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Post by shaxper on Mar 27, 2017 13:48:23 GMT -5
Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes #4 (Boom! and Dark Horse)  writers: David Walker and Tim Seeley art: Fernando Dagnino colors: Sandra Molina letters: Nate Piekos editor: Scott Allie grade: B+ If the last two issues felt too Tarzan-heavy, this one is more than happy to make up for it. Somehow, even with the existence of portals to other realities integral to the plot line, it never occurred to me that we were heading here:  Even if that's the sole iconic image any casual fan reading this series was waiting for. Sure enough, all our key players end up in the reality of the original Planet of the Apes film...kind of. In this reality, Zira followed Zaius' orders and dissected Taylor, leaving Tarzan room to be the hunted human of this reality. For fans of the later Apes films (man, they're catering to everyone here), we've got Caesar sitting at a table with his deceased parents, planning to save the future together:  Awesome idea, but ultimately a problematic one. As this Caesar was raised in an alternate reality in which there was no Armando nor Governor Breck, in which it's 1907 and his mother has been there for him his entire life, in what way is this actually Caesar beyond genetics? This is not the character we followed through the fourth and fifth Apes films other than in name. This is a kid who has never been a leader and never been forced to make tough decisions until now. Thus, while I like the idea of teaming Caesar up with his parents in the context of the original film, it ultimately doesn't work for me. Still, we've got Dr, Milo on the planet with something shady cooked up, Zaius obsessed with preventing the future, and (of course) Tarzan likely to shout "get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape" next issue. I still have hope that I'll be satisfied with the conclusion. Minor Detail: - So important that our characters don't travel to the exact continuity of the original Apes film, as that allows this multiverse theory to explain all the tacky POTA crossovers Boom! wants to license. They all work as alternate realities so long as no two of them both travel back to the actual continuity of the first Apes film. That being said, I'm sure no future writer or editor will be careful enough to observe this. - Shortly before our characters leap through the portal, we see moments from the end of Conquest of The Planet of the Apes playing on it:  Do Walker and Seeley understand that's a different timeline than that of the original two films? |
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Post by shaxper on Mar 27, 2017 14:45:49 GMT -5
Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes #5 (Boom! and Dark Horse)  writers: David Walker and Tim Seeley art: Fernando Dagnino colors: Sandra Molina letters: Nate Piekos editor: Scott Allie grade: A- Not what I expected. This final installment absolutely resisted the urge to revisit familiar territory. There's no replaying of key lines and scenes from the old film as our time/dimension travelling heroes are too good at intercepting characters and events before they take their familiar routes. I really respect that. The star of this final chapter is unquestionably Dr. Milo, who makes for a fascinating villain, shaped by his awareness of the time loop Walker and Seeley believe the POTA continuity is trapped in:   ...except that he's wrong. The POTA timeline doesn't work like that, with the apes going back to the present, and the present then becoming the future of the first two films. Here's an explanation of the POTA timeline(s) that actually makes sense: classiccomics.boards.net/thread/224/planet-apes-beginning-reviews-shaxper?page=10&scrollTo=14829So yes, there's still a time loop, but it's more complex than the writers of this series understand it to be. And the conceit of this series?  TARZAN is the difference, or at least his platonic bond with Caesar, human and ape, is. Maybe this time around the Earth is going to make it. And, as if in answer to that very thought, we get the final moment of the series:  Beautiful. To be fair, this series ends with some problems. The plot was far too rushed and indecisive, straining (I think) under the burden of trying to cater to two franchises. Seems like issues #2 and 3 existed just to get in the Tarzan stuff before arriving at its true destination. But the bigger detractor for me continues to be characterization. While Dr. Milo is awesome, Caesar and Tarzan, the stars of this series, are utterly one dimensional. We get a lot of moments where you can see Walker, Seeley, and Dagnino TRYING so damn hard to make us feel something for these guys:  ...but it always seems forced. And this wish-fulfillment ending, in which Caesar gets back his family and the opportunity to redeem the planet, it takes away all the hard lessons of the original films that shaped Caesar into such a compelling character. In short, while this series did a lot right and generally managed to keep my attention, and while it resisted the urge to phone it in with cheap pandering to the fan-bases, it still gave us Planet of the Apes Light, with only a surface understanding of some key elements of this series, including the characters, the timeline, and especially the overall tone of the thing. A good enough series, but both too involved to cater much to the non-POTA fan and yet not deep enough to really satisfy the serious POTA fan. |
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Post by shaxper on Mar 27, 2017 15:01:41 GMT -5
Summary of Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes (Dark Horse / Boom!)
