excellent use of CGI and good storyline

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2011)

This is supposed to be a prequel to the much acclaimed Planet Of The Apes from 1968. But in that particular flick an astronaut crew crash lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species, and humans are the oppressed and enslaved. In Rise we are on planet earth, to be precise in San Francisco. A laboratory is experimenting with a new medicine to cure Alzheimer but they need to experiment on chimpanzees. But one experiment goes to far and a genetically-enhanced chimp breaks free and leaves a baby chimp behind. The mother is killed and one of the doctors (James Franco) Will Rodman takes the baby home and it grows up in the family. But the baby chimp has some qualities inherited from his mother. Once the chimp (Ceasar) knows it and uses it intelligence.
Due a simple incident between (John Lithgow) Charles Rodman and his neighbor Ceasar breaks free and defend Charles, but he is captured and send to a place full of chimps, the rise is a fact.
This summer blockbuster was forgotten very fast in my country due Transformers 3. But was it that bad that it should disappear that fast. No, to be honest, I even enjoyed it. The apes due look like real apes and that makes it more enjoyable. There is naturally a lot of CGI but it all looks so real that you forget that you are watching a CGI flick. It takes a while before things go wrong. There are things going on but to see how the rise happens you really have to wait an hour. The action lays in the last part of this flick. It reminded me a bit of the story of I Robot were one Robot (Sonny) violates the rules and is learning things by himself. Caesar does the same. I liked it more than the remake done by Tim Burton. I know that a lot of people disliked Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes but give it a try and forget the saga for one moment. Rupert Wyatt did a good job.
Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 5/5 Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5