Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto

Directed by: Pierre Boulle

Rating: Liked It

First, I should say that I am a HUGE fan of survival/end times films.  So, I was really stoked when I saw the trailers for this "reboot" of the POTA franchise.  I've only recently finished the original series of films.  I would have to say that the first film in the franchise stands out as the best, and that is taking into consideration this reboot.

Rise is in all actuality a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes in my opinion.  We meet Caesar, an extraordinary ape.  His intelligence is far beyond that of normal apes.  He becomes violent when protecting a member of his human family and is locked up in an ape sanctuary in San Francisco.  While in this captivity, he is treated very poorly.  This is the deciding factor that pushes him to lead a rebellion of his brethren apes.

So, what was good?  Serkis, as usual, did an excellent job in his part.  Most people know him as the motion capture subject for Gollum in the LOTR trilogy.  He has done several other things, and he is a good actor when on screen himself.  Franco was pretty believable, and I was pleasantly surprised to see John Lithgow portray Will Rodman's (Franco) character.  The tension was built very well.  The CG looked really good.  There's really not a lot to complain about...for most people.

Here's my main complaint and my POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT warning.  The movie doesn't focus nearly enough on the battle of the apes and humans.  I wanted to see more of the change from one leader to another, humans to apes.  Though, the filmmakers were clever in explaining how it could happen.  You have to ask yourself: how could the apes win?  Why don't we just shoot them?  There's a very clever plot device to help push this thought process along.  I won't spoil that.

Overall, I'd probably recommend waiting for DVD on this one.  As much as I was a fan of the original movies and this new one, I think that DVD is the better bet.  However, it's not in 3D.  That's a plus in itself at this point as far as I'm concerned.