Movie #11 of 2024: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) [Edited version of my original review from 2017.] When I first came home from seeing this in theaters, I noted that it was “probably the best Planet of the Apes movie ever made.” Having had seven years to sit with that assessment, and …
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Movie #10 of 2024: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) [Edited version of my original review from 2017.] Still a very strong picture, but not quite as good as Rise in my personal opinion. This sequel is the first time that the modern Apes series goes fully post-apocalyptic, but we’ve jumped forwards ten …
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Movie #9 of 2024: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) [Edited version of my original review from 2017.] After decades languishing as a punchline in the wilderness of popular culture, Planet of the Apes got a long-overdue update in this 2011 feature, which is best understood as a quasi-canonical reboot for the franchise. …
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Movie #8 of 2024: Planet of the Apes (2001) The Planet of the Apes franchise went dormant in the 1970s after five films and two short-lived TV shows, but was brought back to the big screen for this Tim Burton production several decades later. It’s best understood as a reimagining of the first movie — …
Movie #7 of 2024: Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) A perfunctory conclusion to the original Planet of the Apes movie series, although the franchise would live on in television shows, comic books, an odd Tim Burton reimagining, and an eventual big-screen reboot in 2011 that’s still ongoing today. In this film, the …
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Movie #6 of 2024: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) By this point in the initial Planet of the Apes series, viewers had seen a future world where our species had been overthrown, its apocalyptic destruction, and a tragedy wherein the only surviving refugees of that dystopia, having traveled back in time to …
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TV #20 of 2024: Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, season 1 This six-part animated Star Wars anthology is pretty clearly modeled on the similar Tales of the Jedi project from 2022, and it inherits some of the same structural weaknesses. At least this time around, the story pushes forwards for one of its two …
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Book #75 of 2024: Alien Scream by Chris Archer (Mindwarp #3) Easily the best entry so far in my reread of this 90s middle-grade sci-fi series. The formula is pretty firmly established by this point — a kid in the small Wisconsin town turns 13, develops strange powers, and winds up getting attacked by a …
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TV #19 of 2024: Star Trek: Picard, season 3 The first two seasons of this Star Trek: The Next Generation sequel were generally at their strongest in those moments that reunited the cast of the original show, which is probably why this last year goes ahead and makes it a full-fledged reunion. As before, there’s …
Movie #5 of 2024: Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) A welcome bounce back for the series. Like its two predecessors, there’s a fatalistic darkness to this Apes film, but it’s carried off better here in balance with a certain comic playfulness. The producers wrote themselves into a corner by concluding the prior …
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