No Need For Monkeying Around

Rating: Null/10 (22 August 2011)

In a popular 1990's alternative rock song by the counter-cultural artist Beck, he lamented that, "In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey." Well, in an era where other cinematic pundits are trumpeting the virtues of a movie about monkeys, I must be the proverbial chimpanzee. After viewing the latest installment of the Planet of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I walked away mostly unimpressed. Despite a computer generated imagery package that will undoubtedly garner an Academy Award nomination, the film falls short on many levels. Sadly, I walked away wondering if it was made to tell a story or to make money and set up (modern) sequels.
Being a child of the 70's (as well as a patron of the 2001 Tim Burton rendition of Planet of the Apes), I have a warm memory of the original P.O.T.A. movies that made Director Rupert Wyatt's (The Escapist) 2011 prequel irresistible. Like a mop-haired lad wearing a leisure suit and hushpuppies gifted by grandmother and happily whistling the theme song to Shaft, I journeyed to the theater for the first showing of this movie with great expectations. Outstanding special effects, specifically advances in CGI, can make even Brussels sprouts not only palatable, but even enjoyable, much like adding bacon. This particular film, however, couldn't be saved by serving it with barbecue, beans, AND the cole slaw.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes tells the story of Dr. Will Rodman, played by Academy Award nominee James Franco (127 Hours, Spiderman, Freaks & Geeks), who is working on a cure for Alzheimer's Disease while also caring for his live-in father, an Alzheimer's patient played by Academy Award nominee John Lithgow (The World According to Garp, Terms of Endearment). When Dr. Rodman sneaks home a baby chimpanzee with super-intelligence named Caesar from the testing lab, the predictability really begins. Rodman falls in love with primate specialist Caroline (Freida Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire), and the happy family raises Caesar as we see shades of Curious George in Caesar's antics and desire to play with the neighborhood kids. Hit the fast forward button and Rodman misguidedly administers his experimental serum on his father, Caesar begins to feel teen angst, and animal control authorities are called when Caesar has a confrontation with the stereotypical bully neighbor.
Caesar is sent to an ape rescue center, owned and operated by John Landon, played by Scottish character actor and Emmy Award winner Brian Cox (Manhunter, Braveheart). Landon's son Dodge will be easily recognized by many movie-goers as Tom Felton, the British actor behind Harry Potter's Malfoy. Caesar becomes increasingly self-aware, and he figures out how to dose his fellow inmates with a new version of the experimental serum, which is toxic to humans but gives apes human-like intelligence. Caesar instigates a jailbreak, provides leadership and tactical training to his cohorts, and the showdown is set.
The movie could not help but expose the shallow end of leading man Franco. Always seemingly smug, and perhaps given to hubris now more so due to a startlingly undeserved Oscar nod for his role in 127 Hours, Mr. Franco all but mails it in with this role. Joined in his mediocrity by a wildly and somewhat embarrassingly uninspired Lithgow, Franco and the human characters of this movie fail to provide any evidence of acting as an art. Brian Cox comes across as bored and tired in his performance, and Harry Potter nemesis Felton oozes over-the-top maliciousness as his son. The small ray of sunshine is Ms. Pinto, who does her best, but it is not enough to make an impression in an otherwise dreary chorus of performances.
While I am not placing all the blame on director Wyatt, who has made several fine small budget and artistic films, it seems he is out of his depth with this big budget production. Credit him for some crafty nods to the original movie (a Charlton Heston clip, a Statue of Liberty toy, news of a lost space crew) and for not getting in the way of the CGI crew. He also made a noble effort with his metaphors (Caesar looking from the forest into the city, apes crossing the bridge) and his glimpses into father-son dynamics between the elder Rodman, Dr. Rodman, and Caesar. Ultimately though, Wyatt lacks the chops which could have made this a mid-summer blockbuster.
While heavily lacking in many critical areas, the movie is not completely devoid of entertainment value. The ape is truly great in this illustration of societal morass and ethical failure. Golden Globe nominee Andy Serkis, whose performance capture portrayal of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the eponymous lead in King Kong received high praise, is the highpoint of this P.O.T.A. chapter as Caesar. In an extraordinary display of computer-aided method acting, Serkis creates a laconic character who manages to captivate the audience without saying a word. Caesar's progress from cute baby to moody teenager to enlightened military leader will make you root for the animals, a testament to Serkis's skill in performance capture. We hope for Caesar to succeed even as we know he is the genesis of the demise of humanity. This was a fitting paradoxical analogy for the movie: something to like about an unlikeable film.
This cautionary tale of vivisection, genetic engineering and medical/pharmaceutical profiteering was released at an ironic time. Hitting theaters on the heels of Project Nim, a documentary about a 1970's family that attempted to raise a chimpanzee as a human, and during the same time period as the face transplant surgery of Charla Nash, who had her face mauled off by a friend's pet chimp in 2009, P.O.T.A. can easily be received as a warning on many levels. One of these caveats could be to save your money and go to the zoo instead. I give this movie an opposable thumbs-down.