grinds some critics, but it fits the part, the man is obsessed with finding a cure and probably considers sleep, rest, play, a luxury. (What doesn’t work: A romance between Will and a vet played by Frieda Pinto of “Slumdog Millionaire,” they have as much spark as a brother and sister.)

Now the reason why this film rocks: Andy Serkis, the man who played “Gollum” in “The Lord of the Rings” and King Kong in the 2005 remake, is our main rebel yell chimp. Again using motion capture technology, he makes Caesar into the best anti-hero of 2011, a glaring, plotting creature far smarter than his human costars. All of the primates are CGI and early in the film, especially baby Caesar, they hit and miss. Once Serkis takes over playing Caesar, though, it’s as if the animators were inspired to push the visual boundaries, and in several scenes – helping Lithgow’s pop use a fork, and when he fights a cruel prick (Tom Felton of “Harry Potter”) – all on screen looks real. Serkis is an amazing actor, and could snag an Oscar nom for acting without appearing on screen. His performance is worth the ticket price. B+