‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ is a Brilliant Prequel to the Classic Franchise
Rise of the Planet of the Apes had no right being this good. When I first heard of the premise, I wasn’t interested at all. It seemed like another attempt to re-charge the franchise following Tim Burton’s lackluster re-make of the 1968 original, Planet of the Apes. Ever wondered how the world depicted in this franchise came to be? You could watch the similarly premised, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or check out this magnificent film. I became intrigued when I heard that the apes were to be created through motion-capture, but the film’s release snuck up on me, equipped with an average trailer and a terrible promotional poster.
I feel a little bit ashamed, because I didn’t give this film a chance at all. Then came the flood of positive reviews, and I felt I had to see if for myself. For a summer blockbuster it has surprising intelligence, and it is far more compelling than most films I have seen this year. It has it all. Much like another recent release about a chimp (the wonderful documentary, Project Nim) this is an examination of the exploitation of nature for the benefits of science, and in-turn favoring the nurture of a wild animal over is natural upbringing. It also works as a prison escape film, and an intellectual and calculated mass overthrow of power. It features outstanding visual effects, assured direction from a man with so little experience, a sensational climactic action sequence on the San Francisco Bridge and a stellar performance from Andy Serkis, which is easily one of the best of the year.
James Franco plays Will Rodman, a San Francisco scientist who has been trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by testing a genetically engineered retrovirus on chimpanzees. The virus mutates the chimpanzees, giving them a considerably heightened level of intelligence. Rodman believes his invention is ready for use on humans and tries to convince his boss, Jacobs (David Oyelowo), to fund the next stage of the testing, but the rampage of one of his test chimpanzees interrupts this very board meeting. Despite being a female trying to protect her secretly newborn baby, she is killed, and Jacobs orders the rest of the chimpanzees to be put down.
Rodman’s colleague, Franklin (Tyler Labine), cannot bring himself to kill the baby. He hands him over to Will, who names him Caesar, takes him home and raises him, along with his Alzheimer’s suffering father, Charles (John Lithgow), like a child. Having inherited his mother’s intelligence, Caesar (Andy Serkis) learns very quickly. But as he grows into an adult his natural animalistic tendencies begin to emerge; and he begins to grow instinctive and violent. Following an incident where he tries to protect Charles from their confrontational neighbor, he is sent to a primate facility run by John Landon (Brian Cox). While the facility looks like the perfect sanctuary for the chimpanzees to bond and flourish together; the sinister imprisonment and the malicious treatment by Landon’s son, Dodge (Tom Felton), results in Caesar desiring to overthrow their security and lead an uprising.
Initially, Caesar (who enters the facility clothed) is not met with respect from the other apes, but after befriending and conversing in sign with a circus Orangutan, his heightened intelligence soon becomes known to the others. For a large part of the film there is a complete absence of dialogue as Caesar discovers the full extent of his intelligence and finds devious way to escape his cell, and converse with the other apes through the sign language. As the breakout unfolds, a reformed and more powerful version of Rodman’s retrovirus is being tested on more chimpanzees, but unknown to Jacobs, human contact will prove fatal. The climactic sequences, the result of superb pacing throughout the story, are extraordinary. Led by Caesar, the apes terrorize San Francisco, releasing the apes at the medical facility and those at the San Francisco Zoo, culminating in their calculated assault on a police blockade on the San Francisco Bridge in their attempts to reach their desired sanctuary, the Redwood Forest.
Unlike all prior entries in the Apes franchise (which used actors in costumes and make-up), the apes in this film are created digitally by Weta Digital (the ace team behind The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong and Avatar) using motion capture. The apes look sensational and collectively still seem to have a uniqueness about them. Some of the prominent characters (most notably the Orang-utan and the Gorilla) are given more notable personalities. Andy Serkis’ performance as Caesar is sublime. As the heart and soul of the film, Caesar is such a complex character. While the premise of an ape being able to outsmart humans and lead a revolution seems preposterous, not for a moment do we question anything he does. The tragic friendship between Caesar and Will is also strengthened by a couple of great moments between the two.
