Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Caesar Rules

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2011)

43 Years back, a distant war horn scared the living daylights out of us. It was 1968, when moviegoers across the globe were amazed by the post apocalyptic concept put forth by the sci-fi original 'Planet of the Apes'. Now in 2011, the franchise is getting a reboot as 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes', directed by Rupert Wyatt starring James Franco and Frieda Pinto.
The movie tells us the story of Caesar, an ape with a superior intellect and the revolution he initiates. This movie is an origin story unlike the Original version. It creates a platform, from scratch, for a number of sequels to come.
Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist, who is working on a cure for Alzheimer's Disease by performing tests on apes. The first test subject is a chimpanzee, named Caesar whose mother had been captured in Africa. Rodman's "cure" not only repairs brain cells as they expected to, but it genetically modifies Caesar's way of thinking to create a new breed of ape with human-like intelligence.
The movie explains the whole transition in a linear way without any confusing, thought-provoking grandfather paradox. The movie, at times, starts to feel like just another B-movie, but there are moments that make it worth a watch. There are several nods to the original movie in 'Rise of Planet of the Apes'. For Instance, the launch of the space shuttle 'Icarus' is shown on TV at the facility (which was actually the mother ship shown in 'Planet of the Apes'). The over-hyped one liner "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape" is in this one as well. And its right before Caesar does. (Oops, Sorry No Spoilers!). A well-thought parallel starter to total human annihilation is also mentioned in the movie.
Rupert Wyatt's direction is excellent. CGI by Weta is Top notch. Andy Serkis once again wears an Ape Motion Track Suit to play Caesar. Weta uses their state of the art technology to give the primates emotions and physical details as like we have never experienced before. Sound Design is brilliant and so is the Cinematography.
by Mahesh Ravi Editor www.movierecycle.com