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【猩球崛起】Rise of the Planet of the Apes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rebellious apes have held off Southern maids for a narrow win at the weekend box office.

Studio estimates Sunday pegged "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" at $27.5 million, good enough for its second-straight No. 1 finish. The 20th Century Fox release raised its 10-day domestic total to $104.9 million.

The "Planet of the Apes" prequel came in just ahead of "The Help," a drama about Mississippi maids during the civil-rights movement that debuted at No. 2 with $25.5 million. "The Help," a DreamWorks release distributed by Disney, has taken in $35.4 million domestically since opening Wednesday.

The Warner Bros. horror sequel "Final Destination 5," the latest in the franchise where death stalks victims who had been fated to die earlier, opened at No. 3 with $18.4 million.

The weekend's other two new wide releases had soft openings. Sony's action comedy "30 Minutes or Less," starring Jesse Eisenberg as a pizza deliveryman forced to help rob a bank, was No. 5 with $13 million, just behind Sony's surprise animated smash "The Smurfs," which slipped to fourth-place with $13.5 million and lifted its three-week total to $101.5 million.

The singers from TV's "Glee" failed to find a big-screen audience as 20th Century Fox's "Glee: The 3D Concert Movie" opened outside the top-10, finishing at No. 11 with just $5.7 million. The concert film was shot during the cast's recent North American tour.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "The Help" have exceeded their studios' early box-office expectations. Both received strong reviews, "Apes" for surprising drama amid dazzling visual effects to create the simians, "The Help" for great performances from Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer and their co-stars in the adaptation of the best-seller about black maids who go public with stories about working for often racist white employers.

"You've really got to see it to believe it because of the effects," Fox distribution executive Chris Aronson said of "Apes." ''The combination of the effects and an emotional story makes for a very satisfying trip to the movies."

The "Apes" prequel added $40.5 million overseas, raising its international total to $75 million and worldwide haul to nearly $180 million.

Female crowds made up 74 percent of the audience for "The Help," and 60 percent of viewers were older than 35. That's a sign "The Help" could have a long shelf life at theaters, since women and older audiences tend to get drawn to films through word-of-mouth rather than rushing out over opening weekend the way young crowds do.

"The Help" already has far outpaced the $20 million Disney executives hoped for over the first five days, and the film is playing strongly in both urban and middle America markets, said Dave Hollis, the studio's head of distribution.

"The book and the way it kind of rose to the best-seller list was very much this word-of-mouth, viral thing where people say, 'you've got to read this thing I just read,' and we're hoping the movie can do the same kind of thing," Hollis said.

"The Smurfs" also has outstripped expectations. The family hit added $60 million overseas to raise its worldwide total to $242 million, and Sony announced a sequel over the past week.

"We were ready to make the second one before we even released the first," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "We felt confident it was going to work, but I don't think anybody had any idea it was going to work to this level."

Overall domestic business increased for the fifth-straight weekend. Revenues totaled $152 million, up 6 percent from the same weekend last year, when "The Expendables" led with $34.8 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

"We're ending the summer on a high note," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "The usually unsung month of August can be the time when a lot of unexpected things happen that benefit the box office."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

作為萬物之靈的人類，有一天是否可能遭到滅絕？

或者淪落到被其他物種奴役的命運？

對這個好萊塢一向熱中的題材與票房的保證，前者已有無數末日預言曾演設過；微妙的則是後者，究竟是什麼物種具有邏輯上的說服力，足以「取代」人類的文明統治地球？

恐龍或變種殭尸都只能摧毀人類，真正比較可能的，還是最像人類的靈長類，例如猩猩或人猿。

 最近上映中的《猩球崛起》，與一九六八年的《浩劫餘生》、二○○一年的《決戰猩球》，可以並列為猩猩統治人類寓言的三部曲；其中《浩劫》與《決戰》是新舊版的翻拍，今年的《崛起》則被視為兩者故事的前傳，但號稱前傳卻未必盡然。

基本上，所謂的前傳或三部曲，應該有其人物或創作者明確的連貫性，如星際大戰系列、哈利波特系列、魔戒三部曲等；但猩球三部曲前後卻相隔四十三年，人物、創作者都不相同，只能說這一個現代神話深入人心，遙相呼應，不斷地在震撼、撞擊人類深層的恐懼。

 新舊翻拍的這兩部，故事都是描述從地球出發的太空人，降落在一個不知名的星球上，赫然發現這裡竟然是猩猩統治人類的世界，面對著猩猩是高等智慧生物，人類只是卑微怯懦的奴隸、甚至是被猩猩研究實驗品的震撼，主角開始了奇異的旅程與探索。

然而，新舊版的反省格局卻有天壤之別。

《浩劫》的片尾，主角千辛萬苦地逃到一片沙漠，竟然看到掩埋著的自由女神像，這才驚覺他拚命想逃出的異星根本就是地球；於是他跪在海邊，痛哭責罵人類的自私、貪婪與自相殘殺，才導致今日毀滅之途。隔了卅多年，《決戰》的特效雖突飛猛進，但主角被猩猩追捕時，想的只是如何拿到電光槍與母艦的支援，屆時就能痛宰這些臭猴子；而最後則在大戰結束後，一廂情願地讓人類與猩猩來個happy ending。

 《浩劫》的結局是沉痛的反省，《決戰》則是突兀的自以為是；前者有著人類的痛切戰慄，後者卻只有媚俗的娛樂效果。

回顧時代背景，上世紀六○年代，世人既有對未來的無限憧憬，更籠罩在東西冷戰、核子大戰的陰影下，也許正是這份對世界可能毀滅的恐懼，才造就出這份警惕與謙卑，相對地，卻也凸顯出當今的驕橫與無知。

不過，今年號稱前傳的《崛起》則展現了超越的意趣。

描述人類為了治療阿茲海默症的立意雖善，卻妄圖快速改造基因，因而違背自然法則，導致被實驗而智能大增的猩猩群起反抗，並反抗人類取得自主權的故事。

片中的猩猩主角從追尋自我認同，困惑、疑懼、憤怒到果斷，以及對同類與異種展現有情有義的過程，無不一再反諷人類的自私與怯懦。

但電影即使是電影，還是要講究其邏輯性。

一隻高智能的猩猩再厲害，又怎敵得過人類的能耐？

於是片中有了讓猩猩取得人類藥物，使更多猩猩變得更聰明、更團結的情節；更設計出此一聰明藥物只對猩猩有效、卻對人類致命，並讓此一病毒由客機機長感染，進而傳至世界各地，導致人類滅絕的伏筆。

在人類不斷反思自我存在的意義，探究平等尊重的價值之際，電影裡一再出現的警訊或寓言，對人類與其他物種、或是任何霸權對其欺凌蔑視者，究竟帶來的是何種啟示？看完電影、燈光大亮後又留下什麼？我默然…

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