Rise of the Planet of the Apes (12A) - Reviewed (From Surrey Comet)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (12A) - Reviewed

10:53am Monday 8th August 2011 in Film Reviews & News By Mark Foker

Interestingly Fox have given the cinema going public a prequel to the iconic 1968 movie Planet of the Apes rather than another attempt at a remake. Remember Tim Burton’s version in 2001?...no, nobody does!

I think this film is what the fans have been waiting for, how did the world turn on its head with a planet ruled by apes? The big question though is do we see this as a reboot with more to come? We know that the franchise has legs as it spawned four sequels, a TV series and has been parodied by The Simpsons, Family Guy and Futurama amongst others.

James Franco plays Will Rodman, who is the senior scientist for research company GEN Sys. He’s been working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by experimenting on chimpanzees with his special formula ALZ112. Will has a vested interest in the success of the project as his Father (John Lithgow) also suffers from the disease.

The laboratory tests makes the apes ultra intelligent and while in the process of presenting the results to the ‘money men’ there is an incident with one of his prized subjects an adult female chimpanzee called Bright Eyes. Due to this set back the funding is withdrawn and the remaining apes are destroyed, all except a new born baby that the Mother had kept hidden.

Will smuggles the baby home where he lives with his Father and they name the young chimp Caesar. This gives Will the opportunity to continue his experiment from his house and at the same time he treats his father with the serum which has amazing results.

It is clear that Caesar has the same high intelligence as his Mother and the serum has been passed down through her genes. As the years go by it becomes obvious that they can no longer keep Caesar a secret from the public or the authorities and they are forced to commit Caesar to an animal facility for primates run by the corrupt John Landon (Brian Cox) and his sadistic son Dodge Landon (Tom Felton) who abuses the apes with electric shock treatment.

It’s here that the seed is planted for an ape uprising and through his increased intelligence Caesar soon establishes himself as the alpha male of the group.

Director Rupert Wyatt does an amazing job considering that his only other mainstream movie was ‘The Escapist (2008)’ also starring Brian Cox which coincidentally concentrated on a prison break. Wyatt made ‘The Escapist’ on a budget of just under $2m and for some reason the CEO of Fox saw something in his abilities and entrusted him with a massive $100m budget to play with.

At the helm of the special effects is four time Oscar winner Joe Letteri of WETA (Avatar, Lord of the Rings) a company that just keeps breaking new boundaries. However, for me the best results are the more subtle moments when we see Caesar sitting motionless in his cage with just the movement of his eyes expressing all of his hurt and anger more than any action or speech could possibly do.

At this point I just wonder how long it will be before the Academy has a new award category for best ‘performance capture’ by an actor. The favourite nominee for this would surely be Andy Serkis. Once again he puts in an amazing performance as Caesar from infant to adulthood and ultimately revolutionary.

Unfortunately most of the acting plaudits go to the mo cap ensemble rather than the human characters which are somewhat under written. We have the stereo type baddie in the nasty keeper Dodge played by Tom Felton (watch out for typecasting Tom) and Will’s jerk of a neighbour plus we know that Jacobs (David Oyelowo from TV’s spooks), the head of the research centre is bad news because he has an English accent. Also it’s a shame that Will’s love interest Caroline (Freida Punto, Slumdog Millionaire) who is actually a zoo vet is seriously underused.

There is homage paid to the original film with the baby Caesar playing with a toy Statue of Liberty, an ape on horseback and a repeat of that immortal Charlton Heston ‘Dirty Ape’ line. Underneath it all there is a very good script and a clear moral message which is relevant to today, should we be playing God and therefore does the human race deserve our fate?

I can see primates with posters of Caesar with his beret and furry chin adorning their bedroom walls already! This will be this summer’s sleeper.

Four out of five.

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