Overview
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is yet another summer reboot movie. Although I doubt the previous Apes movie, Tim Burton's 2001 Planet of the Apes was seriously intended as anything but a one-off, technically Rise of the Planet of Apes is the second reboot in the series.
The gist of the movie is that a well-meaning scientist, played thoughtfully by James Franco, is driven to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, for which his father suffers, played wonderfully by John Lithgow. So there's this drug he develops, though magic potion is more like it, which in experiments makes apes superior in intelligence to humans. Oh, there's a second drug that gets developed which makes apes super smart, but gives rise to a virus which apparently only kills humans – Don't ask why we're the targeted hominid. The main "good guy" ape is named Caesar – though he's actually kind of a dick when you think about it. Why is he named Caesar? I can't remember from this movie, but I'm sure the real reason is because Caesar was the name of the main ape in the 1972 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes , which is the clear inspiration for most of this movie.
Through a bunch of contrivances more apes become super smart, escape captivity into a giant redwood forest while a killer virus spreads and destroys most of humanity. Oh, and there this lost space mission to Mars (Gee, guess why that's in there? Um - Sequel.)
The Good
There's half a good movie. Thought there is plenty of nonsense from the start, Franco's acting is solid. His character is written pretty smartly until halfway through the script. Lithgow is the best I've seen him in a long time. No, you never quite forget he's John Lithgow, but you care for character just the same. The visual effects, especially the CGI, are MUCH BETTER than they seemed from the preview. The first half of the movie is rip with subtle moral ambiguity which really got me excited for the rest of the movie. But then –
The Bad
– The second half of the movie hits and it's as though the screen-writers, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, suddenly remember there's a bunch of things they wanted to happen, but had forgotten why. So the plot breaks down to a series of devices, and rapidly devolves into a nonsensical action movie.
No, I didn't find myself rooting for the apes. As I mentioned, Caesar is mostly a jerk with a big chip on his shoulder, I guess because the humans made him a fucking genius, but apparently he's not smart enough to figure out what most smart people do – that intelligence is truly a gift. What does Caesar do with his gift? Unleash a virus which kills all humanity. So why is this bad?
It's not -- I didn't need to root for the apes to enjoy this movie because I think the idea that the main ape is a horrible person is very compelling. What is bad is that's not the intent of the filmmakers. They really, really wanted the audience to cheer when the apes stick it to mankind. Unfortunately, I think the filmmakers succeeded for the wrong reasons.
There are huge factual problems with this film as well which I'm confident even its fans will find annoying after a third viewing. The only one I'll bring up is the physical attributes of the apes. Somehow they can jump through window glass (I kid you not, they do this A LOT) without sustaining injury but find a billy club extremely painfully.
Final Thoughts
Rise is not that great of a movie, but it's definitely fun and does provoke more thought than the rest of the crap released around the same time. But that it managed to be the financial success it did is something which continues to surprise me. It has been out long enough it should be slipping from the number 2 spot in the next week or so.
