Movie Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Aug 17 2011 by Ian Bunting, Airdrie & Coatbridge

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

RISE of the Planet of the Apes is the first of a planned trilogy telling the origin story of events that led to apes taking control of planet Earth.

James Franco (Will) experiments with genetic engineering to try and cure his dad Charles’ (John Lithgow) Alzheimer's but testing on ape Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads to the development of heightened intelligence in apes and the beginning of their uprising.

Origin stories can be tricky as you know what’s coming but Rise of the Planet of the Apes manages to offset that with some thrilling sequences and, like the latest Star Trek movie, sets up a fresh-feeling world to explore in the intended sequels.

The film’s biggest success is the first-rate special effects. All of the apes are superbly rendered and the ‘King of Motion Capture’ Serkis follows up his work as King Kong with another impressive central performance.

And make no mistake about it; this is Caesar’s story and Serkis brings this computer-generated character to gorgeous life with humanity, agility, heart and rage in spades.

English director Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) shows a sure hand to effectively combine science, action and the cruelty of humans with matters of the human heart; love, loss, jealousy and anger.

His camera zooms into apes’ eyes and provides several ace aerial shots (particularly during the climax).

Wyatt also recognises that little moments mean as much to a blockbuster as big bangs; witness Caesar drawing a window on a cell wall and a moving wordless scene with Franco and Lithgow.

Franco does a decent job overall but isn’t the most convincing leading man. Lithgow puts in the best ‘human’ performance with a great mix of frustration, joy, and acceptance as his condition alters.

Relatively inexperienced big screen writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver’s script suffers from inconsistent quality.

The early stages with Will, Charles and a young Caesar are like ‘Two Men and an Ape,’ with Patrick Doyle’s score hinting at the dark times to come.

Caesar’s first word follows a nice nod to the original Planet of the Apes and the scientific chat is thankfully kept simple and to a minimum.

Where Jaffa and Silver flounder is the area of character development. An underused Freida Pinto only seems to exist to give Franco someone to snog, David Oyelowo (Steven) is a one-note evil ‘business suit’ and Tom Felton (Dodge) basically reprises his Draco Malfoy role from Harry Potter with an American accent.

The ape ‘yard bully’ and sign language felt too unreal and there’s some dodgy dialogue; “That’s the leader” says Steven from a helicopter way up in the sky about an ape he’s barely laid eyes on.

But Jaffa, Silver and Wyatt pull together to offer up a sensational last 20 minutes as San Francisco comes under attack, culminating in a cops v apes showdown.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of the year’s better blockbusters and perfectly sets the stage for more to come.

You’ll never look at an ape the same way again.

Rating - 7 out of 10