A Rich Rise

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2011)

Summer 2011 winds down with an effective prequel to a storied franchise. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an enjoyable addition to the Planet of the Apes canon, which began in 1968. This version is so placed as to be an "alternate history" because it is set in modern time, a big difference from when Charlton Heston rocketed to the place.
It's the humanity that makes the sci-fi difference, as it did in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: not just animals or creations aping, if you will, humans, but also humans showing the gamut of good and evil, sometimes in the extreme. The humanity of the apes is well-defined in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the humans not so much. However, the pride and bigotry are the same as the Greeks spied thousands of years ago.
James Franco's scientist, Will Rodman, has developed a serum to make apes smarter, and it also seems to cure Alzheimer's disease. As we watch his chimp, Caesar (Andy Serkis and special effects—remember him as Kong and Gollum?), develop intelligence, we also are beneficiaries of superb motion-capture effects at work. It would be difficult to improve the lifelike features of the chimps, whose eyes are the proverbial windows to their natures.
The film has its clichéd moments when the serum and the chimps get out of control, but the struggle with the San Francisco PD on the Golden Gate, while not a new concept, has some genuine fine photography and gymnastics, a highlight of a film disappointing in scenes involving just humans. Those graphics make it all seem possible while the broader thematic interpretation of playing god is never lost among the stunning visuals.
It's not innovative, but it is at the end of summer, a time to relax with science fiction that doesn't insult.