"Planet of the Apes" starring Charlton Heston is one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. Its final, iconic scene where George Taylor yells at a half-buried Statue of Liberty and the audience realizes its final twist ending left so much more to be desired. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", directed by relative newcomer Rupert Wyatt, attempts to fill in those gaps and could have a been a disastrous prequel to a brilliant film. What he has created won't be a classic like its predecessor, but invariably inspiration has a way of leading to good outcomes anyway.
Will Rodman (James Franco) has been working on a drug that will allow the brain to generate its own cells, effectively healing itself. As he states in a board meeting, it will be the end of Alzheimer's, which his father (played by John Lithgow) suffers from. Still in the experimental phase, it is being tested on chimps with unforeseen consequences leading to a super smart ape named Caesar.
As we go along, pieces of the following film chapters begin to emerge and fit into place. Deemed dangerous after a few years of being kept by Will, Caesar is sent to an ape sanctuary where the seeds of rebellion are planted in his head. His mental growth continues, and his resentment grows at well. Abused and neglected, he deems it time for the apes to rise.
There are lots of things to love about this movie, primarily Andy Serkis and the wizards who made him Caesar. No doubt this movie will feel heavily dated in five years, but at the moment the effects are stunning. I listened to an interview with some of the creators of "Shrek" who talked about how difficult it is to correctly make realistic-looking eyes in CGI characters. The sheen of them has to look just right in order for them not to look creepy and lifeless (which is one of the reasons why Pixar tends to avoid human characters). In this film our main character is a highly intelligent ape who can't speak, therefore much of what we learn about him comes from his body language and from his eyes. We all know that Serkis's physicality is amazing after seeing him so many times as Gollum and Kong, but the facial expressions he gives--how well we are able to know a computer generated creature through his face is absolutely amazing.
There certainly is action in the film so idiot, gorilla-like men should enjoy it well enough, but the best moments of the movie come in quiet and stillness where we are left contemplating what it would be like to be a complete and total outsider. Caesar surpasses eight year old children in intellect when he is a year and a half. Soon he is nearly the equal to Will himself. The genius of him being unable to speak is that we as the audience are forced to engage with the movie and with Caesar, to try and empathize with a being too smart to be with his own kind and too primitive to join those that he loves.
Further, the political allegory being told in the monkey sanctuary is fascinating. Knowing that a hierarchy must form in group without written government, watching Caesar's tactics as he appeals to his stupid masses is engaging.
The film's ending is not particularly good and is almost comical in its lack of believability. Of course it has to end in its action-packed grand finale. After all, it's called "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", so we must wait for the uprising. However, a standoff on the Golden Gate Bridge between a hundred apes and a half a dozen police squad cars with one helicopter in the air does not have the air of realism about it that the rest of the film tried desperately to keep.
Also, the issue of what happens to seven billion humans after these apes make there escape is left almost as an afterthought, literally touched on during the credits. Of course this film did not have the time or budget to fully explore that side of the story, but as a human it would have been nice not to have my eventual demise as something unimportant enough to be eclipsed by the name of the executive producer on the right of the screen.
However, these are both rather small issues with a story that is complex and challenging. Solidly written, strongly acted and beautifully shot, this is a worthy companion to its inspiration, even if it can't quite live up to that standard.
3/4
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