I’ve been using (and re-using) a joke that goes like this: The last time I saw a movie in a theater was 1917. It only makes sense if you remember the great Sam Mendes war movie of that name, filmed to look like it was done in a single shot. My wife and I saw it in the cinema in January 2020 and, until yesterday, I haven’t been in a theater since.
We took the COVID pandemic very seriously. Maybe we’ll look back at some point and wonder if we over-reacted, but there’s no way of telling. We were nearly 60 when it started, and a lot of people far younger than us ended up on ventilators or dead, especially in the early stages, before the vaccines became available. My wife has had respiratory issues in the past, so we were extremely cautious. We locked down, hard. Avoided all person-to-person contact. Double-masked to buy groceries, but usually relied on pickup services and curbside delivery. We both started working from home full time and I’ve never gone back to the office since, except for a few in-person meetings.
It’s easy to understand, through this experience, how a person could become agoraphobic. It was never quite that bad for us, but when we started to emerge from lockdown I sometimes had anxious feelings. I’ve never been all that gregarious, but the idea of being around bunches of people seemed less attractive than ever. And with streaming services taking movies from the cinema to our living room in record time, we didn’t really miss going to the theater.
My wife had a day-long engagement yesterday, so I finally decided it was time to see what I’ve been missing. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes seemed like the ideal film for my return to a megaplex. As hard as it is to fathom, I’ve been watching POTA adaptations for half a century. I discovered the franchise through the 1974 TV series. Before I ever saw the original movies, I read the novelizations of the sequels (there never was, to my knowledge, a novelization of the first film), and even the Pierre Boulle novel that got the who shebang started. In those days, remember, you had to catch a movie when it aired on TV. No recording, no rental, no streaming. I was so fascinated by the TV show and the magazine/comics that came out around the same time that I taught myself to recreate the makeup with plasticine, first on my GI Joe action figures and then in full-scale on my goalie mask to wear for Halloween!
Was I nervous going to the theater yesterday? A little. The same sort of anxiety I tend to feel when I have to fly somewhere—not because I’m afraid of flying but because I’m on a rigid schedule where any number of things can go wrong to mess things up. I deliberately picked the earliest showing where I knew there wouldn’t be all that many people. I discovered two things when I did so: 1) I am now old enough to qualify for the senior discount, and 2) If you go first thing in the morning, it doesn’t matter how old…or young…you are, the tickets are all the same price!
So, how was the movie, I hear you ask? I enjoyed it. One of the cool things about this new series is the way they use touch points and elements from the originals in recognizable ways, but also completely reimagine them. I do miss the time-travel aspect that got the whole thing started, but there’s no way to recreate the surprise ending of the first film. Anyone who goes to one of these probably knows that they were (spoiler!) on Earth all along. So this new series tells the story chronologically, detailing how the tide of power changed one step at a time. It’s a different story, but the end result is somewhat the same. Apes learn to speak and people lose that ability (for the most part). And apes fall prey to the same weaknesses as humanity. This film takes place several generations after the end of the previous movie, which was released seven years ago (!!), so I rewatched it the night before to refresh my memory. There are peaceful apes living in a mostly agrarian society and warlike apes living like Romans.
The first section of the movie is very much “first act” in that it establishes the normal state of things. We learn who the characters are, how they relate to each other, and the rules of their social compact, which is then torn apart. Then it becomes a bit of a hero’s journey as the main character, Noa, sets out to put things aright. Then something happens to upset the applecart.
I enjoyed the Los Angeles/SoCal setting, with relics of familiar landmarks forming the background. I’m sure that if I knew the area better, I would have caught more of them, but there were a few anyone would recognize. Some shots of horses riding along the water’s edge could possibly have been filmed at the same places used in the original movie, although that was supposed to be on the other coast.
There’s an entertaining orangutan, a student of Caesar. In fact, Caesar is utilized in two ways in this time period. He is a legend, the original, the founder, the lawmaker, revered by those who know his story the best. But he’s also turned into something he wasn’t by people seeking absolute power. Read into that what you will.
I won’t say more because there are surprises best experienced firsthand. The nods to the original are subtle (alpha and omega references, for example, and some encounters that are reminiscent of the first film in particular). There’s one moment on a bridge where the soundtrack is a very strong and deliberate echo of the theme from the original movie.
I liked it very much. It left me wondering a bit about one character in particular, conflicted about that character’s motivations and actions. And there’s a hint at the end that maybe, maybe, the story will bring in something “otherworldly.” But whether or not we’ll have Taylor crash-landing in a spaceship remains to be seen. Given the audience will always know the truth, that could be interesting.
What else have I been up to lately? I finished the umpteenth draft of “The Dead of Night” and sent it to a first reader, as well as to my agent. Although my original idea was for this to be my contribution to Dissonant Harmonies II with Brian Keene, it occurred to me that, when bundled with an as-yet-unwritten third installment (I have the title, that’s all. Well, maybe a little more.), the three novellas could very well become a novel. It’s all part of the same story with the same characters and the same underlying conflict. So, I’m seeking my agent’s advice to see if that will fly. Fingers crossed.
I’m toying with a spring-themed story to add to the three stories I’ve had published in seasonal-themed Unsettling Reads anthologies. If it works out, I’m going to put the four tales together and publish them as an ebook/paperback minicollection.
Recent publications:
- “Payback” in The Killing Rain
- “The Voynich Manuscript” in Mystery Most International
- “Houston, We Have a Problem” in Private Dicks and Disco Balls
Also, my story “Severance Package” from Shivers VII is being released in Spanish by Restaurant de la Mente Editions. The translated title, “Paquete de indemnización,” doesn’t quite have the same double entendre meaning as my original.
“Payback” was written last September during a working vacation at our favorite beach house. While I was working on it, I was also rereading The Stand and taking copious notes to create a detailed timeline of that novel, in part for my own use but also to give to Brian Keene and Chris Golden as a reference they could use while editing The End of the World as We Know It: Stories from Stephen King’s The Stand. In today’s issue of Letters from the Labyrinth, Brian provides some updates about that anthology, which I’m pleased to be part of.
Still almost four months to go before the release of the Young Readers’ Edition of Stephen King: His Life, Works, and Influences. Preorders are available though. And encouraged! It makes a great back-to-school gift for the teen reader in your life.
Books I’ve read recently or am currently reading:
- In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
- The Maid by Nita Prose
- The Night House by Jo Nesbø
- Familiaris by David Wroblewski
- First Frost by Craig Johnson
- Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
- I Will End You by Linwood Barclay
TV series: I really enjoyed 3 Body Problem (Netflix) and eagerly look forward to the second season. Alas, there won’t be a second season of Constellation, at least not on Apple TV+. I stalled out on that one, though I’ll probably go back and finish it. I watched Apples Never Fall (Peacock) and enjoyed it until the final episode, where I thought everyone was let off too easily for all the reprehensible things they did. My wife and I are getting a kick out of Elsbeth (CBS), which is a quirky Columbo-esque series based on the character from The Good Fight. We’re also nearing the end of Shogun, a terrific adaptation of the Clavell novel. In particular, it’s almost totally done in Japanese and is a testament to the power and influence of translators. Highly recommended. Did I enjoy Reindeer Baby? I’m not sure “enjoy” is the right word, but I couldn’t look away. Fascinating and disturbing in equal measure.
