Another Take: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) Review

By Jason Haskins

Believe it or not it’s been 10 long years since the last Planet of the Apes movie…remember the one Tim Burton directed starring Mark Wahlberg? Yeah, I wasn’t a big fan, either. After that terrible release I was very skeptical on what direction the series was going to go from there. I mean, the Apes movies have been a fun little science fiction detour for years (none coming close to the finesse of the original, of course). This summer we see the release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes—the inevitable prequel to the series. The big question on everyone’s minds is whether it’s good or bad.

James Franco (127 Hours, Milk) stars as Will Rodman, a scientist working for a lab with the sole purpose of curing Alzheimer’s—spearheading the search for treatment as his father’s (Jon Lithgow) illness worsens. Funding isn’t going so well and after a series of events, he takes home a chimpanzee from his lab with improved genes due to a special virus he created. As fate would have it, this chimp (Caesar played by Andy Serkis) is smarter than all the other primates. After a further series of events, Caesar finds the seedy aspects of humanity and starts an uprising. This is the origin tale of the Planet of the Apes and how they turned evolution into revolution, baby!

I was on the fence for the film because of how poorly the movie could have come across. As much as I dug the trailer I still had some qualms about the franchise because of the bad direction Burton brought last time around. Director Rupert Wyatt actually has a respect for the characters and the entire series, though. His direction is very pleasing not only with his use at incorporating jaw-dropping CGI effects with the Bay Area backdrop, but making it so that they don’t overcrowd the frame to completely remove you from the story.

All of the performances were pretty well done including James Franco’s who’s one of the only human characters you really sympathize with. Super attractive actress Frieda Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire plays his girlfriend, but really doesn’t do anything in this film whatsoever except be the tacked on love interest for the screenplay to roll off of. The villainous cast is a little bit Disney in a way with Brian Cox playing this head honcho at a facility that ‘takes care of’ primates, but his whole deal is really shallow. As is the character played by Harry Potter star, Tom Felton, who plays this abusive douche bag guy who has a serious problems with the apes for some reason.

Granted, these characters are quite despicable and make great fodder for the apes in terms of getting free and conquering humanity. Andy Serkis, who you might know as the actor who played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong in Peter Jackson’s 2005 movie, stole the whole movie for me. Caesar gave me that WALL-E vibe where this computer generated creation actually reached out and touched the very fabric of my heart to yank on the veins and play ‘em like a harp. His performance is full of subtlety and dramatic characterization that I’ve never seen before using the motion capture technique.

It’s safe to say that this was one of my favorite movies of the summer. Admittedly it does suffer from some shallowness in the script and some predictability, but at the same time you’ll be having too much fun to really notice. The story has a strong heart to it as well as a great amount of themes to get your mind racing. The action plays a center piece to the whole movie and there’s a large handful of unforgettable images that made this movie so bad ass. The finale at the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the coolest parts of the film and worth the ticket price alone—and this is definitely the film to see if you thought the summer movie season was lagging. This is for newer fans of the Apes franchise and older one—you won’t leave the theater disappointed.

4.5 out of 5 stars

© Jason Haskins, 2011

Paco's review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

My review of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001)