Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) was a pleasant surprise. Unlike another "reboot" of the hallowed science fiction franchise, it pays respect to the original while standing on its own merits as a rip-roaring blockbuster.



Scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) is obsessed with finding a cure for Alzheimer's after his father (John Lithgow) comes down with the disease. He tests a genetically-engineered virus on apes, causing them to become super smart - but also super-aggressive. Will raises chimpanzee Caesar (Andy Serkis) as a surrogate son, but despite Will's affection Caesar can't help noticing he's very different. Ending up in an animal shelter after attacking Will's neighbor, Caesar asserts himself as the leader of and begins planning a jailbreak.



Basically a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), Rise is a very thoughtful and interesting film. The original films had a lot of Civil Rights baggage that comes off strongly even in this film: the very human Caesar can't understand why he's treated as a pet, and his hardening in captivity makes for compelling character development. Giving each of the apes distinct personalities helps, and the mixture of photo-real CGI and telling character moments sells the potentially silly presmise. We don't really care about the boring humans, but the apes are certainly worth our attention.



Rupert Wyatt delivers wonderful crisp direction, allowing the plot to unfold at a brisk pace. The film is fairly subdued but Wyatt's action scenes are exciting, especially the cops vs. chimps battle on the Golden Gate Bridge. Writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver write in some interesting wrinkles to the plot that tie into the original films (and set up potential sequels). The computer and motion-capture effects are simply incredible: the apes are shockingly photo realistic, but also far more credible than Avatar's space kitties.



The human cast is boring. James Franco (Milk) is decent but it's hard to buy his character's moral indignation; can a man who tests an experimental drug on his dad complain about "unethical" research paractices? It's nice to see the breathtaking Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), even in a completely superfluous role. Tom Fenton (Harry Potter) has the unenviable task of mouthing hallowed Charlton Heston lines, which he does poorly. The one interesting performance is John Litghow (Footloose), who invests his underwritten character with emotion and gravitas.



Of course, the real star is Andy Serkis. Serkis is a master of motion capture, having already created Gollum and King Kong for Peter Jackson, but he takes it to a whole other level here. His Caesar is a truly remarkable creation, both visually and personally: his transformation from goofy adolescent to ferocious avenger is beautifully rendered, making him a surprisingly compelling protagonist, "human" but believably a chimp. If modeling a computer-generated simian counts as a performance, Serkis deserves an Oscar.



Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a fun popcorn film. It's easy to swallow the shallow human characters, goofy wonder drug Macguffin and overbearing homages to the original for the cool chimps and exciting action.