Time to shock the monkey!

Rating: 10/10 (12 January 2012)

Planet of the Apes is a classic film that a lot of people at least know about if they haven't seen it, you know the lines and certain scenes. It was a terrific sci-fi movie that made a break through for twist endings. Tim Burton remade the movie with Mark Wahlberg and it was just horrible, you would think that it was the closing chapter in the Planet of the Apes series. But then Rise of the Planet of the Apes came along and when I saw the trailer, I was just like "here we go again". Thinking that it was going to be a horrible movie and that they just wouldn't let the series rest in peace. But instead I have to say that I was one hundred percent wrong, I watched this movie last night and was just totally blown away. It's a prequel not trying to up the original by any means and the special effects are actually done very well. Not only that but the actors are all great who bring a lot of character to the film and gave us a reason to almost vote for the apes to take over the planet.
Will Rodman is a scientist at Gen-Sys who has been trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer's disease and is testing a new gene therapy drug on chimpanzees. The drug, a modified virus, mutates the chimpanzees, giving them a human level of intelligence. A female chimp who believes her baby is being threatened goes on a rampage and is shot by security guards. An employee Franklin cannot bring himself to kill the baby chimp and instead gives him to Will, who takes him home to raise. Will's father Charles, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, names the baby chimp "Caesar". Caesar has inherited his mother's high intelligence and develops quickly. One day the nasty neighbor starts picking on Charles and Ceasar gets protective and attacks the neighbor sending him to a home for chimps where he's constantly abused and sees the coldness of the world. He gets the medicine after sneaking out one night and stealing it, he gives it to the other apes and decide to take over the planet.
James Franco and John Lithgow were just terrific in the movie, there's this scene between them where John is lying in the bed dying and James wants to try again to save him, but John grabs his hand as they lie next to each other and he passes away in his sleep. I love moments where there is just silence, the expressions were enough to make you seriously shed a tear if you've lost a loved one. The star of the film though is Andy Serkis, who played King Kong and Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies, he plays Cesar and is just fantastic. I wish he would get more notice when it came to the academy because he brings a lot of life and personality into these creatures that could be just pure CGI with no emotion, but he plays Cesar so wonderfully that you want to join the apes as well and stand behind him. There are a lot of great scenes between him and James Franco, especially when Cesar looks for permission from James like a father to go play. It's so sad to see that he's so intelligent and wonderful but there are still people in the world who are cruel and treat him that way, to see his reaction as he slowly turns against the human race is just heart breaking. I really loved this movie, I will be buying it soon to add to my Planet of the Apes collection and I'm looking forward to the next sequel if this is what they are offering.
10/10