Oscar winning performance by a CGI Chimpanzee -- James Franco, perfect

Rating: 9/10 (6 August 2011)

I went into Rise of the Apes with high expectations, which is usually the recipe for a big letdown. Surprise! The opposite turned out to be true. This was the first movie of the year that I actually went into the movie theater to see, rather than wait for the DVD.
The movie Stars James Franco as Will Rodman, a scientist working on the cure for Alzheimers. Will has a personal stake in the results... his once brilliant father, played by the terrific John Lithgow is currently suffering from this debilitating disease.
When a lab accident goes wrong, Will acquires a baby chimp. He chooses to raise the chimp as his own, to spare it from being put down like the chimp's mother. In doing so, Will discovers the chimp inherited its mothers high IQ, a result of the Alzheimers potion Will is creating.
Ceasar is surprisingly child like, and very human like in his intelligence. The turning point comes midway through the movie, when Ceasar becomes "self-aware". "Am I a pet?" he signs. From that moment on, Ceasar wants to be treated like a human, opting to open the car door rather than ride in the back of a station wagon like the family dog.
The movie matches the tone of its predecessors in that, it truly feels like a science fiction movie, rather than popcorn fare. There's not a ton of action throughout, it chooses to focus on Ceasars development, downfall, and ultimate rise to power.
Surprisingly, we could have the first Oscar winning performance by a CGI chimp. While some might complain that James Franco took a back seat to "CGI monkeys", I assure you that Franco struck just the right note. He plays the brilliant professor with just enough nuance to make him believable in the part. Of course he is camera ready and attractive, but not so much that the audience is unable to suspend belief. James comes across as sensitive and intelligent and doesn't handle the element of surprise cheaply, as Ceasar develops. I love when actors act with their eyes as it tends to draw me into the character and the emotion of the performance. Will becomes as emotionally invested in Ceasar as he does with his father. He wants to keep his "family" together.
The original Planet of the Apes movie, some believe directly referenced the civil rights movement unfolding around the time the movie was made. It was about treating others with the humanity they deserve. Today's world doesn't suffer under the delusion that all humans don't deserve to be treated with racial inequity, so Rise of the Apes doesn't focus on that as much as it does animal rights, and treating them with the humanity and dignity they deserve.
The movie begs us to empathize with Ceasar, more so than it wants us to empathize with our human protagonist, and deservedly so. There's so much potential for emotional conflict between Will and Ceasar, but this element is played down as there are other things to hash out as the apes, quite literally, go wild.
By movie's end, we know what Ceasar becomes, but I wanted to know more about Will and his outcome. I suspect, this is what the director has in mind for the sequel.