It really is a pity that Franco’s performance isn’t more compelling. The films key weakness is the human characters. I guess you can forgive Franco because he would have been acting alongside Serkis in his motion-capture suit, but he really seems disinterested in his role. This is becoming a bit of a trend with his work, and is a shame to see. We all know he can act (127 Hours) but this seemed to be another phoned-in performance. There were scenes that were still genuinely moving, but no one matches Serkis in any of the scenes. Tom Felton was basically playing Draco Malfoy again, and Freida Pinto as Will’s love interest served absolutely no purpose.
Technically, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an impressive achievement. It effectively utilizes wonderful visual effects, innovative photography from Andrew Lesnie (the scenes of the apes swinging through the tree tops are beautifully captured) and calculated editing to increase the pace in the second half. Another contributor I want to commend is Patrick Doyle for his score. Every scene was given that extra level of excitement by Doyle’s work. Due to the absence of dialogue, it serves an important function accompanying the action, and I thought he delivered beautifully.
This film also has a ton of heart. As much as we find it abhorrent to see humanity fall to apes, we are all for Caesar in this film. In much the same way as the original film twisted our perceptions of the alien ‘other’ (forcing us to relate more to a talking ape than a feral human), we don’t especially dislike the humans in this film; but what it so successfully does is force us to feel emotionally connected to Caesar.
This film came out of nowhere, and it was a real surprise. This is a genuinely intelligent blockbuster that is captivating from start to finish. At a relatively taut 107 minutes, the exposition is out of the way early and allows the film to explore its intriguing central character. With the exception of the ’68 original, I haven’t seen the other films in the Planet of the Apes franchise. My understanding is that the sequels aren’t that great. This is a damn good film, and one I would be happy to re-visit again and again.
B+
(8/10)
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30 Comments
Finally got around to this, and I really liked it as well. Franco was easily the weakest link in this film, but the rest of the movie was good enough that I was able to overlook it.
I thought the climax could’ve been a little better (just getting to the redwoods didn’t seem to be enough for me).
Serkis was amazing in this, though. He gave so much depth and character to an ape, and I was absolutely tickled when he reached the pinnacle of his intelligence in the film (trying not to spoil things).
This film focused more on the actual story and making it dramatic and moving to the point of where I was actually rooting for Caesar. This is just what a great blockbuster should be. Good Review Andy!
Now I am really excited about seeing it. Respect to the director for taking on such a risky project. Similar to what Abrams did with Star Trek.
Oh, and there’s a awesome meme going around involving a line from the movie.
http://fuckyeahwhycookierocket.tumblr.com/
Ahaha this is totally awesome!
It’s one of those things that makes you actually learn how to photoshop better.
Thats funny, thanks for passing that on.
Wasn’t all that interested but I’m really intrigued due to all the wild raves about the movie. Maybe I will check it out one of those days if I have to be at the mall.
You should, Castor ;D
I mean, pshhhh – I think no one gave this a glimmering hope after the trailer and the awful poster. Goes to say… marketing has nothing to do with a film xD
Biggest surprise of the summer! (winter, here)
I agree. My biggest surprise of the year. Along with Rango (which I also loved)
What’s weird is when I heard about this I didn’t care and then when I saw the trailer I thought, “First day I’m there!” I went opening night and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed a lot of movies this summer, but this kicked all their asses. I also saw Project Nim and I could see that the makers followed some key aspects of that true tale. I cried the first half of this movie. Andy Serkis’ performance broke my heart and he damm well better get an Oscar nomination. Castor, see this on the big screen!
It’s kind of funny (I DO really like this film) but I wonder if the second wave of people who see this movie will be as impressed. Virtually everyone I’ve read (and myself) went into this movie with absolutely no expectations. Now, if anything, people are going a little overboard – and not just you, that’s no comment on this review specifically, hell I did the same thing.
But like all the media is cheering over this now, so the next wave of people are going to go in thinking “This is going to be awesome”, and have really HIGH expectations… unlike all of us who were raving about it now did.
I’m sure they’ll like it, it IS a lot of fun. But as I’ve had a week or so now to mull it over and come down off of it… this movie COULD have been great. It was still a good, fun, summer movie. But if they had humans that were half as interesting or well written as the Apes were? This coulda been a classic.
