Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of those rare films that you just know would be good based on the trailer alone.

Whether or not you're a fan of the Apes cult movie franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes will satisfy your craving for a quality B-movie summer blockbuster experience at the cinemas. It's not mind-blowing awesome, but it's a delicious ticket-worthy movie experience with a lingering effect.

In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we are on Planet Earth, in present-day San Francisco, where hot scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) experiments on chimps as part of his fervent research to cure Alzheimer's, a disease that inflicts his father (John Lithgow). A supposedly failed experiment leads Rodman to bring home a baby chimp and names him Caesar-- the genesis of a cataclysmic future with apes.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reboot of the Planet of the Apes movie franchise based on Pierre Boulle's novel La planete des singes, and serves as the foundation of a new Apes series. It has a good cast, and Franco, after his failed stint as a superbly weird 2011 Oscar co-host, has redeemed himself in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, reminding us that he's a versatile actor-- and that he should stick to this craft.

Directed by Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist), Rise of the Planet of the Apes is unpretentious, quick-paced, emotional, and heartfelt, and incites moral and social questions, awareness of animal treatment, with an emotional portrayal of human-beast relationship. And with CG animation that brought us Oscar golds Avatar and Lord of the Rings, the apes in the movie are realistic and soulful, more chilling and admirably expressive, and it becomes a thrill to observe Caesar's intelligence advance to human level.

Indeed, Rise of the Planet of the Apes has the power to hook you from beginning to end with its potent storytelling. It's got the right blend of sci-fi thriller, drama, and action, and will perhaps give birth to a new generation of Planet of the Apes fans.

Cowboys and Aliens (2O11)

The title alone says it all: Cowboys and Aliens.

So if you are hurrying to the cinemas to get yourself a deep, complex, and intellectually satisfying conspiracy-mystery story, hold your horses; just go back home and go through your DVD collection of The X-Files.

But if you want pure Spaghetti Western, of outlaws and tough ranchers, of saloons and tumbleweeds, of Apaches and a lone desert, and the glorious sounds of gunshots and explosions and boots on gravel-- only with the addition of extraterrestrial biological entities--then this is your thing.

Cowboys and Aliens is simply that: bang-bang and boom and wide open spaces and gross villains. It's an action-filled adventure story that refreshingly brings back our love for the Old West (although this one tries to be a little more serious and deep, but failed in that part).

It's 1873 in New Mexico Territory and Jack (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert injured, his memory wiped out and a stubborn futuristic electronic bracelet on his left wrist. But he still has his tough-guy, don't-mess-with-me attitude intact-- which he brings to a town called Absolution, where he encounters a variety of characters that he'd eventually team up with, including the feared Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and an openly staring and creepy woman (Olivia Wilde) who has an annoying mysterious agenda. Tension flares between the new stranger and the townsfolk, until alien spaceships arrive, bombing everywhere and starts abducting the folks. And thus begins the united cowboys' war against the aliens while Jack solves the mystery of his identity.

Cowboys and Aliens, directed by John Favreau (Iron Man), runs 118 minutes of Western fun that will sustain your attention til the end. The aliens do not look anything new (except some disgusting detail), Daniel Craig effectively epitomizes an Old West outlaw-hero, Ford's presence brings fondness instead of fear, and Wilde's character portrays the film's trying-hard conspiracy element.

Hats and horses and guns and explosions, Cowboys and Aliens will entertain the Spaghetti Western fans but might bore or disappoint the sci-fi conspiracy buffs. But if you're a fan of both Western and alien films, you'll enjoy the movie in the cinemas just fine.