The Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reboot of the 5 film series of  the 1960s/70s, which in turn was based off the 1963 French Novel. This  film sets out to tell the very beginnings of the Ape revolt.

It starts with San Fransisco scientist Will Rodman researching a cure  for Alzheimers, which has stricken his father (John Lithgow). He tests a  drug on apes made to repair brain cells. Through a series of  circumstances Will ends up raising a baby monkey at home who displays  heightened intelligence. Will’s father, who was a cultured man in life,  names the monkey Caesar.

Years later, the course of events lead Caesar to being kept in a  shelter with other monkeys, where he is not accepted at first. He’s very  depressed and lonely, until he comes to attain leadership among the  captive apes.

Unlike what’s considered “typical” summer franchise flair, Apes is  primarily a character piece. We follow Will and his despair over his  ailing father, who Lithgow plays wonderfully. We also see his ethical  struggles and the conflicts that come from the business side of  medicine.

The strongest part of the movie is Caesar himself. We follow him  through his joys and his despair, share his concern when he wonders to  Will if he’s a pet, and ultimately cheer for the Apes as they revolt  against, well us. Rise of the Apes is perhaps the only movie with a CGI  character (not counting full CGI movies like Toy Story or Shrek) that I  truly cared about. He was definitely a better character than say, any of  the Transformers or Star Wars characters of the last ten years.

Action comes at the end as we see the Apes outsmart the humans on the  Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a great scene that shows in one shot why  Caesar will become a mythical hero to be remembered by the Apes for all  time. It’s interesting to see that the Apes don’t intend to rule the  planet, (In fact even in combat Caesar is purposefully non-lethal) and  that it’s not necessarily the Apes that wipe humanity out.

For Easter egg specialists one of the humans who mistreats the Apes  says that line “Get your hands off me you dam dirty Ape,” which is what  Charlten Heston said in the original film. Also there’s passing  reference to the Icarus space ship, which is from the films and original  novel. Apparently in this movie it had a manned mission to Mars and  gets lost. That’s all I know of as I haven’t seen the old films.

Rise of the Apes is one of the better reboots made, which hopefully will lead to a great film series. 9.8/10.

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Last updated: 2011-09-04 07:38:21 by jemurr

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

RATING 8/10

Bottom Line

This reboot of the classic franchise is a triumph of story and character, particularly with the creation of each individual ape as a character; the film is only let down by its underwritten human characters which in turn lead to uninspired performances by the cast.

The Good

The original “Planet of the Apes” film was a watershed in science-fiction movies back in the 60s and unfortunately, none of the other sequels, and in particular, the horrid Tim-Burton remake in 2001 have come close to capturing the spirit of the film. Along comes “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes”, which despite a few flaws, is as close as you are going to get to a great “Planet Of The Apes” film. Will Rodman (James Franco) is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease by testing chimpanzees with a genetically engineered virus. After an early incident which shuts down his work, Rodman discovers a baby chimp he names Caesar (Andy Serkis), who has developed heightened intelligence thanks to his now dead mother’s response to the virus. At home, with Will working on the virus in secret, Caesar develops radically until a key incident leads him to be incarcerated in a cruel facility with other apes, separated from Will. At this point, Caesar’s life changes forever as he leads an ape rebellion. The key to what makes this film work so well is the attention paid to developing the ape characters, starting with ‘Caesar’, who is brought to life by some incredible digital animation and Andy Serkis’ powerful motion capture performance. Together, Caesar becomes a very strong character, and his development throughout the film from smart baby chimp to the leader of an ape rebellion are compelling to watch. A great character moment occurs when Caesar speaks for the first time; it resonates with powerful dramatic intensity and gives you a proper window in to the plight of these ape characters. The other apes in the film are likewise given a great deal of attention, to the point where they all resonate as individual characters, and they are all give important dramatic moments. The scenario depicted in the film is ultimately down-beat, with humans falling victim to the virus while the apes gain strength and intelligence from it. This is an amazing conceit in a big budget Hollywood film which would have normally depicted something more ‘happy’. “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” is a very entertaining film, with a good story and great characters that try to give you some ideas upon which to ponder within its action-suspense narrative.

