Sometimes stories hold hidden designs. This is the gist of many a Twilight Zone. The same can be said of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984. Some say that Harry Potter is a gal in a school boy's attire, who beguiles young minds with socialist sorcery. Can't say I disagree. In fact, it's rather obvious.
Now with the latter examples acknowledged, and with action-male/hero bashing having been pressed on society over these past few years, something hit me. It's now the great apes who've taken the virile-adventure plunge, and with it, they're raking in big bucks through their tough-guy disguise.
Take for instance, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, a Kong movie with guest spots by Godzilla and (the, alas, overspent) Mothra, which pivots its agenda with a simian, Rambo, who ventures into a secret sector to mingle with, and combat, his counterparts to save the global day.
Yes, in addition to Mothra, there are females featured in the tale, but all in all, Kong is the overriding, no-nonsense protagonist, who like heroes of old, doesn't use dumbass diplomacy to remedy wrongs, but pounds his foes through his sweat-and-blood physicality.
Godzilla x Kong's aped-out relegation reminds me of a Planet of the Apes chapter, and lo and behold, what should come on the Titan-ic sequel's heels, but another Apes feature.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is also male dominated, especially when it comes to Proximus Caesar's base. As with Godzilla x Kong, females do surface, in particular the character, Mae, aka Nova, but she's in sync with the apes' arduous quest and like them, must get down and dirty (as males have managed to do by tradition) to achieve her ulterior goal.
Kingdom is an indubitable battle of fellow (ahem) apes, its action centering between the Stallone-ish Noa and the entitled Proximus Caesar (who, by the way, is anything but Musk-motivated, and therefore, so much for all that goddamn, media-regurgitated spit and polish).
It doesn't appear that the mainstream critics have caught on to the shared denominator of these back-to-back blockbusters. The fact that I'm mentioning it now may be foolhardy, since if the movie-making muckety-mucks were ever to see what's right under their noses, they'd probably interfere with any and all potential sequels, ruining them with misguided, Mary Sue (un)appeal.
Then again, those in studio, high places must have cared enough to chisel and/or approve these pictures to be what they are, and maybe this means primal, virile exaltation isn't dormant, after all. If so, all I can say is, hallelujah, and for the here-and-now (and for as long as it takes), it'll be refreshing to see these great, manly apes beatin' their chests and punchin' the bad guys into defeat.
