Rise of the Planet of the Apes review

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES:

A REBOOT THAT’S JUST AS SOLID AS ITS ORIGINAL FRANCHISE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: A (3 ½ stars)

20^TH CENTURY FOX

Digital ape Caesar in battle against humans in Rise of the Planet of the Apes

            Who would have thought a reboot of the successful Planet of the Apes franchise would be possible, even after the poor reception of Tim Burton’s 2001 Planet of the Apes remake. In comes director, Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) and the charming James Franco (Spider-Man trilogy, Milk, 127 Hours) who stars as Dr. Will Rodman, a scientist who created a drug that is claimed to cure his father’s Alzheimer’s disease, known as ALZ-112.

            The ALZ-112 has been tested on laboratory apes and after the death of a mother ape, Will ends up adopting a young chimp named Caesar (Andy Serkis-The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and during the time spam of raising him, Caesar has gained high intelligence, due to the genes from the ALZ-112 from his mother.

            Everything seems to be going great with Will and Caesar, until Caesar notices a conflict between Will’s father, Charles (John Lithgow-Shrek) and a neighbor and goes amuck. Shortly afterwards he is taken to an animal shelter being run by the ruthless John Landon (Brian Cox-Super Troopers, X2: X-Men United, Braveheart) and his ape-abusive son (Tom Felton-Harry Potter franchise).

            Meanwhile Will is still experimenting with the ALZ-112 so it can perfectly cure the disease, completely unaware of the torment Caesar is going through. Soon enough Caesar befriends the other apes in the animal shelter, breaks free, and acquires containers of the ALZ-112 drug and uses them on the apes.

            The genetically altered apes break out of the animal shelter and plunges San Francisco into a war zone between humans and apes. So it’s up to Will and his girlfriend, Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto-Slumdog Millionaire) to find Caesar and put an end to this “Ape-ocalypse”.

            Overall, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an incredibly strong re-imaging of the iconic franchise. With its complex but entertaining premise, strong acting, and breathtaking CG special effects and motion capture, all done by the brilliant CG designers who worked on James Cameron’s Avatar and being brought to life by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis as Caesar.

            It’s a shame the film wasn’t released in 3D or IMAX, then I would have felt like I was actually swinging around with these digital apes (Luckily, we got the sequel for that). But even without the 3D, the effects and scope of the film look spectacular, you can see all the hairs and facial details on the apes and some of them actually look like real apes.

            I’m not sure how it holds up compared to the 1968 Planet of the Apes, which starred Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall. Both films looked spectacular with its effects, plot structure, and character development, and while I do praise the CG effects of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I would have to say I still prefer the original effects from the 1968 film, because the apes were actually there with the humans.

            I do know, it’s a major improvement over Tim Burton’s 2001 re-imaging, pretty much the only thing he captured well was the look of the movie and it’s a shame because he’s usually very brilliant when it comes to making movies like this.

            But oh well, Rise of the Planet of the Apes made up for it, with its adrenaline pumped final battle and a solid ending that’s still open for a sequel. Not only is this a brilliant Planet of the Apes re-imaging, but it’s a brilliant film altogether.