(2016-2017)
Overview: An alternate timeline in which, after the events of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Cornelius, Zira, and Milo disrupted the timestream during their escape and ended up in Victorian Africa just in time to adopt Tarzan. As the multiverse continues to destabilize, a dimension-hopping Dr. Milo shows up and brings our heroes back to the time of the second Apes film in order to set things right. In the process, they create a new timeline with the hope that they've finally broken out of the series' tragic time loop.
Note: Though this series occurs at the same point in the POTA timeline as Escape from the Planet of the Apes, it occurs at a point more than half a century earlier on Earth's timeline and ends up back in the future by the conclusion.
Though the previous crossover, Star Trek / Planet of the Apes: The Prime Directive went out of its way to have no impact upon continuity, this series intentionally creates a new alternate timeline for the franchise after the second film. It also creates a plausible explanation for all the Planet of the Apes crossovers Boom! is licensing -- they're all alternate realities.
Worthwhile To Read?: Yes. Quite interesting.
Key Issues/Highlights?: This series takes a long while to get going, offering a lot of fan service to the Tarzan base in the first three stories before finally arriving at its central plot in the fourth and fifth issues. You probably need to read it all, but #4 and #5 are the fun ones.
Worth Re-Reading?: It's not bad. Nothing particularly brilliant that warrants reexamining and the characterizations are forgettable (Dr. Milo aside), but it's a quality work
This volumes includes: Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes #1-5
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Post by shaxper on Mar 27, 2017 15:15:59 GMT -5
And now the all important question: Anyone actually reading Green Lantern / Planet of the Apes? I'm not sure I have the strength for another shameless licensing crossover unless it's got substance to it like Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes did.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 27, 2017 15:16:02 GMT -5
Considering the entire reason for this mini was to make money from Tarzan lovers and POA lovers i felt the series did quite well. It didn't spit on or ignore either fan group and it even managed to be different and stimulating and a very beautifully drawn comic. I would rather have something like this where you could see the writer/artist are involved and enthusiastic about what they are trying to create over just having a slapped together money maker.
There was some incredible thoughts put into the concepts and while some of it failed it did more right than wrong. And yes, it is probably intrinsically understood that for the most part the buyers of this series will be very knowledgeable about either one of or both worlds. I don't think any Tarzan lover was disappointed or POA lover was disappointed with this min-series. There is always the risk of failure with these cross over concepts and some are not really meant to work yet they can be fun.
Where POA/Star Trek was a rather dumb and silly guilty pleasure this one comes across more appetizing and pleasing all the way around. Worth purchasing for concept and story and art!!! It would have truly benefited from a few more issues to breathe so as not to feeling so rushed but overall i enjoyed myself during the reading and re-readings.
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Post by shaxper on Mar 27, 2017 15:18:10 GMT -5
There was some incredible thoughts put into the concepts and while some of it failed it did more right than wrong. And yes, it is probably intrinsically understood that for the most part the buyers of this series will be very knowledgeable about either one of or both worlds. I don't think any Tarzan lover was disappointed or POA lover was disappointed with this min-series. There is always the risk of failure with these cross over concepts and some are not really meant to work yet they can be fun. I think I'd simplify it this way: far better than anyone would have expected from a licensing crossover of this nature; still not a stellar POTA work in its own right. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Mar 28, 2017 6:13:58 GMT -5
And now the all important question: Anyone actually reading Green Lantern / Planet of the Apes? I'm not sure I have the strength for another shameless licensing crossover unless it's got substance to it like Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes did. I've read the first two issues. It's got problems. It's neck deep in recent Green Lantern lore, so if you haven't been keeping up with that, you might feel lost. The script is by Justin Jordan, whose work has frustrated me every time, with dialog that has lots of interrupted partial sentences and it doesn't flow well from panel to panel. Some pages have no dialog, and the artist doesn't quite carry the story successfully on those pages, making it a struggle, for me at least, to figure out what's happening. The artist also doesn't keep on model with the established ape facial design, with many of the chimpanzees looking more like ape/human hybrids, and gorillas that look like this:  I don't get why some artists hired to draw POTA can manage to get the look so wrong. The story, which takes place between POTA and Beneath, involves Cornelius getting a power ring that eventually is explained as morphing between the various colors, so we see him as a Red Lantern, Orange Lantern, etc. at various points. I'm not quite sure why he got it, but it was some plan of Sinestro's to use this parallel earth that's "locked in a time loop" to take advantage of this "universal ring". It's messy, and awkwardly told, and I'm not buying into how Jordan voices Cornelius' dialog--but then I don't buy into much of Jordan's dialog for anyone. |
