The Chimpshank Redemption

Rating: 7/10 (26 September 2011)

Gen-Sys is a pharmaceutical company whose star employee, Dr. Will Rodman (James Franco), is developing a cure to Alzheimer's using chimpanzees as the test subjects. When a chimp named Bight Eyes goes on a rampage (and is shot), Rodman's supervisor (David Oyelowo) orders that all the chimps are to be euthanized. Guilted by a coworker, Rodman takes Bright Eyes' baby (Andy Serkis) home, raising him with the help of his Alzheimer's-ridden father (John Lithgow). The chimp, named Caesar, proves to be remarkably intelligent (due to the experimental serum given to his mother during his gestation). After Caesar attacks one of Rodman's neighbors, however, he is detained in an abusive animal sanctuary, where he determines to fight back against his oppressive human jailers.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" does more than give us another exquisitely rendered Andy Serkis performance dressed up in flawless CG (although that is a major plus for the film). Not since "Outbreak" (1995) has there been a better apocalyptic virus film that didn't involve zombies or vampires (ie, "28 Days Later" and "I Am Legend"). The virus' spread is understated (shown briefly during the film before becoming the focus during the en credits). This footnote conveys the narrative necessity to connect "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" with its inevitable slew of sequels while not cramming it needlessly into the body of the film.
Had the movie been shot in an ever-so-slightly different way, it would have made an excellent (and likely superior) sci-fi horror movie. It wouldn't have taken all that much extra, either: had they shot some daytime scenes as night scenes (particularly the simian uprising) with heavy low-key lightning, had there been more careful attention to the film's mise-en-scene (such as when Caesar silently watches his former human "parents" in their sleep), had there been a more carefully built sense of suspense and had they shown more and gorier human deaths (skewered by the simians' "spears," bludgeoned with make-shift clubs, decapitated with manhole covers, pummeled by ape fists).
That said, the action in the film itself (other than pulling away before nearly every human's death) was excellent. The scene on the Golden Gate Bridge was riveting and well-choreographed, especially as Caesar emerged from the smog on horseback (perhaps the film's most memorable moment). The climactic Ape uprising scene sprawls a great number of San Francisco tourist attractions that anybody even passably knowledgeable about the area would know, notably The Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks, The San Francisco Zoo and Muir Woods. These extraordinary details gives the film a great deal more character than the typical action movie.
One extremely enjoyable aspect of the film is the reverence that it plays to previous films in the series. The first hyper-intelligent chimp is named Bright Eyes, a clear homage to Charlton Heston's the ape-given name in the first film. The famous line "get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty apes" likewise made a cameo appearance in the mouth of Tom Felton. News clips throughout the movie describe a manned flight to Mars aboard The Icarus (the same name as Charlton Heston's ship in the original film) that later disappears (a newspaper shows the headline "Lost in Space").
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is an excellent action and science fiction film that fans of either genre (or of the original series) should enjoy with gusto. One can only hope that the film's sequels will be equally well-crafted.