Over the years, Hollywood has pitted human kind against various species, including humanoids and hostile aliens. While the narrative generally encourages us to side by humans, and it isn’t hard to do that, considering it’s our kind after all, there occasionally comes a film in which you are rooting against humans. The Planet of the Apes films have generally been sympathetic to the cause of apes, and with the sequel set to release this Friday, here are films that made you wish you weren’t human
Avatar - Set in 2154 when humans, who have depleted Earth's natural resources, invade a habitable moon called Pandora, only so they can to get their hands on a valuable mineral, Unobtanium
And of course, they go about it in a destructive way, as they don’t pay too much attention to destroying the habitat of the blue skinned sapient humanoids, Na'vi.
Jake Sully, a paraplegic former Marine, joins the mission by operating his Na'vi-human hybrids called avatar, and he essentially represents you, the audience, when he sides against his own kind.
District 9 - This Neill Blomkamp-directed sci-fi film has a population of sick and malnourished extraterrestrials, called prawns, which are isolated in horrible, slum-like conditions.
In the name of security and confinement, the species are treated as lesser creatures, and left to languish in prison-like conditions. The film successfully explored xenophobia and social segregation
King Kong - The original 1933 film had the giant ape fall in love with a woman and lose his life for her. Though the follow-up films had different backdrops, the 'love' angle generally remained
Even the recent 2017 film, Kong: Skull Island saw the ape saving Brie Larson's character. This film is a part of MonsterVerse and Kong will soon be seen facing off Godzilla in 2020's Godzilla vs Kong
Pixar films - Over the years, numerous animated film, predominantly from Pixar, have had us rooting for animated characters, generally on account of them tormented by humans
The last Toy Story film, Toy Story 3, was about kids letting go of their toys after turning adults.
Finding Nemo, meanwhile, has its titular character lose his father, thanks to scuba divers capturing him
Ratatouille was about a gifted rat, Remy, who sets out to prove that 'anyone can cook' only to find that the world generally despises rodents.
Even Wall-E was about humans having abandoned the planet and leaving behind the Wall-E robot to clean up. The film also criticised consumerism, corporatism and waste management of humans
This long standing franchise inspired by French author Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel, La Planète des Singes, began with a film in 1968 that resulted in a series of sequels, tie-ins, and derivative works
Unlike the original franchise which showed the apes as the dominant species, in the current reboot, the origins of how the apes became dominant is being showcased
After the great suffering endured by Caesar (a chimpanzee that later becomes their clan's head), he leads an army of apes to stand up against the cruelty of humans.
The film deals with themes of racial prejudice and animal cruelty.
