Trade Tales! - Exile on the Planet of the Apes

Next up for the month is a return to Boom Comics’ Planet of the Apes books. They had quite a few mini-series and even a main series that was supposed to bridge the gap between Battle for the Planet of the Apes and the first POTA movie. I looked at one of these minis a few years back and quite enjoyed it. I thought it fit well into the original series as a whole and gave an origin for Doctor Zaius.

It’s sequel is today’s pick: Exile on the Planet of the Apes. It mostly has the same team who did Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes. Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman were the writers. Instead of Hardman handling the art, those duties go to Marc Laming. Jordan Bellaire returned to do the colors for the first issue, but Darrin Moore did the rest for the story. Ed Dukeshire stuck around for the letters. So, what happens when humans start to rise up and attack apes?

 

Exile on the Planet of the Apes

Writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman

Art: Marc Laming

Colors: Jordan Bellare and Darrin Moore

Letters: Ed Dukeshire

Editor: Dafan Pleban 

Favorites - Planet of the Apes Movies: Least Favorite to Favorite - Part 3

Well, here is part 3 of my long ranking of the Planet of the Apes movies. Yeah, I'm getting in depth with this thing. Since my first look at the original movies was pretty brief, it was time for a do-over. So, next up is the latest entry into the franchise. Some say that it's the best of the bunch. As for me...you'll see below.

Favorites - Planet of the Apes Movies: Least Favorite to Favorite - Part 2

(Updated 7/24/18)
So, why didn't I split this whole thing up into three parts to begin with? I don't know. I guess I had some other things on my mind at the time. All I know is that I'm now doing it after the fact. Oh well, it's a learning experience. So, here's the new part two of my ranking of the Apes movies.

6. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

If you’re wondering why the fifth movie was tamer, look at this one. Conquest was the fourth movie from the franchise. It takes place 18 years after Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Because of Cornelius and Zira’s arrival, all dogs and cats died. This led the governments of the world to domesticate apes and they were eventually made into slave labor. Milo and his master come to the city (what city was it?) and they get the full brunt of how this dystopian world now works. Because of a lot of sad events taking place, Milo (eventually named Caesar) starts a revolution with the apes in the city.

Favorites - Planet of the Apes Movies: Least Favorite to Favorite - Part 1

Well, this was definitely a long time coming. Years ago, I decided to quickly browse over the original Planet of the Apes movies. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was just about to be released. I also remember an old friend who really liked the movies… sigh. Now, that’s someone I’d like to forget about. Anyway, my overview of the movies wasn’t all that great. Those were the first movies I ever talked about on the blog and I was still improving the in this writing thing. I always wanted to revisit that post since, at that time, I hadn’t seen the movies in years.

Now that the newer POTA movies have been released, I think it’s finally time to rank these things from least favorite to most favorite. I’m saying least favorite because even when the movie or show is bad, you can still find something worthy in it. This time, I’ve re-watched all of the original movies, the newer movies, that Tim Burton thing, and the TV shows. I did think about including the TV shows with this list, but this thing’s going to be long enough without them. Besides, I’ll just tell you now that I’d rather watch some of those episodes more than a couple of these movies. With all that said, I’ll get to it.

TV Talk - The Planet of the Apes TV Shows

Well, after some time away from the keyboard, I’m back. I was going to first do a post involving the Planet of the Apes movies, but I’ve decided to make a quick pit-stop. As I said in my look at the POTA short story collection, there were two Planet of the Apes TV shows in the 1970’s. After the last movie, the franchise was far from over. The first three movies were being aired on TV, so the Apes were still kicking in some form of fashion. The rights for the franchise were handed over to 20th Century Fox, so they tried to churn a lot of stuff out.

The first series was the live action show. Planet of the Apes aired between September and December of 1974. Only 14 episodes were produced. Instead of continuing the story from the movies, the series was pretty much a revamp of the concept. Two human astronauts, Alan Virdon (Ron Harper) and Peter Burke (James Naughton), somehow end up transported from 1980 to 3085. They land on Earth which has been taken over by apes with humans (speaking by the way) being slaves. Luckily, Virdon and Burke have help from a cool chimpanzee named Galen (Roddy McDowell). The series revolves around the three on the run from Doctor Zaius and General Urko (Mark Lenard).

The cartoon series, Return to the Planet of the Apes, aired between 1975 and 1976. 13 episodes were only done for the show. Like the live-action show, this show was pretty much a revamp of the concept. Unlike the other show and the movies, this show immediately went places where the others didn’t. It borrowed elements from the movies and the 1956 novel. On the show, three astronauts (Bill Hudson, Jeff Allen, and Judy Franklin) get transported from 1976 to 3979. The three then have to deal with threats coming from the apes and other forces in the world. Luckily, they have help from kind apes like Cornelius and Zira.

