A world where apes are smarter than the movie they're in?
Watch out for normal, mild movie review-style spoilers.
Watch out for normal, mild movie review-style spoilers.
The problem with creating intelligent apes is that they can wind up being even smarter than you... And if there's a problem with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it's that its apes are so much smarter than the movie they're in.
Check out IGN's handy Planet of the Apes infographic cheat sheet, tracing the characters and timeline of the series from 1968 to today!
Check out IGN's handy Planet of the Apes infographic cheat sheet, tracing the characters and timeline of the series from 1968 to today!
According to Fox, director Rupert Wyatt's Rise is not a remake or a reboot or a reimagining (I'm looking at you, Burton) of the classic sci-fi series from the late '60s and early '70s. So let's just call it a new version, shall we? New not just in terms of story -- the film breaks with the old cyclical timeline that kept Chuck Heston eternally trapped in a loincloth -- but also in terms of the presentation of the apes. Gone are the monkeyshine make-up effects, apes who were seen as such mostly because we were told that's what they were, replaced by amazing motion-capture/CGI work by Weta Digital that represents an evolutionary leap forward for digital characters not unlike the seismic shift between the average, poop-tossing chimpanzee and Rise's main monkey, the hyper-intelligent Caesar.
Andy Serkis, who has been at the forefront of mo-cap since portraying Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, is an automatic Oscar snub in waiting post-Rise. His Caesar is a living, breathing creature, and also the protagonist of the film -- don't let James Franco's presence fool you. Unlike Franco's Will Rodman, Caesar receives honest to Ape-God character development as he grows from an itty-bitty baby chimp and pseudo-human to a confused and tortured soul, torn away from the only family he's ever known, and then finally to an ape freedom fighter and proto-rebel leader.
Andy Serkis, who has been at the forefront of mo-cap since portraying Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, is an automatic Oscar snub in waiting post-Rise. His Caesar is a living, breathing creature, and also the protagonist of the film -- don't let James Franco's presence fool you. Unlike Franco's Will Rodman, Caesar receives honest to Ape-God character development as he grows from an itty-bitty baby chimp and pseudo-human to a confused and tortured soul, torn away from the only family he's ever known, and then finally to an ape freedom fighter and proto-rebel leader.
Franco is miscast as Will, a geneticist who is searching for a cure to Alzheimer's. (He plays it as if he's the dude who works at your local skate shop but also went to MIT.) His dad, played by John Lithgow, is suffering from the disease. So Will's been using an experimental drug on chimpanzees which is meant to repair brain cells but, as it turns out, is also giving the chimps heightened intelligence. After one ape, Bright Eyes (one of many references to the original series), goes berserk, the program is shut down by Will's Evil and Greedy Boss (David Oyelowo).
The thing is, prior to her outburst, Bright Eyes had given birth to a baby that no one knew about. Will, surely breaking every rule in his fancy-ass scientist contract, sneaks the baby home with him and winds up raising the chimp -- Caesar. The years pass, and Will attempts to rebuild his cure program, even managing to stave off his dad's illness. Meanwhile, Caesar, now able to communicate through sign language, is clearly a very special ape, but he is ultimately an ape and living among humans proves impossible. Eventually he winds up in a nasty primate sanctuary headed up by the even nastier Brian Cox and Tom Felton, and it's there that he must learn to live among -- and lead -- his fellow apes.
The thing is, prior to her outburst, Bright Eyes had given birth to a baby that no one knew about. Will, surely breaking every rule in his fancy-ass scientist contract, sneaks the baby home with him and winds up raising the chimp -- Caesar. The years pass, and Will attempts to rebuild his cure program, even managing to stave off his dad's illness. Meanwhile, Caesar, now able to communicate through sign language, is clearly a very special ape, but he is ultimately an ape and living among humans proves impossible. Eventually he winds up in a nasty primate sanctuary headed up by the even nastier Brian Cox and Tom Felton, and it's there that he must learn to live among -- and lead -- his fellow apes.
The viewer truly feels the plight of the apes, both those in the "sanctuary" and the ones who are being experimented on, which is amazing considering that none of these characters actually exist. But the film takes the low road when it comes to placing blame for the suffering of the primates. Franco, painted as the secondary protagonist, can't be portrayed in a negative light, right? Even though he's the one running the program. So instead, the filmmakers opt to go with cartoonish human characters who are bad for the sake of being bad: Brian Cox plays yet another version of Evil Brian Cox, Tom Felton is the kind of guy who tortures apes for the fun of it… there's even an obnoxious Mean Neighbor who actually roughs up the elderly, confused, Alzheimer's-stricken Lithgow at one point. Because that's what the plot needs at that time.
(Don't worry though, kids, he'll get his in the end!)
Sure, we're talking about a movie where apes have become smart enough to one day lead a rebellion against humanity. I get that. But Wyatt and his screenwriters are clearly attempting to tell the Apes story in a more realistic way, which they very much do except when dealing with the only actual real thing in the movie: the humans. When you watched the original, Doctor Zaius was evil, yes. But as the film progressed, you came to understand why he did what he did.
Of course, Rise tracks most closely with the fourth film in the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, which dealt with Caesar rebelling against evil human masters. Those guys weren't the best realized characters either, but that was also a time when we accepted prosthetic masks and Roddy McDowall playing both his father and his own son. Times have changed.
So when Freida Pinto shows up as Caesar's vet and Franco's potential love interest, we expect her to be more than just… Caesar's vet and Franco's potential love interest. But she's not. And when Franco's Will is separated from Caesar and his character stops having much of importance to do, well… at least Ricardo Montalban knew when it was time to jump out of that window.
(Don't worry though, kids, he'll get his in the end!)
Sure, we're talking about a movie where apes have become smart enough to one day lead a rebellion against humanity. I get that. But Wyatt and his screenwriters are clearly attempting to tell the Apes story in a more realistic way, which they very much do except when dealing with the only actual real thing in the movie: the humans. When you watched the original, Doctor Zaius was evil, yes. But as the film progressed, you came to understand why he did what he did.
Of course, Rise tracks most closely with the fourth film in the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, which dealt with Caesar rebelling against evil human masters. Those guys weren't the best realized characters either, but that was also a time when we accepted prosthetic masks and Roddy McDowall playing both his father and his own son. Times have changed.
So when Freida Pinto shows up as Caesar's vet and Franco's potential love interest, we expect her to be more than just… Caesar's vet and Franco's potential love interest. But she's not. And when Franco's Will is separated from Caesar and his character stops having much of importance to do, well… at least Ricardo Montalban knew when it was time to jump out of that window.
It's a shame, because Rise of the Planet of the Apes had the potential to be a truly great film. As it stands, it's good, it's solid -- it's a reboot (sorry Fox!) that mostly gets it right. It's also chockfull of inside gags for Apes fans, from character names to lines of dialogue to an actual passing reference to Heston's space voyage which started it all in 1968. In fact, sometimes these references are too abundant, as when the famous "damned, dirty ape" line is inserted into what otherwise should be one of the dramatic highpoints of the film, resulting in a muddled, half-jokey feel.
But still… Caesar and his fellow rebels. They make it all worthwhile. And if their uprising seems slightly hollow at times, remember that they can't help it if they're so much more intelligent than us humans. Don't hate them because they're smart; Caesar made them that way. ign.com
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