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

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rating

Director

Rupert Wyatt

Screenplay

Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Length

1h 45m

Starring

Andy Serkis, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Richard Ridings, Chris Gordon, Devyn Dalton, Jay Caputo, James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, Tyler Labine, Jamie Harris, Ty Olsson, David Hewlett

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Original Preview

Review

Pierre Boule’s sci-fi masterpiece novel Planet of the Apes was hugely popular in its day, spawning a terrific film and a series of sequels that never quite lived up to the expectations of the original. Tim Burton attempted to revive the franchise just over a decade ago with poor results. Instead of trying to recapture the magical world of the original, producers decided to shake things up and instead of rebooting the franchise, go back to the beginning and try to explain just what happened to create that world with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

A genetic scientist working on a virus that could attack cells that cause Alzheimer’s has been testing his latest concoction on chimps. After one of his test subjects goes berserk before his research can be pushed to human trials, Will (James Franco) takes home the chimp’s child and discovers Caesar (motion capture performance by Andy Serkis) has developed high cognitive functions, proving the serum may be working. He tests it on his father Charles (John Lithgow) and discovers that the formula works, but before he can put it effectively into trial, Caesar attacks a neighbor for manhandling Charles and ends up trapped in a primate sanctuary where he helps his cohorts rebel against the tyrannical caretaker who watches over them.

There’s a lot more to this film than can be described in a single paragraph, which is one of the reasons the film works so well. Some of the data is force-fed, but those moments are few and are punctuated by stunning segments of quiet observation and simple evocation. Franco is more subdued than he often is, which helps sell his compassionate scientist character. Freida Pinto has too little to do as a veterinarian who imprints on young Caesar. Brian Cox and Tom Felton do predictable work in antagonistic roles.

The real star of the show is Serkis. After embodying the dual personalities of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings franchise, Serkis cemented a legacy as a motion capture actor where his physical transformations helped drive narratives forward. In his role as Caesar, he establishes a now-classic figure that stands as achingly beautiful as anything in the series, shifting from compassionate to determined as each pivotal moment demanded.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a tremendous origin story that plausibly establishes the environment that would one day become the future of the world. It seems like an organic, conscientious expansion of Boulle’s world, taking the audience to somewhere it never realized it wanted to go. While you can never replace that final scene of discovery in the original film, building up that mythos with a film like this is almost as fantastic.