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Post by shaxper on Mar 28, 2017 9:51:44 GMT -5
And now the all important question: Anyone actually reading Green Lantern / Planet of the Apes? I'm not sure I have the strength for another shameless licensing crossover unless it's got substance to it like Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes did. I've read the first two issues. It's got problems. It's neck deep in recent Green Lantern lore, so if you haven't been keeping up with that, you might feel lost. The script is by Justin Jordan, whose work has frustrated me every time, with dialog that has lots of interrupted partial sentences and it doesn't flow well from panel to panel. Some pages have no dialog, and the artist doesn't quite carry the story successfully on those pages, making it a struggle, for me at least, to figure out what's happening. The artist also doesn't keep on model with the established ape facial design, with many of the chimpanzees looking more like ape/human hybrids, and gorillas that look like this: I don't get why some artists hired to draw POTA can manage to get the look so wrong. The story, which takes place between POTA and Beneath, involves Cornelius getting a power ring that eventually is explained as morphing between the various colors, so we see him as a Red Lantern, Orange Lantern, etc. at various points. I'm not quite sure why he got it, but it was some plan of Sinestro's to use this parallel earth that's "locked in a time loop" to take advantage of this "universal ring". It's messy, and awkwardly told, and I'm not buying into how Jordan voices Cornelius' dialog--but then I don't buy into much of Jordan's dialog for anyone. Yikes. Sounds like I may need to sit this one out. Even with Tarzan, which was really good, I'm feeling a little burnt out on these crossover limited series that don't really have the space or the talent to go in bold new directions. |
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Post by tarkintino on May 2, 2017 9:27:40 GMT -5
 Finally got my hands on the remaining Power Records film adaptations and read them today. What's so interesting about these adaptations is both that they do a generally excellent job of condensing the entire films into smooth-flowing 20 page comic book stories and that, while the art is competent but avoids taking risks, the scripts sometimes make pretty significant departures from the source material. In the case of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, which I read eons ago, I assumed this was because they were working with a shooting script (the film was less than a year old when these adaptations were published, so it may not have even been in theaters yet when the adaptation was written), but now I'm not so sure. In that adaptation, Ape City was far more futuristic, Cornelius never died, and Governer Breck stuck around as the chief antagonist. I believe I've read elsewhere that Breck was included in the original shooting script, but the other two changes don't seem to have existed in the early scripts. I think Power Records just made the call to do those things (and I can see leaving out the Cornelius bit in an attempt to keep the comic kid friendly. After all, they avoided adapting Conquest entirely, presumably for the same reason). Anyway, here's what I noted about the adaptations I read today: Planet of the Apes (Power Records, 1974): This is really a great adaptation. I love that the first twenty minutes of the film, which drags on for ages, is covered in two pages of story here. Generally, speaking, until the very end (which is a tad abrupt), the story flows very well and manages to avoid cutting out or glossing over anything too significant. In addition, they make several conscious changes early on to present Taylor as a pretty likable character who has genuine concern for his crew and the ability to joke without any hint of Heston's jaded edge. Essentially, this adaptation fixes my two largest problems with the first film: pacing and Taylor being thoroughly unlikable/unsympathetic. As a result, I enjoyed this adaptation tremendously! Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Power Records, 1974): Generally flows better than the actual film and comes off far less hokey, but they glossed over far too much with the mutants, and I consider them the strong point of the film. It seems like, much with the re-characterization of Taylor in the first adaptation, the writers were trying to create a clear sense of good guy/bad guy in the story and, in order for the gorillas to be bad, the mutant humans had to be good (or at least neutral). As a result, faces get ripped off, inner selves are revealed, and the bomb is worshipped, but there's no psychic interrogation scene, it's implied that Taylor has been their guest instead of their prisoner, and the mutants are generally glossed over after their brief introduction so that the gorillas can show up and trigger the end of the Earth. Disappointing. