"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" Review

Title: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Directed by: Rupert Wyatt

Screenplay by: Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver

Year: 2011


This series already had one unsuccessful reboot, why did it need another? This was something many thought when this film was announced. However, Rise of the Planet of the Apes showed its quality spectacularly. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a very pleasant surprise as it gave the series its first good film, arguably, since the original one in 1968.

The story follows Caesar, a chimpanzee whose mother was given a drug that enhanced her mental abilities to equal those of a human and who passed it on to Caesar. Caesar realizes this potential and begins an ape uprising. This is the simplest way to summarize the plot.

The film stars the brilliant Andy Serkis as Caesar, the main ape. That's correct. The main character of the film, is the computer generated ape, and thank God it does. One of my main fears when first watching the film was that it would focus too much on the human characters and not enough on the apes. Thankfully, this is not the case. The film understands what it needs to be if it is to successfully reboot this franchise. Andy Serkis always gives a terrific performance and Caesar is no exception. James Franco plays the main human character Will Rodman and, though not a particularly special performance, Franco does a good job with his role. In fact, all the cast members do a fine job playing their characters.

The visual effects for the film were spectacular. The motion capture for Caesar was very well done and in combination with Andy Serkis' performance, really makes the character of Caesar come alive. We really sympathize with Caesar and his situation. You actually root for Caesar and his cause, which is against humans. When a film can do that, you know that it is an engaging watch and that it has pulled you along for the ride, and what a great ride it is.

The plot is also really good for the film. It is not as simple as it might appear and that really adds to the film. This could have been a simple popcorn flick filled with a bunch of action. But the movie sets out to be more than that. It has layers, it gives Will a motivation for perfecting "the cure" by giving him a father with Alzheimer's. Will isn't creating the drug as a plot convenience, he is working on it to help his father. Caesar doesn't start a revolution just because he can. He has a motivation to do so. Basically, actions aren't done because the plot calls for them. They are done because the characters have reasons to carry out certain actions, which really elevates the story to new heights, setting the scene for a promising franchise.

The emotion of the film is one of the biggest surprises. Not only are you emotionally invested with Caesar, but also with Will and his situation, especially when it concerns his father. There are quite a few scenes that will legitimately move you. The emotion really is that fleshed out and it's something the movie needed, otherwise we would just be watching a bunch of apes wreck a city.

The cinematography of Rise of the Planet of the Apes is something to be admired. This film looks really good. What I found to be a brilliant move was setting the film in a real location rather than some made up city. The movie takes place in San Francisco, grounding it in reality and making it all the more believable. Which brings me to my next point. The question must be asked, "How can apes rise up against us with all of our advanced weaponry and technology?" Firstly, it takes place in a single city so it is the beginning of things, the revolution is on a small scale (not a bad thing). Secondly, the way this issue is handled was done magnificently, as highlighted by the Golden Gate Bridge scene. The action on the Golden Gate Bridge is very exciting and the most incredible sequence of the film.

*SPOILERS AHEAD* However, there is one scene that I would like to bring up; when Caesar first speaks. Now, there were a lot of callbacks to the original Planet of the Apes (1968) throughout this film. To name a few, "It's a madhouse", Cornelia, Maurice, the hose, Bright Eyes, and probably a few others that I can't recall at the moment. However, the biggest one is when Dodge Landon (yes, another one) played by Tom Felton tells Caesar, "Take your stinking paw off me you damn dirty ape." Caesar replies, "NO!" Allow me to explain why this worked in this film, and why the line "Take your hands off me you dirty human" didn't in Planet of the Apes (2001). In the original movie, Charlton Heston, or Taylor rather, says this once his throat has been healed. This is a shock to the apes because they've never heard a human speak before. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, no one has ever heard an ape speak, so to have this famous cinematic line inserted when Caesar speaks is a brilliant callback to the original. It doesn't feel shoehorned for fan service because it actually makes sense and it parallels the original situation. In the 2001 film however, the ape says a similar line to Mark Wahlberg's character. The issue is, there was no reason for the line, other than fan service. That came off as forced and it just didn't have the same impact as the former I explained. In fact, it didn't have any impact, it was just a line.

*SPOILER FREE* I can only think of one small issue in this entire film: the villains. Now, Rise of the Planet of the Apes doesn't necessarily need a villain, but rather someone to instigate Caesar's motivation for an uprising. In that respect, the villains work well (I'd say there are two villains). But both are rather hollow. They don't need to be complicated characters but a little more development would have been nice. However this is a small issue in an otherwise fantastic film.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the "Planet of the Apes" film we've been waiting for since the original came out nearly forty years prior. It has an amazing lead character, an interesting story, an emotional core, stunning visual effects, and a director who knows what he's doing. This is not only a good film, but it breathed life into the franchise for future films to come, which just goes to show how "revolutionary" it was.

Grade: A