A Surprisingly Well Crafted Drama

Rating: 9/10 (23 August 2011)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes follows that timeless, age-old story we've all seen a thousand times before of a boy with a distant father getting his first pet, bonding with his pet, bonding with his father, and then trying to stop his pet from taking over the world.
Okay, so that part about the age-oldness and the pet and the dad and stuff is only partly true, and all in jest. The fact of the matter is that Rise of the Planet of the Apes is, despite being the quadrillionth instalment in a tired franchise, almost entirely original. True, I haven't seen any of the old ones (which I imagine both enables and impares my ability to enjoy this film), but I can say that this movie carves interesting territory by effectively portraying the evolution of a character without using any speech to tell the audience what he is thinking.
The movie originally follows Will, a scientist of some kind trying to cure Alzheimers because his father is suffering from the disease. Through a series of hijinks, he ends up the proud owner of a hyperintelligent ape whose mother's exposure to the drug during chimp testing endowed him with a brain capable of as much more then his fellow apes than a completely mentally stable person's brain is compared to someone deep in the depths of Alzheimer's. More hijinks occur, and Caesar (the ape) ends up stuck in a primate shelter run by sadistic animal haters. He develops a distaste for being treated as inferior when he knows he's more than a dumb animal, so he decides to build an army and take over the world.
Telling more than that would be spoilers, though I'd love to discuss some of the juicier plot points that get introduced later in the film. The movie's plot is complex and solid. The action scenes are refreshingly necissary, and each one adds to the plot. The acting is all good, though I found myself wondering if James Franco wasn't actually trying to play the distant chemist who can't connect and was just suffering from beign a distant actor who can't connect in real life. I imagine people will take both sides of the debate, but I'll stay neutral. Caesar is a fascinating character, and his bitter evolution is fascinatingly told even if it's sometimes hard to watch because you feel so sorry for him. One thing of very particular note is that although the main human character is given an eye candy girlfriend, she doesn't wreck the movie like so many eye candy girlfriends tend to because she actually contributes to the conversations and interacts with the other characters well.
On the flipside, the movie isn't quite perfect. The first half is a little too fast paced, and there definitely needed to be more scenes of Casar in Will's house acting as part of the family, and the last third doesn't have quite enough to tell me how the apes are gonna function in the real world, but in both the first and third acts' defenses, the second act where Caesar raises his army is the one the filmmakers poured their souls into, so it's what matters most. Also, the CGI is very remarkable, but is not quite real enough for my tastes, and is a bit distracting at times. The lead Primate Shelter keeper guy never receives enough explanation, and I felt continuously confused as to why someone who hates apes that much wouldn't just get a job somewhere else.
That's about all there is to say. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a lovingly crafted film made by someone obviously quite in love with the franchise who was bent on showing the world just how cool the rather ridiculous concept really is. The last time I saw a movie set up a sequel that well was when Harry stood in front of the Goblin's lair at the end of Spider-Man 2, and I cannot wait to see how this film series (which the screenwriters say is intended to be a trilogy) progresses, though the end of this movie told me enough to left me satisfied that the people behind the film actually do have a good explanation for the apes' ultimate conquest awaiting us in future installments.
Side Note: Speaking of Spider-Man, this movie reminded me of the Spider-Man films several times. James Franco is the obvious catalyst, but it continues when the people have extended conversations about human trials of a wonder drug designed to enhance performance and is solidified when you see the apes leaping very much like the Web Slinger around trees and such.