Rise of the Planet of the Apes

*****
Four Stars Out of Five

"You'll go positively ape for this movie!"

"There sure are a lot of monkeyshines in this flick!"

"The apes use a special type of gorilla warfare against the humans..."

"Don't monkey around, and go see this movie."

And so on and so forth, et cetera, et cetera.

Now, for the review. Kind of.

It doesn't seem like a decade has passed since Tim Burton's craptastic remake/"reinvisioning" of the 1968 sci-fi classic, Planet of the Apes. I remember taking my older brother to the movie for his birthday, because it happened to be released that day. I also bought him a hideous red Planet of the Apes shirt with black velour lettering on it at the video store I worked at. A few pictures of him in this shirt, and sporting blond tips in his hair, still exist. I remember loving the living shit out of that movie when I saw it, thinking that it was the most mind-blowing thing I'd ever seen. Then, I watched it again, thinking this time I could keep my mind from being blown because I could follow the story and see how the twist ending happened. I couldn't figure it out. It's not because I'm stupid - I may be, but that's not the point here - but because the movie didn't make a lick of fucking sense. In my weird, 16 year-old mind, I confused bad storytelling with mind-blowing storytelling, and seeing the movie again helped me to distinguish the two.

There's not much worth remembering from Tim Burton's interpretation of Planet of the Apes; in fact, it is a great example of shitty, overblown blockbusters from the earliest part of the new millennium: take an artsy-fartsy director, give him a good-looking guy for a leading man, regardless of whether or not he can carry a film on his own (Mark Wahlberg), use a shitload of money on special effects, take a stupid screenplay, and turn it into a movie. The shittiness of the movie held Wahlberg back for a few years, and only now is he starting to act in movies that are made for him, instead of shoehorning himself into a starring role even if it doesn't work (think Colin Farrel, and you've got the right idea). Regardless, the movie was, and still is, a pile of shit, and even though it made a bunch of money, it never kickstarted the franchise the way 20th Century Fox wanted it to (maybe that's because the ending didn't make ANY. FUCKING. SENSE.).

So, ten years have passed, and Fox decided to give the ailing franchise this decade's remake - a reboot! Look around summer tentpole blockbusters for the last couple, and next few, years and you'll see a slew of reboots on display: The Amazing Spider-Man, Batman Begins, The Incredible Hulk (only a few years in between Hulk flicks, setting a record for reboots), The Man of Steel, X-Men: First Class, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I don't inherently hate the idea of reboots, as I think it gives filmmakers a fresh start due to head-scratching continuity issues, aging actors, and story constraints. I understand a lot of people see this is simply just a cash-grab by the studios, but really, what isn't? Movie companies make movies to make money. Don't be silly, people! And I was more than willing to let a new Planet of the Apes movie restart the franchise, as the continuity is so far up it's own ass that it could easily be called "Planet of the Asses" or something similarly sophomoric in humor. I loved the original, but I hated Burton's take, so I was hopeful for this new flick, but also approached it with trepidation, because it could just have easily been another shitstorm of apes and humans fighting one another.

First, the bad news: the title is really long. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (or, what I shall call ROTPATA for the duration of this review, and even that is longer than a lot of titles) is a horrible title. And misleading. The film isn't necessarily about the world being overrun by highly evolved apes, but rather, it's about one ape in particular named Caesar (motion-captured by the amazingly talented Andy Serkis) and his relationship with humans. While the title does a good job of keeping the franchise attached to it, and letting the audience know that this is a "year one" version of apes becoming the dominant species of the world, I wouldn't be surprised if people watched this movie and thought that the title was used to shamelessly earn more money from name recognition.

The good news: the movie is really good. ROTPOTA ignores everything that has come before it in the long-running series, and also many of the typical story beats that a summer action blockbuster is supposed to hit. Whiz-bang action is substituted for heartfelt drama, character growth, and doomed relationships. It's quite a shock, actually, to have a bunch of emotion in a flick that most people just assume will be filled with angry apes and bloodied humans. Even more shocking is that the character that we come to care a lot about is an ape, and just how much we feel for him as the story unfolds.

The film opens with a science lab testing Alzheimer's cures on apes. Before Dr. Will Rodman (James Franco, teetering between "paycheck-mode" and "I-actually-want-to-be-here" forms of acting) can get the cure fully funded and approved by his overseers, one ape goes, well, ape-shit (see what I did there? YES!). The board of directors get a front row seat of watching an ape run amok and being shot to death and they make their decision to cease research on the wonder-drug. It turns out that the angry ape, Bright Eyes, had just given birth, and went nutso to protect her young. It doesn't matter much, because clearly people who are boards of directors don't know diddly-squat about apes (they are wont to violent outbursts, in spite of their cuteness), and Will is forced to sneak the baby chimp home with him.

