Review 189: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an amazing reboot that breathes unlikely new life into the Planet of the Apes franchise and restores wonder to the word "movie".

Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist who works for Gen-Sys, a major pharmaceutical firm trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The most recent version of his experimental drug seems to have worked on a chimp. Unfortunately, the chimp goes berserk on the same day as a presentation to investors and the animal is put down. Only after the incident does Will realize that the chimp had given birth and had been acting wildly to protect her newborn. He takes the animal, which he's named Caesar (Andy Serkis), home as a pet and soon realize it is extremely intelligent, no doubt the effects of the drug on his mother while he was in utero. When Will is forced to put the animal in a secure lock up after it attacks a neighbor, Caesar leads an animal revolt against his human captors and mankind.

The plot is a work of genius, it trades the franchises classic themes of equality, intelligence and warfare in favour of telling a cautionary tale of the dangers of oppressing our animal friends as well as a warning about scientific ambition.

The idea of an animal uprising/the world being taken over by animals is a very fascinating idea that this film explores very well and greatly taps into.

but keeps it modern and fresh for the 21st century, it's a story about a outsider and how he fits into our world and it's us reaching a point of no return and within our civillisation there's Caeser who sees the world for what it can be, sees what we as a species are capable of in all the positive things that we can do and then he sees the dark side and what we're also capable of which is opression, bigotry and the osrisisation of who we don't trust and don't understand. It's the story of a revolution, the end of our civillisation and the begining of a new one. If we as a civillisation were to finnish, what comes next? Who comes next? And in the end it's the apes dealing with the mess they have left.

There are too many words to describe Director Rupert Wyatt's directing, stylish, unobtrusive, precise-sensational-he really knows how to retell an old story, the production design is great, the costume design is brilliant, the special effects are excellent, the creature design is masterful, in the past it was Prosthetic makeup but now its Motion capture and they recreated millions of apes of all different types, it's well paced, the action set peices are brutal, well choreographed and intensely shot, the props are wonderfully crafted, the score by Patrick Doyle is magnificent, the cinematography is beautiful, the sound effects are teriffic, the scenes with Caesar and Will and honest and gorgeous to watch and the scenes wear Caeser is in the pound are brutal and do a realistic take on the cruelty to apes and the ending was superb.

Overall there's great acting, James Franco is brilliant as Will Rodman

 

Freida Pinto is luminous and lovely as Caroline, Will's girlfriend,

John Lithgow is easily the standout playing Charles, Will's father who is stricken with alzheimer's disease, his portrayal of said character is both touching and mesmerising, the grandfatherly Bond he develops with Ceaser is both poignant and relatable.

Brian Cox is powerful as John Landon the manager of the San Bruno Primate Shelter where Caesar is confined for a time, Tom Felton is nasty as Dodge, John's son and David Oyelowo is great as Steven Jacobs, Will's greedy boss but this films not about the humans it's about the apes and I can tell you Andy Serkis, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary and Richard Ridings are sensational but Serkis steals the show as Caesar,  the way he and the other apes communicate to each other using sign languge, sound and performance capture is just incredible and a whole new type of acting.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes restores wonder to the word "movie and the Planet of the Apes franchise and I look forward to the sequel coming out in 2014, 5/5

The Anonymous Critic