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Power Records, 1974): As with the other adaptations this one removes particularly troubling/non-family friendly material (in this case, the entire existence of Dr. Milo in order to avoid his senseless death) and makes general improvements as well (removing the whole high society tangent to the plot, having Cornelius give a lot more thought to the morality of killing in order to survive, and finally providing a more powerful ending with Hasslein gloating that he'd "changed man's fate" with his last breath, as Dixon replies "Have you, Hasslein? Have you?" before cutting to the final scene with the infant ape), but what I found unique about this one was that it took the most liberties with the script. Whereas the other adaptations generally used actual lines from the film, only making tweaks and changes when it made sense to, I don't think this one used a single actual line from the film. Even Zira's famous "...because I loathe bananas!" line is only loosely adapted as "I DETEST bananas, young man!". This has always been my least favorite of the Apes films, and I truly like some of the changes made here, but it bothers me that none of the lines ring familiar to me. (Note: There was no adaptation of Conquest on the Planet of the Apes) Discovered this thread a bit late, but its good to see others covering Marvel's POTA magazine run, and the Power Records adaptations. About Power Records: it has long been speculated that the absence of Conquest as a book & record set stemmed from the racial overtones & extreme violence of the film--something that could not effectively worked around and still create any coherent adaptation. Beneath was a violent film where all heroes (human, anyway) were killed, but Power Records managed to deliver a somewhat faithful adaptation. |
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Post by shaxper on May 2, 2017 9:46:09 GMT -5
About Power Records: it has long been speculated that the absence of Conquest as a book & record set stemmed from the racial overtones & extreme violence of the film--something that could not effectively worked around and still create any coherent adaptation. Beneath was a violent film where all heroes (human, anyway) were killed, but Power Records managed to deliver a somewhat faithful adaptation. Welcome to the thread! Yes, even in their adaptation of "Battle," you can see their discomfort with the death of a child and their attempts to completely revise the script in order to omit it. There was such an odd duality to the POTA franchise -- it was a bold, risk-taking series that was not at all for kids, but the toys, lunchboxes, and patches absolutely were, and Power Records was the one merchandiser caught between those two worlds -- selling to kids but having to work with a story written to adults. |
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Post by tarkintino on May 2, 2017 14:59:42 GMT -5
Thanks, shaxper! I recall you posting that you were not going to review Gold Key's Beneath the Planet of the Apes adaptation, but in the spirit of being complete / honoring the 1st Apes comic ever published, I decided to review the one-shot here.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Publisher: Gold Key Release: 1970 Writer: N/A Artist: Alberto Giolitti & Sergio Costa Other credits: N/A Summary & Plot: the first comic adaptation of a Planet of the Apes film, published by the kings of TV & movie adaptations (arguably), Gold Key. Closely adapting the 1970 film and script elements also appearing in the Michael Avallone novelization, Gold Key's Beneath the Planet of the Apes is high on the list of the most visually true to the ape characters, costumes and settings from the movie, which--to anyone who bought this and the Marvel magazines as originally released--instantly noticed how inaccurate the latter adaptations were. Gold Key's Beneath cover and film credits page makes use of several, instantly recognizable stills from the film, without giving much away, typical of the imprint's photo cover layouts from the era--  The story begins in a similar fashion as the film, though any similarity to the facial features of the human characters is faint at best; it is not known whether or not this outcome was the result of the publisher not obtaining likeness rights to Heston, Franciscus, or Harrison. That aside, the dialogue and setting mirrors the opening scenes of Taylor being separated from Nova, only instead of the film's mutant illusion making Taylor seem to vanish into a wall of ice, he cracks a real sheet of it--falling into a cavern below his feet. Elsewhere, Brent and "Skipper" (the astronaut rescue team sent to find Taylor's crew) make the most of their situation after surviving the crash of their spaceship; as in the film, dialogue sets up the "how and why" of their mission, and Skipper's rapidly sinking condition. The one bit of character and tone development missing is Skipper's