Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Review
‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ (Man, what a long title) is the seventh installment in the seemingly never-ending ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise. Having never seen any of the previous six ‘Planet of the Apes’ films, I had no expectations of this new one. This is a series I don’t really care for, and one that doesn’t need re-booting. But after seeing ROTPOTA, I was thoroughly impressed and am looking forward to its future installment(s).
The events of the film does exactly what it’s title says – it showcases the eventual rise of apes and their rebellion against humankind. This primate revolution begins when scientist Will Rodman (James Franco, from ‘127 Hours‘) fosters an infant ape, whom he names Caesar (Andy Serkis, Gollum from ‘The Lord of the Rings’, and King Kong in ‘King Kong’), after its mother is killed in an unfortunate lab incident. Will works for a pharmaceutical company where he’s been trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s.
Will soon realizes that Caesar’s intelligence is rapidly increasing, and that he must have inherited the effects of an Alzheimer’s drug that was tested on his now-deceased mother. Caesar soon learns how to do human-like tasks, as well as sign-language, which he uses to converse with Will and other humans (and apes). With Caesar as proof of the drug’s ability to repair brains damaged by Alzheimer’s, Will gives his ailing father (John Lithgow) treatment with the same drug used on Caesar’s mother in order to rid him of Alzheimer’s.
When Caesar gets sent to a primate-only facility due to an unfortunate and violent incident with one of Will’s neighbors, this is where the film’s revolution really starts to take shape. In this facility, Caesar encounters various other apes, and we see him ascend the apes’ “social ladder,” where he eventually becomes their leader. Also at the facility is the owner, John Landon (Brian Cox, from ‘X2: X-Men United’), and his son Dodge (Tom Felton, from the ‘Harry Potter’ series, always playing the jerk). Dodge Landon is particularly abusive towards the apes, and he has a very important scene with Caesar in the film’s third act which I wouldn’t want to spoil for anyone reading this. It’s a surprising, but also unsurprising, event that’ll leave most people cheering, or at least smirking.
Though there are plenty of human characters in the film, they all take a backseat to Caesar. The film is really Caesar’s story, and through Andy Serkis’ wonderful motion-capture acting combined with remarkable special effects, we find ourselves more emotionally invested in this CGI character than the actual human ones. We care about Caesar and why he does the things he does. The incident that causes him to be imprisoned in the ape facility is completely rational on his part, but since he’s “just an ape” to most human beings, it’s sad to see Caesar be mistreated and punished for his actions. Thus, we root for Caesar when he slowly ascends the ape social ladder and we become emotionally invested in his cause.
The entire third act, or the last 20-to-30 minutes, of the film is a breath-taking one. It’s the rebellion. This shouldn’t be taken as a spoiler or anything, because the title of the film (and the trailers themselves) pretty much tells you that the film will show the start of the world dominance of apes. Fortunately, the film doesn’t have the apes taking over the entire world and enslaving all humans, as that would be too unrealistic within the confines of the film. Instead, the apes in the film attempt to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to get to a place which I will not ruin by describing. This entire rebellion sequence is adrenaline-fueled and action-packed throughout, and it’s just enjoyable overall. Viewers are on the apes’ side, and it’s exciting to see the apes overcoming, and even out-smarting, their human antagonists. Now when you can make people root for the side that’s against them, that’s when you know a film’s done something right. This final sequence in ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ practically makes the film, though everything before it helps, too.
‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ is one of the few pleasant surprises of the summer, and I’m hoping that future installments can successfully expand on this film’s events, as well as keep this film’s good quality.