Before I go any further, I would like to note that the plot certainly borrows quite liberally from Deep Blue Sea, in which a group of scientists are testing an Alzheimer's cure on sharks, only to have the sharks gain intelligence and go all sharky on everybody. It's surprising that everything lines up so similarly between the movies, as both lead scientists have fathers struggling with the disease, and dangerous animals are being tested on. At least ROTPOTA includes animals that share quite a bit in common with humans, and Deep Blue Sea ROTPOTA proves that smart filmmaking with a focus on emotion and drama can make a good film when compared to a similar plot in a film that uses about as much restraint as a seven year-old at Chuck E. Cheese. uses sharks because, well... sharks are fun to watch eat shit. If anything,

Shortly after bringing the baby ape home, Will's father names him Caesar. It becomes clear quite quickly that Caesar inherited the biological changes from his mother, and Will notices how intelligent he is. Caesar is raised as a son to Will and is taught a significant amount of sign language. Caesar, like any rambunctious child, grows ever curious to the world around him, getting him into a fair bit of trouble, and also leading him to question his place in the world. He knows he's not human, but he's been raised as one, and is certainly smarter than many humans. This alienation serves as the major thrust of the film, and it is brilliantly done thanks to the special effects team and Andy Serkis, the motion-capture actor who portrays Caesar. Not one ape in the entire film is "real." They're all motion-capture actors, and it actually changes the way I perceive special effects. We've been led to believe that special effects need to perfectly mirror reality if they are to be seen as successful. The apes here, though, look really good, but not perfect. But the special effects allow something that could never be possible with actual apes - it allows them to have real emotions and facial expressions. The special effects in any movie tend to be there to just be there, but they serve an important storytelling purpose here, and it is absolutely a tremendous achievement in filmmaking.

After it becomes clear that Will's father (John Lithgow) is falling to Alzheimer's, Caesar becomes protective of his surrogate grandfather. One afternoon, in a haze, Will's father attempts to drive his neighbor's Mustang, and the results are predictably bad. The man, a grade-A asshole, begins to berate the confused old man, and assaulting him. Caesar witnesses this from his bedroom window, and jumps into action, attacking the man and biting off his finger. The outside world sees this, and Will is forced to put Caesar into an ape sanctuary.

This is where the story gets heartbreaking. Caesar doesn't understand why he's being taken away from his family, and worse, the place he is forced to live is run by inhumane assholes who terrorize the apes. Caesar is alone, as he is viewed as an outsider by both humans and the apes he lives with. The majority of the second act of the film plays out like a silent film, in which we follow Caesar, and we see how he adjusts to realizing that he is an ape that is viewed as inferior to humans. Eventually, Caesar's intellect reveals him to be the alpha of the apes, and he uses his intelligence to escape and expose the other apes to the drug that will transform them into being super-intelligent apes.

I've already raved about the special effects and Andy Serkis' awesome performance, but enough great things cannot be said about them. Serkis has been the king of mo-cap for years, thanks to his performances as Gollum in Lord of the Rings, and as Kong in King Kong, but he elevates his game here to an art form. Serkis will absolutely be ignored by the awards committees when the time comes, but he shouldn't be. He does something that not many actors do anymore - he transforms himself completely into his character, and he conveys his emotions through facial expressions and body language alone. And then there's the fact that he actually, you know, moves around like a chimp for two hours perfectly! Serkis is the star of the show, and that's saying something, as you never actually see his face.

Of course, the movie isn't perfect. There are a few missteps here and there, like the typically dickish, money-grubbing boss that Will Rodman must contend with, and the ape sanctuary employees are assholes because the story needs them to be. There are a slew of easter eggs and nods to the other films in the franchise, especially one line in particular that just doesn't fit (thankfully it is quickly eclipsed by the crazy dramatic scene just seconds later, but still). But overall, this is one of the best films of the year thus far. I was incredibly surprised by how much I enjoyed this film, and also just how much I cared for Caesar and his issues. I was thrilled to see the film have a successful opening weekend (about $20 million more grossed than they anticipated) because it helps ensure a sequel, and also serves notice to filmmakers that Hollywood blockbusters can be entertaining, yet also emotional and thought-provoking. Check it out!

Also, check out this gif of a kung-fu chimp!