The Bad

For all the work done fleshing out the characters of the apes, the human characters were unfortunately not extended the same courtesy. James Franco seems oddly miscast in this film, and his one-note performance pales in comparison to Andy Serkis’ work with Caesar (and the digital animation team that brought him to life), and in some cases brings it down when Caesar has some powerful emotional moments but Franco is unable to be in the moment with him. Other characters are laughable, such as Tom Felton’s sadistic character ‘Dodge’ who takes a trademark line from the 1968 original film and totally destroys it; thankfully it is forgotten a second later when Caesar responds with his first word and recomposes the drama. The facility where the virus is being worked on seems to have no security protecting it with the apes over-running it in seconds; an illogical idea for such a facility. The change of heart of Will’s boss Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo) from being dead-set against the development of the virus to green-lighting it for the second time is totally arbitrary, swinging on Will’s word in the space of only a minute (which is hardly believable). All in all, if these details had been addressed and thought through better, this film would have been classic. Instead, we have a very strong film let down by a few fundamental flaws.

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Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

So here goes yet another remake.  It seems like almost every movie that comes out is a sequel or a remake.  But that’s not exactly the case with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  The title may imply that it’s a sequel or a re-telling of the original Planet of the Apes, but this movie is very different.  I’m thinking they named it that just to avoid being accused of ripping off the old one, simply because it’s a movie about apes.  But this film really isn’t anything like it or its remakes, and that’s a good thing if you saw Tim Burton’s version a decade ago.
It takes place in modern-day America where humans still rule and apes are in zoos or being studied at lab facilities.  One such facility is conducting tests on apes to study new drugs that may be able to treat diseases in humans as well.  James Franco plays Will Rodman, a leading researcher involved with the studies.  He discovers that a new drug being used on the apes grows new brain cells which can heal such diseases as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.  The problem is that there is risk of violent side effects, as evidenced by one of the apes that goes into a fit of rage that results in being shot by security.  It turns out, however, that the ape was just protecting its newborn baby.  Will is then told to take the baby or terminate it; he decides to take it home.
We soon learn that Will’s motivation for taking it home is that his father has Alzheimer’s himself.  Will wants to test that drug on his dad.  In the meantime, the ape (named Caesar) grows up at the house and Will becomes like a father to him.  But he is an ape after all, and eventually yearns to go outside and play.  Though he has a fondness for Will, he doesn’t enjoy feeling trapped inside.  Eventually, Caesar begins finding ways to get outside on his own.  He is, after all, smarter than the average ape due to remaining on that drug.  But an incident occurs where Caesar attacks someone in response to someone messing with Will’s father. 
Will then makes the decision to enroll Caesar in something equivalent to a daycare for apes.  But it winds up being that the apes are extremely mistreated here.  This is what leads to the eventual “rise of the apes”.  Caesar’s dark side is brought out and he even becomes the leader of the rebellion when his intelligence becomes apparent to the others.  So really, the rise that the title refers to doesn’t occur until the latter part of the film but we get to see what all leads up to it.  And while there’s not a second that the apes ever look that realistic, it doesn’t hurt the film because Caesar conveys plenty of emotion.  Without necessarily speaking, we see him use sign language and express his different feelings in many ways.  It helps that Andy Serkis plays Caesar through the power of motion-capture technology.  Serkis is pretty much the expert on this as he’s most known for providing the motions for Gollum in Lord of the Rings as well as King Kong in that most recent remake.  For a movie that’s heavy on the CGI, it at least tells a story that keeps the viewer interested.  There’s rarely a dull moment in the film and it puts a fresh spin on a movie that’s been done over and over before.  It’s good summer entertainment with an ending full of action.

Recommendations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en , 25th Hour

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I caught the early show of The Rise of the Planet of the Apes today. This is the latest iteration – the producers are calling it an  origin film which might mean reboot rather than remake – of the Planet  of the Apes franchise. When author Pierre Boulle first  conceived of the idea nearly 50 years ago years ago, and penned the  novel, it was an idea that caught everyone’s imagination. From the time  that Charlton Heston, as an astronaut who crashed  landed on an ‘unknown’ planet that was not only inhabited by apes, but  apes were the dominant species, until now – the idea remains  fascinating.