realization that thanks to the named Hasslein Curve, his entire family--everyone he knew--is long gone--  As mentioned, Gold Key's adaptation is visually accurate--probably at a level of 90%, while the story fell somewhere between 80-90%. Not bad for a movie tie-in of the era. Perhaps the most glaring difference between the film and this adaptation is the finale--covered in two pages below, with the most significant differences from the film--  In the final battle, Brent (in loincloth)is shot and killed outright, as opposed to the film, where he kills several Ape soldiers, with General Ursus at the top of that list before he's riddled with bullets. Taylor's pleas to Zaius for help deactivating the Alpha-Omega missile differ from the film as well, as the astronaut is not mortally wounded while this exchange occurs, and unlike the film, the comic script (more faithfully aligned with Michael Avallone's novel) has Zauis say, "...but the destroyer himself must be destroyed!". Like the novel, Taylor activates of the AO missile by falling on the controls as he died, instead of his deliberate dying grip as seen in the film. This is where the comic loses the emotional impact of the film's overwhelmingly grim conclusion--that the 20th century protagonist saw no hope for peace among the species of earth. Though the comic loses the shocking white-out on a close-up of Taylor's bloody hand sliding away from the controls, a written version of Paul Frees' somber voice over stating the fate of earth is retained (almost word for word), over the final panel (above) of New York--including the Statue of Liberty--exploding. Because Gold Key did not adapt the original film, the use of Lady Liberty as part of the destruction conclusion seems like the comic's way of pulling the shock of POTA's final scene and add it to BTPOTA's for a greater cataclysmic effect. Underappreciated comic legend Alberto Giolitti was the perfect artist for this comic; at the time, he was well-known for illustrating Gold Key's Star Trek comic, and despite the lack of strong character likenesses, his seasoned realism complimented any movie/TV property he touched--certainly superior to hardcore superhero artists who usually left adaptations wanting for even a hint of the flesh and blood performers from the source...that's most non-Al Williamson TV & movie adaptations from Marvel. Another longstanding Gold Key tradition were pull-out posters and/or pin-ups, with the BTPOTA comic not missing the opportunity to offer--  Yes, removing it would mean destroying the comic, but at the height of the bonus feature, the collector obsession was still years in the then-future. In all fairness, the adaptation of Beneath the Planet of the Apes was as faithful to the source(s) as Marvel's version of The Empire Strikes Back; close enough in its attention to film detail complimented by semi-realistic art, but adding details from scripts & other sources to seem like a "special edition" of sorts. Grade: B+ |
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Post by shaxper on May 2, 2017 20:02:56 GMT -5
Thanks, shaxper! I recall you posting that you were not going to review Gold Key's Beneath the Planet of the Apes adaptation, but in the spirit of being complete / honoring the 1st Apes comic ever published, I decided to review the one-shot here.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Publisher: Gold Key Release: 1970 Writer: N/A Artist: Alberto Giolitti & Sergio Costa Other credits: N/A This is a fantastic review! Much as I own and have read both Gold Key and Marvel adaptations on numerous occasions, I've never thought to compare them side-by-side. An incredibly nice touch. At least in terms of the principal actors, Marvel artists were specifically told to change the appearance of the characters due to legal issues. My memory is fuzzy on the specifics, but I believe the idea was something akin to Marvel owning the rights to the film licenses and characters, but not to the actors' likenesses. As Gold Key was famous for their photo covers, I assume they had a different licensing arrangement that did specifically allow them to use actors' likenesses. |
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Post by rom on May 2, 2017 20:55:01 GMT -5
Very cool! Beneath was my favorite of the original Ape films; extremely nihilistic & an obvious anti-war film that was very topical when it came out - i.e. the young Apes protesting were obviously supposed to remind viewers of the protests against the Vietnam war, etc. The film's ending was probably the darkest ending of any film I've ever seen - very disturbing & horrific. Re: the films, I think that both Planet & Beneath are both excellent & work extremely well when watched as one long film; Beneath starts immediately after Planet ends. I also think the films should have ended with Beneath - the Earth was destroyed, so it would have been the perfect ending to the franchise.
And, prior to me seeing the other above posts, I had absolutely no idea that Beneath had a Gold Key adaptation. I would like to read this in it's entirety at some point. I was only familiar with the Beneath Marvel comics adaptation, with great Alfredo Alcala art - this was reprinted in individual color comics, as well as in the b&w POTA magazine - all from the '70's.
