Not a science fiction but a science-ignoring nonsense

Rating: 4/10 (22 August 2011)

The plot of Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an amazing scientific nonsense. It is almost shameful to write a comment about it. It is equally shameful that I paid any money to go see this nonsensical movie.
These are some of the plot holes of this movie:
1)As many commentators have pointed out, how can a drug to cure Alzheimer's Disease make a chimp (i.e. Caesar) superintelligent? The cure for Alzheimer has nothing to do with the difference in intelligence between humans and apes. 2) In this movie and its sequel the human race, even with modern weapons, is defeated and subjugated by apes. However, hasn't the human race (i.e. Homo sapiens) and its ancestors, while using only primitive weapons, repeatedly defeated apes and humanoid relatives like Neanderthal over the last half a million years? Homo sapiens have defeated some humanoid relatives (e.g. Neanderthals), which were very close to Homo sapiens in intelligence. How can apes defeat modern humans who are armed with modern weapons? 3) In the movie one massive epidemic of flu wiped out almost the entire human population. However, this is close to impossible. Human gene pool is so diversified that one epidemic cannot kill almost all the human population. In a population as diverse as humans, there will be millions, if not hundreds of millions of individuals, who are super-resistant to a given epidemic. 4) Also, in the movie the experimental retrovirus is lethal to humans while the apes are immune to it. In real life, this is rather unlikely. Viruses which are lethal to humans (e.g. Ebola virus) tend to affect all ape species like humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos (and even monkeys which are distant cousins). Even if this virus was initially nonpathogenic to apes, viruses have a nasty habit of mutating. They tend to mutate and become lethal to all species related to humans (like chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas). This is what some scientists think happened to HIV virus. SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus),which affects only certain non-human primates, mutated into HIV, which affects humans. By the time the retrovirus in the movie kills off most of the humans, it can mutate and become highly pathogenic to all apes and kill off large percentage of chimpanzee,gorilla, bonobo and, possibly, orangutan population. 5) Bonobos and orangutans have a natural tendency to be very non-violent. There is almost no homicide in bonobo societies. Among the higher large primates, only chimpanzees and humans (and to some extent gorillas) are known for violence. I do not know if bonobos (like Koba in the movie) and orangutans would attack humans even if they acquire human-like intelligence. 6)Caesar apparently could communicate with other ape species like gorillas. Even after decades of study, human primatologists are still having trouble communicating with apes. How could Caesar suddenly communicate with other ape species? 7) There are five species of large primates (humans,chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans) on earth. Out of this, 99.993% are humans. There are only about 500,000 chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans combined on earth while there are about 7 billion humans. Even if 99 % of humans were wiped out by an epidemic, there will still be about 70 million humans left. That is still 140 humans to one ape. How could one ape, which is armed only with spear or club, defeat 140 humans, who may be armed with assault rifles,tanks, fighter jets and even nuclear weapons? 8)If apes occupy large parts of earth and challenge the supremacy of humans, wouldn't humans go berserk and drop massive number of nuclear weapons on the apes? In the movie, the humans seem to give up and roll over after apes successfully occupy Muir Woods. In real life, wouldn't the armed forces drop massive amount of napalm bombs and other weapons on Muir Woods and try to wipe out the apes? 9) The biotech company Gen-sys and its employees seem to totally ignore every safety precautions. First, it seems to have no security systems to prevent apes from escaping. Second, its employee, Dr. Rodman, administered a dangerous virus to an ape and causes his assistant to be infected. In real life, the retrovirus is first tested for pathogenicity against humans before any kind of experimentation. Also, if the initial test determines the virus to be pathogenic to humans, the virus is administered in a special quarantine room and by technicians who are wearing something like a spacesuit to prevent any human being from being infected. In the movie, the virus was not tested for human pathogenicity. The virus was administered in a regular surgical room. Also, the assistant participated in the experiment even though he lost his protective mask. These are contrary to all biotechnological safety precautions. 10) In the movie all the humans, who are shooting at the apes, are incredible bad shots. Nobody seems to be able to hit the apes. I wish all the poachers in Africa who are killing off hundreds, if not thousands, of apes are bad shots like that. Then there will be no ape poaching problems in Africa! 11) In the sequel of this movie, Planet of the Apes, apes were superb soldiers as compared to humans. In reality, apes make very lousy soldiers. As Napoleon said, physical endurance is the greatest asset for a soldier. Compared to humans, apes have very low physical endurance. Unlike humans, they cannot march for miles and miles. After walking only for several miles, the bodies of these apes have a tendency of overheating and get easily exhausted. Unlike some humans who can march more than thirty, or even forty miles a day, apes can only march several miles a day. With their limited mobility, apes make lousy soldiers in offensive warfares. (They may possibly make decent defensive soldiers.)
A movie doesn't have to be totally logical or realistic to be enjoyable. However, with so many plot holes, I consider this movie to be no better than children's cartoon.