Rise of the Planet of the Apes

It's nice to see Hollywood producing good, quality movies. This is a classic example of how to get it right. The acting is top-notch and the story is believable. A lot of effort was put in to give this film a realistic, real-world feel. And I should also mention that the special effects are incredible.
I'm trying to avoid giving away any spoilers!
It's pretty obvious where the film is heading if you know anything about the previous Planet of the Apes films. As an origin story, this film really sets up the stage. Apes are the good guys. Humans are the very bad guys. But you knew that already!
This is a good movie for men and women. Snuggle up during this holiday season, get a lot of popcorn and enjoy one of the best films of the year.

2011 may go down as the year of remakes, reboots, and sequels. We had Footloose, The Thing, Straw Dogs, the end of the Harry Potter series. We had great prequels such as Xmen First Class, the best of the series, and now we have Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Having seen the first POTA with Charlton Heston, the fish out of water, topsy turvy, apes rule the planet is hard to emulate and surpass from a storytelling point of view, as is the mythology of the original story, with the enlightened though cruel apes having their own spin on the evolution of the planet.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes begins the mythology, shifting west from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate Bridge. Scientists have a positive intention, such as finding a cure for cancer or alzheimers, and making money in the process, yet exploiting innocent creatures to do so. When this gets out of control we have unintended consequences.

The mythology of the birth of Caesar under unusual circumstance, to a mother dosed with performance enhancing drugs parallels the birth of Moses, who would grow up to lead his people out of Egypt (San Francisco) to the promised land (Muir Woods). Human hubris, leads to the fall of humanity and the rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Following the purging of the 12, Caesar as a baby, is discovered not in the rushes but in a cage, and secretly raised by a scientist (James Franco, and his girlfriend (Freida Pinto). We know that he has extraordinary abilities, that must be kept under wraps. Nevertheless Caesar has to contend with his own instinctive nature, and acting with the intention to protect gets into serious trouble. Caesar observes, and learns from his mistakes. When we see a recurrence of a similar situation he handles it differently.

Living in San Francisco I loved how these scenes played out in familiar locales, such as downtown San Francisco, and Muir Woods with the 150 foot high redwoods, which Caesar climbs, the panoramic views, and I particularly loved the confrontation scenes on the Golden Gate bridge, and how the fog was able to help with battle. I don't normally recommend special effects, except to say that they are outstanding.

Andy Serkis, who previously played King Kong, plays Caesar, and movie magic from WETA captures the almost human facial expressions, and makes us empathise with his situation, we can see his thought processes. I loved the prison scenes, and how Caesar rises to become leader, how he contends with the alpha male, his captors, how he organises his fellow inmates. Evolution becomes revolution.

Although the original with Charlton Heston is hard to beat, I loved this version. When a franchise runs out of steam, and a story runs out of possibilities, it is perhaps time to go back before the beginning, and start anew, and free of the restrictions of the original story, come up with something fresh and emotionally engaging. They did it with Batman Begins. That franchise was bereft of life.

Now they have it with Planet of the Apes. For once. I would love to see a sequel, where Caesar perhaps has a love interest, she gets captured, they have a kid, and there is a power struggle within the apes, betrayal, escalation with the humans. The possibilities are endless.

I think you will enjoy it, and I hope this was helpful.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes feels almost like a well-constructed mini-series or film trilogy condensed into a single, streamlined movie. It is part techno-thriller, part family drama, part prison movie, and part revolutionary film. On top of it all, it is also a Jurassic Park-style cautionary tale and, of course, the set up for what promises to be an entertaining franchise reboot. Most of all, though, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a movie that manages to make special effects work for the story rather than the other way around.

The plot is deceptively and predictably simple: The hunt for a cure for the Next Big Thing (in this case, the cure for Alzheimer's) leads to an unexpected Obviously Dangerous Thing (here, really smart apes).

But the plot is just the foundation upon which a well-designed, satisfying story is built. The relationships between Caesar the super ape (Andy Serkis), Will Rodman the kind but misguided scientist (James Franco), and Will's ailing father (John Lithgow), are engaging and lend the movie its emotional core.

The prison scenes are harrowing and punctuate Caesar's character arc from not-quite-human-but-pretty-damn-close to revolutionary leader for the voiceless uber-minority. These Shawshank-like scenes also serve to imbue the ape characters with humanity their keepers lack.

The escape and take-over scenes are suitably rousing, bringing to mind such films as Gladiator, Braveheart, and Cobra Verde.

It is no surprise that PETA gave the film its dubious thumbs up, given the above-mentioned Save the Animals theme. But its approval was officially given in recognition of the fact that no living breathing apes were used in the filming of the movie. At all. Every one of the animals is a special effect created through the marriage of CGI and a group of talented actors in motion capture suits. Andy Serkis, as lead ape Caesar, in particular, is an absolute revelation.

He impressed with his performance as Sméagol, and was arguably the only good thing in the King Kong remake, but here he takes things to a brand new level. In a movie with a number of well developed characters and believable relationships (especially for a sci-fi movie), Caesar is given the most depth thanks to a stunningly nuanced performance.

It is surprising, in fact, to witness the way in which the filmmakers managed to give every one of the apes (at least, the ones given significant screen time) its own personality. And this, primarily through distinctive body language and facial expressions. It truly is a marvel to watch and, again, succeeds in turning you against your own species as you root for these evolutionary forebears of ours.

So besides technically impressive and well-written, is Rise of the Planet of the Apes entertaining? In short, absolutely. This is a movie that manages to entertain without requiring that you leave your brain home with the babysitter. Even the ways in which it builds tension--imbuing falling leaves with menace, for example--are done expertly and with a sense of fun.

In a year (heck, in a decade) of sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of the few that proved worth making and proves worth watching.