RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – The Review

I’ll say it right up front… RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is one of the best films of 2011. This origin story is a reality-based cautionary tale, an interesting science-fiction-fact mixture and the perfect prequel from director Rupert Wyatt. It’s a great movie.

The story begins with Caesar’s mother being captured in the wild and brought to present day San Francisco. She becomes part of the Gen-Sys animal experiments before commencement of human trials for a promising and potentially lucrative new drug called ALZ-112. Will Rodman (James Franco) is a focused scientist working within a large pharmaceutical corporation, Gen-Sys, conducting genetic research to develop a benign virus that restores damaged human brain tissue. He is committed to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, a disease that afflicts his father, Charles (John Lithgow) and it’s that connection between his research and Charles’ illness brings the two together, albeit under difficult heart-rending circumstances. Will moves into his father’s house, which was once his childhood home, to take care of him.

When Will’s simian test subjects suddenly display aggressive behavior, Caesar’s mother is killed after she goes on the attack. The company deems the research a failure and Will is forced by his boss Jacobs (David Oyelowo) to shut down his program. During all the confusion of the study’s sudden termination, Will and fellow scientist Franklin (Tyler Labine) realize the bizarre actions stemmed from the female trying to protect her newborn infant chimpanzee. Instead of euthanizing the male chimp, Will smuggles him out of the lab. Once home, Charles names the chimp Caesar and leads Will to Caroline (Freida Pinto), a primatologist who’s lovingly dedicated to apes and becomes Caesar’s vet.

Due to exposure in the womb to the ALZ-112, young Caesar displays intelligence and behaviors unusual for an ape of any age. Inspired by his observation of Caesar’s unexpected gifts, Will secretly grabs enough samples of ALZ-112 from Gen-Sys, and against his better judgment privately continues his research at home, using his father and Caesar as test subjects. Over the years, with the help of the drug, the chimp exhibits incredible cognitive skills and intellect – Will and Caesar communicate through sign language. At the same time, Charles’ symptoms of Alzheimer’s miraculously go into remission and the family makes frequent field trips to the Redwoods where Caesar is free to roam throughout the forest. Will’s bending the rules of laboratory trials seems to have worked beyond his hopes, but after a while Charles’s symptoms return with a vengeance and Caesar naturally becomes defensive when seeing his grandfather attacked.

Will takes Caesar to live among other apes within the confines of the San Bruno Primate Sanctuary. But unknown to Will, the “sanctuary” is more like a shoddily run prison – a dumping ground for unwanted or abandoned apes. It is run by Landon (Brian Cox) and his sadistic son, Dodge, (Tom Felton). In the meantime, Will works on freeing Caesar from this hell hole and an updated version on the drug, ALZ-113, to counteract the reversal of his father’s disease. Fellow scientist Franklin is accidentally exposed and he is unaware that the new medicine has mutated into a deadly virus to humans but not the apes. It’s this crucial plot point that sets up the downfall of mankind. (In Taylor’s own words: “Wiped out by a plague – some natural catastrophe.”)

Because he’s not the physically strongest ape in the facility, Caesar quickly realizes that in order to survive he must assert his intellectual dominance over the fearsome alpha-male ape Rocket “Bright Eyes” and a beastly brooding angry gorilla named Buck. It’s the psychologically damaged and former circus orangutan named Maurice whom Caesar discovers he can communicate with through sign language. Caesar soon prevails over the other apes, and establishes a new social order. At a throwback moment to the 4th installment, CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972), Caesar stands up and retaliates against the human handlers.

In a daring break out reminiscent of THE GREAT ESCAPE, Caesar leads his fellow captives out of the prison and into an epic confrontation at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. All that he’s ever wanted was to go home to the Redwoods that he and Will visited so often when he was a youngster. It’s a wrenching and fateful reunion between Will and Caesar – and a revolution that will forever change the planet and hopefully to more films.

WETA Digital stunning work makes you feel like you’re watching real apes. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri, a four-time Oscar winner, accomplishes ground-breaking work. By using performance capture as a fully integrated part of the live action, for the first time WETA brings emotion and physicality to the actors roles.

In addition to presenting emotionally-engaging photo-realistic apes, the film’s setting is instantly recognizable and clearly related to the 1968 classic. APES fans will take special delight when hearing the names of the characters – human and apes alike. Bright Eyes, Landon, Dodge, Cornelia (Cornelius), and Maurice are all a part of the makeup that is the APE universe. Even the original director (“Franklin” J. Schaffner), producer (Arthur P. “Jacobs”) and supporting actor “Buck” Kartalian (Taylor’s warden Julius) are afforded characters in 20th Century Fox’s reboot. There are Easter eggs for the audience to discover throughout. The film shows the lift off of the spaceship ICARUS – the craft of the 1968 film that took Charlton Heston’s “Col. Taylor” along with Dodge, Landon and Stewart through the time rift. The filmmakers even included a glimpse at a news paper which reads, “Icarus Lost In Space.” Fans will surely cheer on all the winks and nods to original.

Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa screenplay stays true to the timeline and “what happened prior to Heston arrival back on Earth of 3978” premise. Their keen story shows how man’s experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. Iconic lines such as “It’s a MAD HOUSE…A MAD HOUSE” and “Take your paws off me you damn dirty ape!” are thrown in for good measure. I appreciate how the writers really did their Ape homework. (Read WAMG’s interview with Silver & Jaffa HERE.)

The Will-Charles-Caesar dynamic is tearfully sweet and its Franco’s emotional display of losing both father and child, that is gripping as well as painful to watch. Patrick Doyle’s score truly pulls you into these moments – it even has strains of Jerry Goldsmith’s 1968 music. The editing by Oscar winner Conrad Buff and Mark Goldblatt keep the tension and action-filled pacing at a zenith in the climactic finale as it unfolds on, above, along and beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

All hail the extraordinary Andy Serkis! The legendary role of Caesar would’ve never been convincing without his realistic portrayal of the Ape that would be King. Serkis infuses Caesar with nuance, emotion, soul, wisdom and heart into the chimpanzee APES fans have grown to know since Pierre Boulle wrote his 1963 novel. It’s another historic performance by Serkis who gave acclaimed performances as Gollum in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, and as Kong in KING KONG.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES never feels CGI-driven and Wyatt makes sure the action and suspense goes hand in hand with the powerful emotional story. The 800 lb gorilla sitting in the room…does Caesar eventually speak? That, you’ll have to discover for yourself.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES opens in the U.S. on August 5, 2011.

The film is rated PG-13 for intense and frightening sequences of action and violence.