Comic Review: Planet of the Apes: Visionaries

Published: August 22nd, 2018
Written by: Dana Gould
Art by: Chad Lewis, Marcelo Costa, Darrin Moore, Miguel Muerto, Pablo Rivera (cover)
Based on: Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, the original 1968 film’s script by Rod Sterling

BOOM! Studios, 138 Pages

Review:

Man, I dug this a lot more than I thought I would, as a lot of similar comics that are based on different takes of famous stories or adapted from first draft scripts have fared fairly poorly.

Comedian, Dana Gould, took the first draft Rod Sterling script for the 1968 Planet of the Apes movie and crafted something really cool. And if I may be so bold, I kind of like this story better than the one that became the Charlton Heston-led picture.

It’s easy to see why this script was greatly modified, though, as a film made from this script would’ve cost a lot more to make and would’ve required more effects work. Reason being, they would’ve had to make costumes and prosthetics for more ape characters just to populate the background, as this mostly takes place in an urban metropolis.

What’s cool about this is that you can see the things they took from this draft of the script and eventually used for the third Apes film, which saw a few apes arrive on our Earth. So some of the cooler elements of this script were eventually filmed, the only real difference was that roles between the human and ape characters were reversed, which still saved the studio from spending more money on effects, as they only needed two ape characters for those scenes.

Apart from the setting and the apes living in a modern Earth type world, the only other major change is that the protagonist dies at the end. The ending, apart from the death, is essentially the same with the reveal of the destroyed Statue of Liberty.

I should also point out that the art in this was really good and it captured the tone well. The book looked better than most of the comics put out by the big two over the last few years.

Rating: 8.5/10
Pairs well with: other Planet of the Apes comics, as well as other comics based off of first draft scripts or novels that differ from their movies.

Documentary Review: Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film (2019)

Release Date: February 8th, 2019 (Santa Barbara International Film Festival)
Directed by: William Conlin
Written by: Thomas R. Burman, William Conlin
Music by: Shawn Patterson
Cast: Thomas R. Burman, Rick Baker, Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, Richard Donner, Dana Gould, John Landis, Leonard Maltin, Greg Nicotero, various

Gravitas Ventures, The Burman Studio Inc., Hellcat Productions LLC,  86 Minutes

Review:

This recently popped up on Prime Video, so I added it to my queue. I didn’t want to watch it, however, until I was done revisiting the original run of Planet of the Apes movies.

This was a great thing to watch following the five original films, though. And it’s especially cool for those who love practical special effects, movie makeup and/or the film franchise.

From the start, this documentary gets right into the development of the first Planet of the Apes movie and how everything from the effects side of the film came to be. It also gets into the sequels and talks about the advances in technology and how they changed the way the future Apes movies were made.

The thing I liked best about this, other than learning about the makeup process, was getting to know the creatives behind it all and how their craft changed filmmaking forever. It was also interesting seeing how their relationships evolved with one another and in a few instances, dissolved.

This really is a great piece on special effects filmmaking but it is made even better by telling a really human story about people that should be regarded as legends.

Rating: 7.5/10
Pairs well with: other recent documentaries on filmmaking.

TV Review: Mob City (2013)

Original Run: December 4th, 2013 – December 18th, 2013
Created by: Frank Darabont
Directed by: Frank Darabont, Guy Ferland
Written by: Frank Darabont, Michael Sloane, David J. Schow, David Leslie Johnson
Based on: L.A. Noir by John Buntin
Music by: Mark Isham
Cast: Jon Bernthal, Milo Ventimiglia, Neal McDonough, Alexa Davalos, Jeffrey DeMunn, Robert Knepper, Jeremy Luke, Gregory Itzin, Edward Burns, Dana Gould, Simon Pegg, Ernie Hudson, Patrick Fischler, Richard Brake

Darkwoods Productions, Swiftly Productions, Michael DeLuca Productions, TNT, 6 Episodes, 45 Minutes (per episode)

Review:

Frank Darabont was the man that brought The Walking Dead to the small screen back in 2010. Unfortunately, he was the showrunner for only a short time. AMC fired him after two seasons and it actually angered some of the cast members who were close to Darabont. He took two of those actors with him to this show, which became his big project after being let go by AMC.

Darabont went to TNT with the idea of adapting the book L.A. Noir for television. He cast Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead‘s Shane) as the lead and also got Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale from The Walking Dead) to play a pivotal role. Sadly, this would not become the runaway success that TNT had hoped for after Darabont smashed cable records with The Walking Dead.

Mob City is much better than decent but it also didn’t exist long enough to truly find its footing. The way in which it was released also probably hurt it. It came out in the middle of the Christmas holiday television season with episodes played back-to-back like two hour movies over the course of three weeks. It was treated more like a miniseries than a show and this may have confused people and just got lost in the holiday shuffle.

The real problem with Mob City, however, is that six episodes just aren’t enough to really get invested in it. I didn’t feel invested in The Walking Dead after its very short first season, either. Imagine if all you ever knew was season one of The Walking Dead. It has evolved into a much different show over time. Even though a small sample size created a long lasting legacy for AMC, a small sample size is just a small sample size and it didn’t work the same way for TNT’s Mob City.

Mob City told a quick story over its six episodes but it was just enough to get you interested on what this show could be over the long haul. It even ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, as you know that there is a bigger story just on the horizon. Unfortunately, we’ll never get that.

It is hard to give a show a fair look with only six episodes. Mob City was intriguing and offered up some really cool bits in its short run. The shootout on the carousel in episode three was magnificent. The end of the season was also great. But ultimately, there just wasn’t enough time to really get to know these characters or to be able to sink your teeth into a show that felt like it had riches to bestow on its audience. But kudos to the writers, because these characters left you wanting to get to know them much more intimately.

Rating: 7/10