IMHO, the problems with these films start with Escape: We are led to believe that sometime during the events of Beneath, the scientist Apes were able to recover Taylor's damaged ship from underwater, figure out how it worked, and somehow get it operational again so that it would be in space when the Earth was destroyed, thereby propelling them back in time. It is simply impossible that the Apes - whose knowledge of technology was limited to the equivalent of pre-Industrial Revolution Earth - would be able to do this: Even if they knew where Taylor's ship was, there is no way they could get it out of the water and working again, let alone find fuel so that it could take off again...and all within the 3-5 days between the time that Brent & Nova were helped by Zira & Cornelius (in the Ape City) and the destruction of the Earth...yeah, right....
Another issue I had with the films after Escape is that, based on what we see in Conquest, the explanation as to how the Apes become intelligent and overtake the humans seems slightly far-fetched. I understand that in the time-line/story established in the original films, in the years after Escape all dogs and cats died in a virus that was accidentally brought back from outer space, so Apes became more trained and domesticated to replace these pets. And, by the time Conquest takes place, the Apes have become ready for revolution since they've been abused for years - and, Caesar (the child of the apes that came back in time) becomes the leader of all of the Apes since he has the intelligence. However, the questions I've always had re: these original films are two-fold: First, just because the Apes become trained & domesticated, IMHO that wouldn't necessarily make them intelligent enough to take over nor would it necessarily make them intelligent enough to learn to speak. Second, it was never explained in these films how the appearance of the Apes changed from the way they originally looked to be more human & upright - apparently this happened in just the 18-20 years between Escape & Conquest, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me (of course, the real-world explanation is that they're all people in costumes). I guess it's possible that the virus that took out the cats/dogs somehow affected the apes by making them more intelligent & changing their physical appearance, but this was never even stated or implied in the films' plots/storylines (unless I missed something). That being said, I'll buy all of this since they're just movies and since I've been a fan of the films/franchise for years.
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Post by shaxper on May 4, 2017 8:39:52 GMT -5
And, prior to me seeing the other above posts, I had absolutely no idea that Beneath had a Gold Key adaptation. It was actually the very first Planet of the Apes comic book. It's a cherished part of my collection for that reason Absolutely, and numerous comic adaptations have attempted to explain this, most recently Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: Prime Directive #5 and Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #12. Revolution on the Planet of the Apes did a decent job explaining this, and there was a fan article published somewhere in the original volume that attributed man's decline and the apes' rise to the same genetic virus. The simple fact is, as intelligent as certain aspects of these films are, they are also choc full of holes likely caused more by producers than the writers who were forced to work with what they were given. But yeah, I've been frustrated by these issues too. I think many loyal POTA fans feel the same way. |
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Post by rom on May 4, 2017 16:12:22 GMT -5
Good to know, but as far as I'm concerned whatever "explanations" anyone comes up with (regarding the issues I mentioned in the films from Escape-on) will not make any sense - or at least not enough sense to be viable explanations.
Even though I grew up with the original Apes films, I strongly prefer the current POTA films, starting with Rise of the POTA (2011), Dawn of the POTA (2014), and this year's forthcoming War for the POTA (2017). I also think a 4th film is planned at some point. I prefer the newer films for a lot of reasons. And, obviously, they explained the intelligent Ape issue a lot better than in the original films:
In ROTPOA, the scientific explanation as to how the Apes became intelligent was very well-thought out and, from a fictional movie standpoint, completely plausible. The idea that Caesar was the most intelligent since his mother had been injected with the experimental toxin (that was designed to cure Alzheimer's by the James Franco scientist character) and he had been born with it already in his bloodstream made perfect sense. And, the later scene when he exposed the rest of the Apes in the compound was plausible also, given the idea that the toxin/virus was also shown to be airborne.
Going along with this, the virus that made the Apes intelligent & which also kills off a lot of humans (as seen at the end of Rise & in Dawn) was a very good plot-point, and made perfect sense in the context of the film itself; it made the eventual downfall of man & the eventual take-over of by Apes much more plausible. I.e., if the virus is already starting to take effect at the time of the Apes' escape in Rise, it will already have started spreading at this point, & humanity will soon be dealing with this horror rather than worrying about the group of Apes living in the forest. And, when the humans are dead/dying, the Apes eventually take over.
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