Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I'll confess that I walked into this movie saying to myself, "Well Mike, this is 2 hours of your life that you won't be getting back," which is something a Film Critic should never do. But since I am an unqualified one, it's ok. I was shocked by how innacurrate my prejudice was. This is easily the best film in the Apes series since the original 1968 classic starring Charlton Heston.

James Franco plays a brilliant young scientist named Will Rodman, who is working on a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's (with extra motivation due to the fact that his father, played by John Lithgow, has the illness). Rodman has made a breakthrough with the drug and has been testing it on Chimpanzees with marked success. The drug repairs and makes new neural connections in the brains of patients.

One of the chimps that has been treated with the drug is set to be put on exhibition for a group of clients in order to clear it for further testing. It is uncooperative, attacks a guard, runs amok in the testing center and has to be shot. The source of the panic was the protection of the chimp's young, which was unknown to the staff. After this setback, all the test chimps are ordered to be euthanized and research suspended. Out of guilt, Rodman secretly rescues the dead chimps son, names him Caesar and raises him as his own.

Caesar's brain is far more advanced due to the fact that he was developing in his mother while she was being given her course of drug treatments. Soon Caesar is doing puzzles, learning sign language, and understanding some English. Despite all this, he is alone and yearns to be with human children. This cannot be, and he doesn't understand why. There is real poignancy in these scenes, and the construction of the screenplay makes an emotional connection to the audience.

The film views the home life and experiences of Caesar through a lens that evokes sympathy and a feeling of humanity, despite the fact that there is a great deal of CGI involved. CGI can be spectacular if it is done well, but that is rare. In this film it is done expertly. Much of this credit needs to go to Andy Serkis. He is able to embody non human computer generated characters with his movements and subtleties in ways that make an audience really care about what happens to them. Gollum in LOTR, King Kong in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, and now Caesar - he is the key to the entire film.

A series of unfortunate events lands Caesar in a primate rescue facility that turns out to be more of a prison. While there, he interacts with other primates and gains their trust as a leader in the face of the sadistic staff. My main issue with the film is the character of the lead prison guard. He overacts in such a way that makes him unrealistic. A more quiet and cold evil would have been more effective - but I did enjoy the fact that in a movie filled with genetically altered CGI chimps, the only character I didn't buy was human.

I'll leave the events that lead to this to come as a surprise, but there is a thrilling climax that takes place on the Golden Gate Bridge between chimps and humans. The reason this works is not only the well executed CGI, but more importantly the care and effort the filmakers took in making us empathize with these animals. I wish Hollywood would realize that sequences high in drama or action work much better if the audience is invested in the characters. We care what happens to Caesar and his chimp friends, and we should - we share 99% of our genes with
them.

3 out of 4 stars