Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth movie in the current continuity of the Planet of the Apes series of movies, and the tenth overall. It follows the adventures of intelligent chimp Noa (performed with motion capture technology by Owen Teague) some generations after the last movie, War for the Planet of the Apes. Directed by Wes Ball, it features a variety of apes, including gorillas and orangutans in addition to chimps (gibbons are also mentioned in passing).

It begins with a quick prologue to the funeral of Caesar, the ape protagonist of the previous trilogy of movies. I felt like those movies came to a definitive end with the last movie; Kingdom is less a direct sequel to War and more the start of a new story set in the same world, so it feels a bit like the proverbial cake that you can both have and eat, too, as far as previous trilogy endings are concerned.

Third time's the charm.

I managed to see both the previous installments of this movie series in theaters (Rise in 2011 and Dawn in 2014). Despite the fact that I went in intending to review these movies for Flayrah when both of them came out, I didn't.

The truth of the matter is that I got bored, and just couldn't be bothered to write anything.

So, I really should have reviewed those other two movies. But it helps that this is the first movie in the series I actually liked, though.

Rise and Dawn are not bad movies; they have a lot of positive qualities to them, but I never really liked them.

This review's lyrical headline comes from the Beatles' "A Day in the Life", and, yes, I'm making that a "thing"..

Treesong used to complain about zombie comic books a lot; he’d not be happy to see The Walking Dead #100 take the #1 spot on the December sales list. I guess Image was all like, “My Little Pony beat us as the number one non-Marvel-or-DC book last month? And they don’t even have a book out this month? Well, I guess we’ll just have to beat everybody instead!”

Previews runs a top 100 best selling monthly comics list; they’re obviously a bit behind, as this issue contains November’s. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #1 was ranked at 15, making it the most bought book not from DC or Marvel. So, way to go bronies!

Here’s what’s coming up in February next year, for those of you who buy comic books. For those of you who don’t, I guess you can skip this one.

Due to technical difficulties, I was unable to get the December Previews list out before December, so there is a short hiatus in the archives. However, since there was a year and a half hiatus just before and nobody complained, I'm guessing I'm not going to catch much flak.

2011’s Planet of the Apes movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is unusual in that it has no novelized tie-in. Instead, the movie release’s tie-in book is Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, an almost-coffee-table hardcover novel featuring an original “offstage” story by Andrew Gaska (from a plot by Gaska, Rich Handley, Christian Berntsen, and Erik Matthews) set during the events of the 1968 movie, imaginatively depicted by “over 50 illustrations from various top talents in the industry, including full-color paintings by Jim Steranko, Joe Jusko, Dave Dorman, Barron Storey, Sanjulian and Mark Texeira, starship design by Andrew Probert, character portraits by Matt Busch and more!” (publisher’s catalogue).

In the 1968 movie, four astronauts are sent in frozen hibernation on a 2,006-year mission to explore an extrasolar planet. One dies en route; the other three, Taylor, Landon, and Dodge, find a planet inhabited by intelligent apes and feral humans. The astronauts are separated, and the story follows Col. George Taylor (Charlton Heston) as he interacts with the gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees; discovers Landon lobotomized and Dodge’s body stuffed and mounted in a museum; and ultimately learns that this is not an alien planet, but Earth in the far future.

Los Angeles, Archaia Entertainment, August 2011, hardcover $24.95 (268 [+ 4] pages).

From 1974 to 1977, Marvel Comics (through their Curtis Magazine imprint) published a black & white tie-in comic for the Planet of the Apes movie and TV series.  It featured not only adaptations of the five original movies, but also new adventures as well as background stories on the creation of the films.  [Full disclosure: Your ever-lovin' ed-otter grabbed every issue he could get a hold of!] Many of the stories were written by Moonknight co-creator Doug Moench (as well as Gerry Conway) and illustrated by Ghost Rider co-creator Mike Ploog (as well as Mike Esposito and George Tuska). Now, BOOM! Studios have secured the rights to re-publish those 1970′s classics under the title Terror on the Planet of the Apes, coming this February.

image c. 2011 Boom! Studios

Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters in the U.S. and Canada on August 5, rejuvenating the earlier series.

The plot centers around James Franco as Will Rodman, a scientist developing a cure for Alzheimer's by running tests on apes. The first test subject, a chimpanzee named Caesar, is genetically modified by the cure into a new breed — one gifted with greater sentience.

While Caesar's cognitive abilities grow to surpass his human counterparts, he is still viewed by most as an animal, and is treated like Rodman's pet. In retaliation, Caesar spreads the cure to millions of other apes, who rally to plot a revolution. Rodman must stop the war before apes overthrow man as top of the food chain.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is meant to be a platform to build future movies on. Director Rupert Wyatt said:

To me, I can think of all sorts of sequels to this film, but this is just the beginning.

This movie is no mere remake of the older series, but a new conceptualization of the same idea. Special effects in film-making have also made immense progress since the originals; instead of plastic-looking men and women with prosthetic make-up plastered to their face, the viewer will be able to experience more aesthetically-pleasing and realistic CGI effects.