Book Review - Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone

Next up for the month is a return to the Planet of the Apes. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the franchise. Even though it’s a somewhat solid franchise, I haven’t done much in looking at things outside the movies. I haven’t even watched the animated TV series and the live-action TV series yet. Before you ask, yes, they do exist. A few months ago, I was having a bit of an itch for some POTA stuff. I finally watched the latest movie (War for the Planet of the Apes). I also found out about today’s pick, Plant of the Apes: Tales from The Forbidden Zone.

This book was released last year by Titan Books. It contains 16 short stories from modern writers about the original POTA movies. There are even stories about both TV series. Most of them fill in things or give backstories to certain characters. The rest end up being “what-if” stories or just weird stories.  Dan Abnett, Kevin J. Anderson, Ty Templeton, Greg Cox, and Paul Kupperburg were just some of the writers in this collection. They were also the only ones I recognized from other works. Rich Handley and Jim Beard ended up being the editors to the collection.

Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone

Editors: Rich Handley and Jim Beard

Writers: Various

BRIEF BLURB: This collection of short stories look at the original Planet of the Apes movies and TV shows. Some include backstories, continuations of canceled shows, what-if stories, and stories that look at other types of apes.

Favorites - Favorite Non-Star Trek Time Travel Stories

If there’s one trope in science fiction that’s been used as well as misused, it’s time travel. Heck, the Star Trek franchise has made time travel into a fine art. I’ve always liked time travel stories whenever they would show up in movies, TV, video games, and books. Sometimes, you’ll get the usual plot where someone is sent back in time to right a wrong. I’ll call that the “For the Future!!!” syndrome. Other times, someone messes up something that changes the present time. Then, we have the awesome “I’m trapped in a loop and I can’t get out!” plot. You get other ones along the way, but those are the ones that I tend to notice.

So, here is my list of favorite time travel stories from movies, TV, video games, and books. I thought about splitting this one up since there are a lot of movies, but I’ll just make this a long one. Besides, I can really only think of one game that really did time travel well. It’s not in any order but I will put the best up at the top. Since I couldn’t stop listing Trek episodes, they’re going on a separate list of their own. With all that said, “Allons-y!”

1. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

The Terminator franchise is pretty much the standard for good time travel stories… well, most of them. While the first movie is really good, T2 stands above it as being the superior movie. It was also the one I saw first since I didn’t see the first one until I was teen. T2 continues the story of Skynet, an AI from a dystopian future, sending a more advanced Terminator into the past to kill John Connor, the leader of the human resistance. This time, the human resistance sends its own reprogrammed Terminator in order to protect John and his mother, Sarah.

Everything about the movie is good. The story is great, the action is awesome, and the characters are cool. This movie showed that Arnold Schwarzenegger could actually emote. Ed Furlong was fun as John and Linda Hamilton rocked as Sarah Conner. Robert Patrick was really cool as the T-1000. He was really imposing villain. T2 did everything a sequel should do and more. If only they stopped there, though.

Trade Tales! - Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes

I think it’s time to return to the Planet of the Apes. Back in 2011, Boom! Studios had acquired the license for Planet of the Apes. I think they still have it. They’d have to have it in order for that Star Trek/Planet of the Apes crossover to come out some time ago. Yes, someone had the awesome idea to have William Shatner and Charlton Heston meet in comic form. I’m not talking about that today though. One thing Boom! did do was try to bridge the gap between the fifth and first POTA movies. I really haven’t read much of those unfortunately.

Today’s book is a prequel to the first movie in that it’s supposed to take place 20 years before the 1968 movie. Betrayal of The Planet of the Apes was a miniseries that was released in 2011. I actually found this trade and another book at Books-A-Million on New Year’s Eve. I decided to take it light that night. The miniseries was written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman. Hardman also handled the art with the mini. Jordie Bellaire handled the colors and Ed Dirkshire handled the letters.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes

Writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman

Artist: Gabriel Hardman

Colors: Jordie Bellaire

Letters: Ed Dirkshire

Editor: Dafna Pleban

Favorites - Ten Favorite Prequels

Prequels tend to get a bad rep, don’t they? I guess I can’t blame folk for not liking prequels. There are some that are pretty bad. They tend to be of low quality and not capture what the original was all about. I guess I can say the same thing about reboots, but that’s a list for another time. Today, I’ll be talking about my ten favorite prequels. Why ten? Well, there aren't that many good ones out there.  I won’t be including reboots like Batman Begins and Casino Royale on here simply because they aren’t prequels. I’ve see some lists include them and that’s pretty annoying. Now, there are some I’ll include that are sort of reboots, but they are meant to be prequels.

10. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 

ToD is probably my least favorite of the Indiana Jones Foursome. It’s down there with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. While it’s not my favorite, it has its moments. Of course, Harrison Ford rules any role he’s in. Short Pack was cool. It also had some nice quotes (“You betrayed Shiva!”)

9. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 

Yes, I know. It’s a general fact that the Star Wars prequels suck. Luckily, I’m not a general person. There were good things and bad things in those movies. ROTS was the best of the three prequels. It helped set up things in the original trilogy and isn’t a bad movie in of itself. It’s far from perfect but I do like it more than the other two prequels. I will say that the Clone War TV series (I’ll get to it later) did more to expand the universe than the prequels did.

Planet of the Apes: Book/Movie Comparisons

This moment actually made it into the movie. Cool, I guess.

So, I’m back with a post that hopefully won’t be too long. When I went into reading the book for the first time, I was kind of amazed at how much the movie stuck to the overall story. I also saw snippets of the later movies in the book. For example, Escape from the Planet of the Apes shares similarities to the original book. The biggest examples are the tests the main characters are put through and the speeches they give to the public. Some of the things about what happened to humanity on Soror kind of match up with things that happened in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

The overall story of the book matches up with the movie. Planet of the Apes is essentially about a group of astronauts who land on a planet inhabited by talking apes and animal-like humans. The astronauts get their equipment destroyed by the humans. One astronaut dies in the gorillas’ hunt while the other astronaut loses his speech and reason. The main character is caged and paired with a mate named Nova. Zaius is more or less the antagonist of the story. Cornelius and Zira are two chimps who help the main character and Nova escape from Ape City. They also come across a archeological site that houses artifacts from a long-dead human civilization. Finally, the stories also end on some dark/weird twist ending that leaves the main character befuddled.

Other than those major things, changes were made to some things. Even though I like the novel, there’s a part of me that thinks that some changes needed to be made for the movie. While I could talk about all of the changes, I’ll center on five things: the technology, Zaius, Ulysse/Taylor, the themes, and the ending.

Book Review - Planet of the Apes

1968’s Planet of the Apes is one of my favorite movies. I’ve already gushed about how good it is. The POTA franchise was one of the first movie franchises I talked about here.  I’ve also seen the rest of the original movies, the lackluster reboot from 2001, and the pretty good prequel/reboot/remake from 2011. What I haven’t done till now is actually read the original novel from 1963. I was pretty interested in reading it, but I couldn’t really find it anywhere. Eventually, I just decided to find it on Amazon.

For those who don’t know, La Planete Des Singes aka Monkey Planet aka Planet of the Apes was written by Pierre Boulle. Boulle was a French writer and he wrote a ton of books including The Bridge Over The River Kwai which was also adapted into a movie. POTA was later translated to English by Xan Fielding. One of the things I’ve heard about the book was how different it was from the movie. I know that the 1968 movie script was reworked a few times by its writers. One of them was Rod Sterling, the man behind The Twilight Zone. I also knew about some of the original novel including the ending (thanks Wikipedia). So, I went into this little read with some trepidation.

Planet of the Apes

Author: Pierre Boulle

BRIEF BLURB: A group of astronauts land on a planet that is inhabited by talking, civilized apes. 

Top 22 Villains - Part 2

Well, it's part two of this pretty big list. I got eight for this run.

16. The Predator from Predator

It’s the alien with the awesome dreadlocks, ‘mon! In Predator, the… Predator (he gets no name) hunts down a team of US soldiers in a South American jungle. What makes him cool and interesting is that so much about him is really hidden until the end. He’s mostly in cloak using some advanced weaponry throughout the movie. He’s still awesome when we finally see him in all of his ugliness and Arnold wasn’t lying about that. He’s not out for something nefarious. He just wants to hunt, prove himself over the soldiers, and be the best hunter.

Movie Talk - Planet of the Apes Franchise

Well, I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now, but I haven't felt like it. SO, since the new POTA movie is coming out this week (still undecided if I will see it in theaters), I might as well talk about my experience with the franchise and the movies themselves. Now, I'm not some Uber-fan (I think) or an expert on the meanings of these movies, I'm just a guy who likes scifi in just about all of its forms.

Background
The first POTA movie I saw was Beneath the Planet of the Apes (the 2nd one for short). It was on this old VHS tape which had a Godzilla movie (Gihdorah: the Three-Headed Monster), a Richard Pryor movie (Bustin' Loose), and a Police Academy movie (I guess the second movie). Unfortunately, this tape was ravaged by a crappy VCR. I saw the first movie next -- Loved it. I still do in fact. It's one of my favorite movies ever. When the 30th anniversary rolled around, I was able to see all five movies. I have the fifth one on VHS. I have also seen the so-called travesty known as the remake (it's not that bad though). Even though they may have faults, I can watch all of these movies and not be ashamed or feel like I'm wasting my time.