With the summer movie season heading into its final month after a plethora of below average blockbusters, a highly entertaining and well crafted motion picture has come along to wow audiences around the globe. I, however, did not expect such an intelligent movie after seeing the first trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I thought it would be another notch on the belt for James Franco (who does everything) as well as a subpar addition to the number of films injected with an abundance of special effects. Apes certainly has some cool effects, with all of the chimps being CGI, and a standard performance from Franco, but it also contains wit, humor, and a whole lot of heart.
James Franco's character, Will Rodman, has just developed a possible cure for Alzheimer's disease, and tests the virus on chimpanzees in his lab. When one escapes and runs wild, however, fearing that the scientists will hurt the baby she has just given birth to, all of them are put down, except for her child who Will takes home. After seeing how happy it makes his father, Charles, who happens to have Alzheimer's disease, Will decides to keep the ape and name him Caesar. The baby has inherited the drug, which provides a high level of intelligence, from his mother who received a sample of the cure and becomes smarter and smarter as years go by. Caesar also becomes very attached to Will and his father and after seeing someone yell at Charles for crashing his car due to his confused condition, Caesar runs amok and is forced into a primate facility.
This is where Caesar begins to turn on the humans after being treated horribly by the employees of the facility, especially Tom Felton's character Dodge. He acted exactly like his well known role of Draco Malfoy and I was just waiting for him to shout "Stupid Potter!" His acting may have been hard to watch, but a fantastic performance comes from Andy Serkis, known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, the man in the suit creating every facial expression and gesture as Caesar.
Caesar eventually steals the new version of the virus, which actually kills humans (although no one knows it yet) and lets it loose among all the apes in the facility, leading to an epic scene when after thinking "Hey, didn't they talk in the other movies?" throughout the first hour, you see it unfold. Then, obviously, they begin to take over. The idea behind what can sound like a silly premise becomes much more real in this adaptation of the classic film. Everyone knows what will happen since Rise is obviously a prequel, but seeing exactly what led to the takeover is what makes this film so enjoyable beyond the effects and work of Serkis. The only somewhat dissatisfying thing about it, other than Felton's goofy performance, is that in the end it seems that everyone in San Francisco, after witnessing apes go crazy, decide to just let them hang out in the forest. I guess after the police force got their asses handed to them, they figured, "They're pretty smart...and pretty strong. I guess if all they want is respect and to be left alone then that's fine with me." They're not evil, but their revolution is just like any other in history. They want something, and in this case to be treated with respect. And finally, moviemakers respect the audience and deliver a great summer blockbuster.
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