Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) ***

Rating: 7/10 (6 August 2011)

I've been a die-hard fan of the old PLANET OF THE APES franchise since the early '70s, and have been starved for a very long time by wanting this series to start up fresh again and return "Apemania" to the fold. I had my fingers crossed ten years ago when Tim Burton undertook the 2001 reboot, but it turned out to be an abomination and an insult. I'm pleased to say that RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is much better than Burton's idiotic mess. Some viewers already seem to place RISE as some kind of prologue to the original 1968 Charlton Heston classic, but I prefer to think of it as a separate, unrelated storyline which hopefully will make enough money to inspire a followup and possibly a whole new saga all its own.
RISE stars James Franco as a young scientist experimenting with a cure for Alzheimer's, which his dad (John Lithgow) suffers from. He reaches a promising level of success, and when testing the cure on apes, it results in a super-intelligent pet chimpanzee named Caesar (played by Andy Serkis, with CGI enhancement). Caesar demonstrates smarts and a communicative ability, and is loved by Franco, but ultimately is taken from him and mistreated in a caged environment with his fellow simians. Caesar becomes more enraged as he is dealt one indignity after another, and it's no surprise by the film's title to say that he initiates a massive ape revolt.
This is basically an enjoyable popcorn film, though it's nowhere near as cerebral as the original five-chapter series was. Andy Serkis does an impressive turn as the lead ape Caesar, in a part only semi-replicating Roddy McDowall's performance in CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. James Franco makes a so-so lead, even if it's sometimes hard to believe he can accomplish such medical wonders. John Lithgow is properly sympathetic as Franco's suffering dad. Freida Pinto is completely forgettable in a very under-written part. Some of the lead apes in this film are played by a few actors enhanced through "CGI Capture", but otherwise are CGI creations all together. As far as CG technology goes, it's a pretty good job here -- but every now and then I was reminded that I was watching faux images.
One thing that was unnecessary to this longtime ApesFan were all the "wink-wink" references to the old apes movies; nearly everyone in the movie is named after someone associated with the original film ("Franklin," "Jacobs", "Dodge"), and when they revisit a couple of popular classic lines, it made me cringe. (They had re-used one of them even in Burton's movie. Why do they feel compelled to stoop to that?). While nothing great, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is a good enough offering with a welcome chunk of heart. It's not exactly clear what heights Caesar and his friends are hoping to accomplish at the end of the story; with any luck, box office receipts will make that more fleshed out in a sequel. *** out of ****