That’s a very interesting thought. It is possible that after the initial praise it will have raised people’s expectations a bit too much. I think it holds up pretty well. I doubt people will dislike it. It’s certainly not a classic, but I would easily watch it again. It is the human characters that let this film down, but for a film that is centred on an ape brought to life through motion capture it’s pretty darn good. Thanks for reading!
My pleasure, dude.
I gave it a 4.5/5 as it was such a pleasant surprise for me. I agree that the human roles aren’t as strong as Serkis as Caesar, but I thought Franco & Lithgow were compelling enough compared to the rest. Relative newbie Wyatt did an amazing job, I’m actually looking forward to its inevitable sequel.
Who was Wyatt?
The director. His only film prior was The Escapist. It’s a prison escape film, which I haven’t seen. Makes sense.
Oh, his previous film is about a prison escape? That explain the compelling ape escape sequence then
Absolutely haha.
I loved this movie, and imo shows how good a blockbuster can actually be
I was absolutely in love with this movie when I saw it this weekend. I met the FX Supervisor for the film Dan Lemmon and he is such a great and humble guy that I fell more in love with this film when I saw it after the special session. The amount of work put into those apes is astounding.
If the FX and/or Serkis do not get a nod from the Academy this year something is very very wrong!!
Wow. You met the FX Sup. That’s incredible. Yeah, I would lock the team in for a nom. As for Serkis, anything is possible.
I guess I’m the only one here who was majorly disappointed by this film. There are plot holes you could drive Hannibal’s army through, Franco has just now usurped Tom Cruise in the most overated actor category, Frida Pinto was wasted, and the first 2/3rds of the movie were supremely boring. Granted, the attack on the Golden Gate Bridge was exciting, Andy Serkis (as always) was excellent, as were the CGI effects. But there’s no way this overcomes the script deficits and James Franco’s wooden acting (watching his scenes with Lithgow were painful, like a beginner’s acting class that Lithgow was teaching…My head hurts!
But I do have to say ANY movie that gives Tyler Labine (Sock from “Reaper”) is more than OK in my book.
Franco was a weak link (and Pinto, wow) and some of the dialogue was awful, but I thought all of the sequences in the prison with the apes were superb, and the pacing of the film was great. I don’t agree that this film was boring, though. I thought this was quite an intelligent blockbuster, and I was able to forgive the wooden performances.
Andrew, I do agree that once Caesar was put into the sanctuary, the film perked up quite a bit. Let’s not forget that Rupert Wyatt directed “The Escapist”, a prison break film (though in actuality, it really isn’t, nut that’s neither here nor there).
For me, it’s the script’s fault. If you want to see a good reliable anit-animal abuse tract, then go rent “The Plague Dogs” (if you can find it-natch), The idea works, but the script has so many inconsistencies (the first ape subject goes nuts, project is cancelled, and why- the chimp was pregnant and the researchers didn’t even KNOW?? C’mon guys!)
Also, for the first 2/3rds of the movie, the script led me around by my nose in a Bataan style death-march, commanding me to feel that animal abuse is bad. Wel it is, but my nose friggin’ hurts now!!
Anyway, enough rant! Thanks for putting up with me folks!
I’ve seen it! Definitely my favorite blockbuster of the summer (aside from HP), glad to finally see a decent summer flick. It’s amazing that they were able to make us empathize so much with a bunch of apes. I guess any movie that has a gorilla take down a helicopter is nothing short of awesome!
For me, the 2011 blockbuster season came on strong in the end, with HP, Captain America and Apes all being really entertaining. Super 8 and Kung-Fu Panda 2 would round out my Top 5. As bad as some films were (Pirates 4 and Transformers 3), I didn’t think it’s been too bad of a year…
I didn’t like the premise either. And I also don’t like James Franco but after so many glowing reviews I’ve now added this to the top of my to-see list! Thanks for this excellent review, Andrew!
My pleasure Dan. Thanks for reading. I was a skeptic too, but I hope you enjoy it.
Apes was fantastic. I really hope Serkis gets a reward or nominations for his performance, but I doubt that would happen.
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