The major plus is that over the same period of time since the Boulle  novel, the technology available to film makers has become marvelous to  say the least. The creators of that first P.O.T.A. film back in 1968 had  to resort to costumes and make-up. And that my friends is in the  history books. You could look it up.

A brief description of the new film tells us: Man’s experiments with  genetic engineering leads to the development of intelligence in apes and  the onset of a war for supremacy.

Because “Rise” is able to utilize the vastly superior technology  available today, and because it has an excellent script, is easily the  most advanced, but is also and easily the best of the POTA films ever.  Directed by Rupert Wyatt, the film just flows along so  smoothly that you doesn’t notice the passage of time. There are no  dead-spots at all. The action is not only fast and sometimes furious,  but seems so well integrated with the intelligent script. You’re going  to think that neither the violence or action was created as the basis  for a film with a story written around the action, nor was the purpose  just to give you a break from a so-so script.

As the film begins we are deep in a forest. We become aware of the  presence of apes in the wild. Only they are being hunted. Not to be  killed as in sporting game, but to be captured alive, because they’re  going to be sold to a giant pharmacology company, Gen-Sys, who needs the  primates for research purposes and for the testing of experimental  drugs. From the rainforest, fast forward to present day San Francisco,  to the campus of Gen-Sys. James Franco plays Will  Rodman who heads up the research on ALZ-112 – a still under development  or experimental drug that is still being tested. This drug will enable  the brain to create new cells in order to cure itself. This wonder drug,  if they can get it right, could be the cure for Alzheimer’s.

 
Things spiral out of control quite quickly. While Will Rodman is  making the pitch about his ‘wonder drug’ to the Gen-Sys Board of  Directors, back in the testing center, Bright Eyes – the chimp used for  the testing, goes berserk. She destroys a good bit of the lab – and  finally has to be shot and killed. The research has to be shut down –  the board would not want to get behind a drug that could cause such a  reaction. Only it wasn’t the drug that caused this reaction. Instead it  was just Bright Eyes being a protective mother.


Rodman takes the new born chimp home and raises it. They call this  chimp Caesar, and he will grow into an ape with vastly superior  intelligence that is not only surprising but almost frightening.




All of this is shown through the remarkable technology which will take the actions and expressions of actor Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, and translate it onto the CGI created chimp that we see. These  actions and expressions of not only Caesar, but in the dozens of other  apes that we get close to, is nothing short of a technological marvel.




The story progresses with Caesar doing so very well in closing the  gap between apes and humans – until there’s an altercation between a  neighbor and Rodman’s father, played by John Lithgow.  Caesar, to protect the elderly and ill father, attacks the neighbor.  Because of this violence, Caesar is deemed unsafe and unmanagable.  Rodman has to give up Caesar to an ape sanctuary. But it was more like a  prison than a sanctuary. At first, Caesar, the new ape in town, is  maltreated by both the handlers, as well as the other apes.




Of course this place has the evil boss/warden played by Brian Cox who was actually very good doing his turn at a Rip Torn style character. The handler of the apes was his son and was played by Tom Felton, whom we all hated as Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. You’re going to hate him here as well.




Freida Pinto comes on board as Rodman’s love  interest, and as a local veterinarian. Her role is woefully underwritten  and she becomes kind of a one-note character. Her mantra to Rodman is –  This isn’t right. Some things you’re trying to control, are not meant  to be controlled.




I thought the film was great. Not perfect – but great. It has enough  thrills and action, enough intelligence, and despite a few stock  villains – the Gen-Sys CFO Steve Jacobs, played by David Oyelowo,



the abusive neighbor, as well as Cox and Felton as the father son  combo at the sanctuary, they don’t really detract from the films  excellence; and all of them will get their come-up-ence at the hands of  Caesar and his cohorts.




As a homage to the original, this film has an unexpected ‘twist’ coda  inserted in mid-final credits. I see ‘box office smash hit’ written all  over this film.

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Recommendations: Chak De! India

Last updated: 2011-08-06 14:41:40 by JustMeMike