Be afraid, be very afraid

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2011)

20th Century Fox have made two excellent blockbusters in the same year: Tom Rothman take note, stay away from the production process because people like strong stories and characters in their films. What is even more surprising is that no one excepted Rise of the Planet of the Apes to be good, it was directed by a fairly unknown director who only made one film and a few episodes of Hollyoaks (a poor British teen soap), the first trailer advertised the special effects company (never a good sign) and it is a prequel to a great film, but of a series people have not shown much interest in. Even the website I work for, Playeraffinity.com (there's my plug), had doubts it would be good. The last Planet of the Apes film was the Tim Burton remake, which was met with a lukewarm reaction. But Rupert Wyatt was able to put it out the bag.
Will Rodman (James Franco) is a promising scientist for Gen-Syns, a major pharmaceutical company based in San Francisco and believes he has found the cure for Alzheimer's, the disease his father, Charles (John Lithgow). But after his demonstration to the board goes horribly wrong Will's research is forced back to square one and only one ape survives, Caesar (Andy Serkis) and he ends up caring for the chimp. He discovers that Caesar inherited the brain power of his mother and Will studies him, believing he could be the cure for all brain diseases whilst caring for him. But after a violence attack on a man Caesar is forced to live in a primate sanctuary, with a cruel guard, Dodge (Tom Felton). Caesar sees the many sides of human cruelty and he knows he can lead a revolution and lead his kind.
Wyatt shows he is already turning into a really good director: The Escapist was a strong star and Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a great blockbuster. In a short 105 minute package Wyatt was able to make a film with lots of drama, action, sci-fi which had a number of story lines: but he never overloaded the film with characters. This is what a blockbuster should be, fun with a great story. This was a film that was Caesar's story as becomes aware and grows from a young chimp to a super intelligence leader. Wyatt was able to mix tender moments with fast paced action: there are great action set pieces and brilliant special effects. Many of the apes have their own unique look and Wyatt knew how to move the camera. He kept the tone serious, dramatic, yet fun. I feared the film would follow a formula, man tests on apes, someone saying we shouldn't be doing this testing, oh crikey everything is going to hell: but the film avoided this, for the most part.
Andy Serkis was truly great as Caesar and he was so expressive. There is already a campaign to get him an Oscar nomination but I doubt he would get it, but he does deserve an award at some point in his career. He got his role down perfectly, moving and sounding like an ape and showing you could be a great performance just through movement and facial expressions. There are a lot of moments with the film being without dialogue and it a great strength of Wyatt of making these scenes very compelling, understanding film is a visual median. I personally was hesitant of Franco being cast as a leading scientist because he looks too young and too much of a pretty boy for the role, but he was strong throughout his performance and worked well with Serkis. Lithgow too was strong as the father who was suffering from Alzheimer's and really good for an actor who I know mostly for comic performances. Felton was effectively slimy and like he is in the Harry Potter series a really vile villain. Freida Pinto sadly has a more thankless role as the love interest but sadly actors from South Asia struggle to find good roles in Hollywood, which is a real shame because Pinto is very talented and beautiful actress.
Whilst this film has a lot of strength I do have some minor criticisms. The first is that David Oyelowo plays a cliqued movie executive who only thinks about money, does not listen to reason or logic from people who know better and acts constantly as an antagonist for when the situation requires it, even if he changes character. The other little problem I have is that I would have thought a cure for brain disease would be stem cell based, not a retrovirus, but I'm not a scientist so what do I know? I also like to praise Patrick Doyle's score, particularly the use of African drums and Andrew Lesnie's (Peter Jackson's cinematographer) camera work. Plus there are a plenty of homages to the original film and despite the fact Charlton Heston is dead he is still able to offer a cameo: but it is a blink and you miss it moment.
Also this is real nitpicking, but is Earth already the planet of the apes because humans are apes.