Some Good, some not So Good

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2011)

First off, this is not as good as the original Planet of the Apes especially it's impact at the time of it's release. What is good is that it brings attention back to the fantastic original series. It's a good movie for those that know nothing of the original series and also can be appreciated by fans of the original. The comparison of this movie to the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes cannot be missed, but since that movie was in a way a prequel, this movie makes sense in chronological order. There are numerous red flags that come up ... which for teenagers won't be noticed, but for anyone out in the working world will strain the movie industry's lexicon 'suspension of disbelief.' That the key researcher is producing a drug that will itself directly help a close family member has a conflict of interest as well as security protocol issues. But more so is that it's completely unknown that one of the key apes in the beginning has given birth to the rest of everyone else at the company. When you're working on a project for years, every little bit of possible interest is brought up at long extended meetings, and it's hard to believe that it wouldn't be known that the chimp was already pregnant x months ago, before the chimp even knew. This only comes up because of this major eff up it sets up the settings in the movie with Caesar growing up where he does and so on. Other things that are irritating is that it's basically the action of one royal ahole that works at a chimp facility that sets up anger within Caesar. So remember that if someone mistreats a dog somewhere, it validates that dog ripping into your neighborhood policeman, or a circus manager mistreats an elephant it validates goring your next door pregnant neighbor. And I don't know if the director's have a thing against Charlton Heston, but the 'nods' to the well-known lines from the original are iterated by the ahole. Along these lines when the apes are howling in their cages in one scene you are already thinking "it's a madhouse, a madhouse," that it's disappointingly superfluous to even have that character mention it.
The good is that the director's really went out of their way to avoid tying the Rise to any particular racial issues. In the 60's during the race riots, this was a major subtheme, or theme, of the originals, but not quite relevant in this point in time. It supposed to imply a group being persecuted, although this again can be questioned since it's supposed to be intelligent beings that recognize captivity and they're intelligent due to humanity's eff up, or a companies major security flaws and oversight, or to a single individual, with a sociopath thrown in later. Another good, maybe, is that they avoided direct deaths shown by either side. There are only a few definitely known violent deaths. Ironically, the most deaths of apes within the movie context are caused by the character that is most sympathetic to the apes. In this way it's really intriguing how society causes this and in this point says more about how society just screws us up and our society pushes and stresses us during our jobs that any one of us can find cause to Rise up against our subjugaters whether our bars are literal or not.
Also, at some point there may be up to 100 or hundreds of apes, but how can they possibly compete against a world of 6.5+ billion humans. So towards the end you think, OK maybe it's like the South during the American Civil War that didn't have a chance to defeat the North, but was hoping to last until recognition by the major powers in Europe. But, and this is not meant as a spoiler, merely for you to fully appreciate, don't leave the theater yet when the final credits appear... there's a short scene that culminates all of the movie's events to put things into context, and in a way this is a good nod towards the original since it's full meaning wasn't revealed until the end. This ending really can make this a stand alone movie, with or without a sequel forthcoming. The thing that most indicates a sequel are very brief references to a Mars mission. For those that know the original series, they'll know what I mean.
Enjoy, don't set your sights too high, when at some point you'll eventually see this movie.