Devil’s DVD Advocacy: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

During one of our mini-episodes of the Devil’s Advocates podcast, I was complaining about how filmmakers now have such great technology at their disposal and make horrible movies with all of that technology. In the last five years, we have been inundated with movies like Avatar, The Last Airbender, Clash of the Titans and a whole lot of other horrible movies that were just excuses to show off special-effects. I used the example of Raiders of the Lost Ark to show how a movie could be made thirty years ago with some of the simplest movie making techniques (matte paintings, puppets and miniature sets) and still be better than most of what Hollywood keeps putting into the movie theaters now.

Immortals (Devil’s Advocates Review)

Immortals is a remake of Clash Of The Titans set in Mickey Rourke’s 1980′s Los Angeles apartment that….Wait. It’s not a remake? Really!?!? I have to start this review over.

Immortals is the sequel to the mostly forgettable Troy. Like Troy, this movie….What?!?! Again?!? It’s not a sequel to Troy? But, it’s got…And….It’s….I am so confused now. Please, forgive this reviewer as I try this again.

Right! I think I’ve got it now.

Immortals

Evil (and impractically helmeted) King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) blames the gods for the death of his family and plots to free the Titans from Mount Tartarus so that they can destroy the gods. On the side of good is young Theseus (Henry Cavill) who, despite being the spat-upon bastard son of a peasant mother, is fated/groomed by Zeus himself (John Hurt when in disguise; otherwise, Luke Evans) to defeat Hyperion and save all mankind. Thus begins Immortals, director Tarsem’s (a.k.a. Tarsem Singh, Tarsem Dhandwar Singh, Tarsem Singh Dhandwar) long-in-the-making answer to Louis Leterrier’s rather unfortunate 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

During one of our mini-episodes of the Devil’s Advocates podcast, I was complaining about how filmmakers now have such great technology at their disposal and make horrible movies with all of that technology. In the last five years, we have been inundated with movies like Avatar, The Last Airbender, Clash of the Titans and a whole lot of other horrible movies that were just excuses to show off special-effects. I used the example of Raiders of the Lost Ark to show how a movie could be made thirty years ago with some of the simplest movie making techniques (matte paintings, puppets and miniature sets) and still be better than most of what Hollywood keeps putting into the movie theaters now.

Indian Goddess Freida Pinto To Battle Greek Gods

Fighting the Greek gods is all the rage right now, so Universal is moving forward with it’s War of The Gods.  The film, much like Clash of The Titans, focuses in on one of Zeus’ children rebelling against daddy on a large scale.  Theseus, played by Henry Cavill, will enlist the help of Freida Pinto’s Phaedra to battle the tyranny of the gods.   The film is slated to release in 2011.

Editor’s Note:  This story has a personal connection for me, as my daughter’s name happens to be Phaedra.