"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" Review

Two Stars

I almost decided not to write a review for this movie, because it didn't seem to be going anywhere for a while. It just did't seem worth it to write about a movie that wasn't really good or bad, that seemingly was middling on, without much intrigue. It wasn't boring per se, rather it was uninteresting, if that makes sense to you. But the second half of the movie changed my mind. Did it get better? Kind of. The tempo certainly picked up, which helped, and the story began to have some serious development. But the ending didn't sit well with me, and the movie ultimately fizzled for me.

The movie begins with Will Rodman (James Franco), a scientist who's working on a cure for Alzheimer's, which has afflicted his father (John Lithgow), by testing an experimental retrovirus on chimpanzees. After the trial is shut down because one of the chimps got loose and began wreaking havoc in an effort to protect its just-born baby, Will takes in the baby chimp (christened "Caesar") and raises it himself. As Caesar (Andy Serkis, though digitally rendered) gets older, he begins to demonstrate extraordinarily enhanced mental abilities, including understanding human speech. This leads Will to believe that the retrovirus works, and persuades his boss to restart the trials with a slightly modified retrovirus.

But then things take a turn for the worse: Caesar is sent to an animal control compound for primates after attacking one of Will's neighbors, and one of the scientists working on the new retrovirus accidentally inhales it. The compound that Caesar is placed in is run by John Landon (Brian Cox), whose son Dodge (Tom Felton) takes great pleasure in mistreating all the apes that are housed there. Using his enhanced cognitive skills, Caesar soon begins hatching a plan to escape and bring back canisters of the retrovirus in order to smarten up the rest of the apes.

Now, this wasn't a bad movie, but wasn't really a good one either. It has some major plot holes, and doesn't seem sure which side it supports (humans or apes). I've already talked about the pacing issues that really hindered the first half of the movie, and I feel that this contributes to that uncertainty. In the first half, director Rupert Wyatt really tries to get the audience to sympathize for Caesar, which is totally understandable. He tries to do the same thing when we watch Malfoy viciously mistreat the rest of the apes, but by the time the climax of the film roles around (a giant battle on the Golden Gate Bridge), that sympathy is lost.

I'm not sure if the ambiguity of this showdown between humans and apes was intentional, but it didn't come off like it was intentional. Instead, there were times when you were supposed to root for apes and times when you were supposed to root for humans, based on whichever scenario fit the plot at that specific point (though it seemed like we were meant to sympathize with the apes more). At least, that's the impression it left on me, which made the ending all the more confusing. We all know what eventually happens, that the apes become major antagonists for humankind. Wyatt could have told his story better if it was clearer who the audience was supposed to root for, because it's hard for me to root for apes that will eventually enslave us.

But here's the problem with all of that: The root cause for these apes to revolt against humanity stems from how Tom Felton's character treats them. Their entire basis for asserting their dominance comes from the actions of a single person who, unfortunately for us, happens to be a gigantic asshole. There's a moment during the battle on the Golden Gate Bridge when one of the chimps has an opportunity to save a human's life. (Minor SPOILER) The chimp doesn't save him. How am I supposed to sympathize with these apes now? They're acting as immorally as the human that drove them revolt, which makes them no better than Felton's monstrous character. Why didn't they instead follow Will's example? He chose to adopt Caesar rather than putting him down, raised Caesar as best one can, and had profound respect for chimpanzees.

The movie makes a limited effort to suggest that this is all our own fault, that because we use animals as test subjects we got what was coming to us. But I don't buy that. This really isn't the place to argue over animal rights or the ethical implications surrounding live animal testing, but suggesting that an eye for an eye is what humans should pay as penance for using chimpanzees in their drug testing doesn't sit well with me. I guess, then, that this movie's biggest problem is that it tries to say too much, but actually doesn't say enough, and when it does try to say something, it doesn't say it very well.

But that doesn't detract from the other elements of the movie. Franco, Lithgow, Felton, and Serkis are all excellent, the latter in particular. Much like he's done before with Gollum, and then as the gorilla in "King Kong," Andy Serkis played the hell out a character that was ultimately rendered digitally. His performance shouldn't be overlooked because you don't see his face. I'm not certain how much of Caesar was Andy Serkis and how much of it was only CGI, but I have a good enough understanding of how characters like Caesar are rendered to know that Serkis put in a whole lot of work, and it really came off on screen. Most of the other apes are remarkably well done too, though I wonder how much of their behavior was at all accurate.

So here we are, at the conclusion of this review. From what Wikipedia tells me, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is the first in a rebooted series, so we'll have to wait and see if this does indeed hold true. Certain elements were set up as potential sequel material (the scientist who accidentally inhaled the retrovirus; brief news report of the launch of a manned mission to Mars), but this movie could just as easily be a standalone piece. It would've been nice if the movie had been set in New York instead of San Francisco, and having the movie end with an ominous shot of the Statue of Liberty, but maybe they're saving that for one of the sequels.