Discussing
Planet of the Apes and the Reason Monkey Movies Fascinate

Rise of the Planet of the Apes, like many films in the genre, reveals how mankind has gotten the dominion thing all wrong.

I'd recommend the works of Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey, who spent decades observing and interacting with chimps and gorillas, respectively---on the apes' own terms, not trying to teach/manipulate/control/change them, but to understand them as fellow creatures.

You really have to go and see Kevin James in "The Zookeeper." It covers everything you mention,from animal abuse to the proper way man should be treating Gods creatures. Just go,sit back and relax.I know you will have no problem getting it.

Thanks for making the connection Jay. Now that's a double feature I hadn't thought of - Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Zookeeper!

I'm not so sure the Apes films are take-offs of King Kong.

Kong was all about civilization's inability to abide what it undervalues, fears, and doesn't understand. King Kong could be a metaphor for indignous peoples, foreign cultures, labor unions, or undocumented workers. It's a comment on our shoot first mentality.

Apes is really in the Frankenstein/Terminator/28 Days mode--our inability to control our own creations. Our own technology will destory us. We are playing with God's tools without God's wisdom.

I suggest they're different techniques--one about selfishness, the other about hubris.

Nevertheless, both are critiques of stewardship of God's gifts, which is your key point.

Also, I think Saltzman's utilitarian view of creation as being *for humans* is not biblical. God created to glorify himself, not to build us a playground. We're part of it,  we have a role in it, we are the pinnacle of it, but it is not for us. 

If a forested mountain has no people, does it still glorify God? If people were never created, would it still be good?

Yes, and yes. Still, Saltzman's emphasis on the naming of animals - a task bestowed upon Adam by God - points to the dominion/stewardship issue that Planet of the Apes (and, I'd still argue, King Kong) are concerned with. We've been given key responsibilities when it comes to God's creation, we've frequently failed miserably and we're forced to recognize that by these sorts of movies.