Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

The original Planet of the Apes films are considered classics to people. Then the visual mastermind Tim Burton took over for a reboot and everything was looking good. Until the movie was terrible and hated by most and critics and public audiences. Now the franchise has to start from ground zero with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Unlike the Burton remake, this film starts as a prequel going through the beginning of the end. Does this different approach lead to the rejuvenation of the series or like Burton’s film put the original films to shame.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is about Will Rodman (James Franco) an up incoming scientist who is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease which is a disease that his father (John Lithgow) has. To make sure the drug works they decide to test this drug out on apes. The drug is meant to be a virus that not only repairs brain cells, but genetically modifies the subject giving them inhance intelligence. When tested on the Chimps it works as these Chimps get smarter but not as smart as the target intelligence.

Then one of the test Apes has a baby and this ape wows Rodman. He has inherited the intelligence of his mother and he is giving the name of Ceaser (Andy Serkis). Soon he seems to distant from the rest of the world and lives with his own kind. The apes who are mindless animals are effected by this overly intelligent Ape. Is this the beginning of the end of Earth being ruled by humans but instead by the Apes!

Going into this movie I was excited to see the results (talked about it in my preview for August). The film was getting so many great reviews so this had to be good. I am here to say, the film is fantastic. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is tied with X-Men First Class as not only my favorite film of the summer, but my favorite film of the year. This film is one of the few blockbusters this summer that displays in my mind a perfect blockbuster. The film is not just two hours of action like Transformers, instead the film is about building characters and relationships which leads to a final action climax that has some substance to it. You don’t see the action has great effects but powerful moments in the film.

The film like First Class has wonderful action. James Franco is the poster star but he is more of a supporting character to Andy Serkis. Serkis in his carer has been known for doing motion capture. He has done it twice before as Gollum in Lord of the Rings and the title character in King Kong. Here he gives his best performance showing so much emotion with only slight movements. Serkis should be considered for an Oscar because he is that good. Everyone else in the cast including Franco, Lithgow, Bryan Cox, and Draco Malfoy no I mean Tom Helton does a good job with the scream time they get.

The visuals in the film are done by Weta Digital who have done the motion capture for Avatar and Lord of the Rings. Here they bring the same effort and it shows as the visuals are stunning in this film. The apes never looked fake for a second as every scene looked very authentic. The actors should be credited here to because there’s never a moment when there starring in space where the effects would be put in. Both the actors and motion capture mesh perfectly.

The film is directed by Rupert Wyatt who like Matthew Vaughn knows that characters are more important then action. The film has the big climax full of action and that’s it. Do not go in to this film expecting the ape Apocalypse but instead the begging of the end. The first hour and half is spent with Ceaser and that is the right way to go. We go thought his good times to his bad and see why he is motivated to do what he does.

Overall Rise of the Planets of the Apes is one of the summer and years best movies.

MUST SEE IT!