Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

First off, I haven’t posted a review in months.  If anyone really cares, I moved and had a lot on my plate as of late.  I’m going to get back into this full swing now, and maybe post some videos under a new moniker.

I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Saturday, and… wow.  I’ll start off with that complex and life reassessing statement that I hear Christopher Walken saying as I type it… wow.

To start off, Rise is a reboot of sorts (though I’ve heard it referred to as a prequel, but given how the apes look in this movie and how they look in the 70’s original, I’m calling it a reboot).  This movie has no connection to the 2001 Tim Burton version. 

The premise of the story is that James Franco’s character Will Rodam is trying to find a cure for his father’s Alzheimer’s disease through genetically engineered viruses that he is testing on Chimpanzees.  I won’t ruin the plot too much, but his research results in a chimp, which his father (John Lithgow) names Caesar.  Caesar lives with Will and is incredibly smart, and becomes more so…. And more so.  Though his intelligence can’t completely fight his baser instincts and in an attempt to protect Will’s father, Caesar is put into a chimp sanctuary due to his violent behavior. 

The story goes on from there into some pretty intense sequences.  Andy Serkis plays Caesar in the same technical fashion as Golem and King Kong, where you never see him once, except purely through his performance, and what a performance. You see the evolution of Caesar being a smarter than average ape, to him questioning his and all apes’ place in society. 

James Franco does a decent job, but Serkis by far steals the show.  By the end of the movie you are rooting for the apes, and you feel the plight that Caesar does.  The bridge sequence in the end isn’t only a great action sequence, but emotionally potent as well (see Buck the gorilla’s and Jacob’s fate).

I highly recommend this movie.  There are few flaws, and the flaws that some see, I feel add to the drama unfolding on screen (Tom Felton’s performance is good, but I think people are mixing up the unlikability of his character with his performance).  There are some easter eggs for fans of the series (lines and references to events in the original movies).  If you haven’t seen any of the apes movies previous, that’s no problem, this is more or less a clean reboot and you’ll in no way be lost when you watch it. 

4 ½ out of 5 Damned Dirty Apes