Rise of Planets of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of those rare franchise reboots, in that it actually works. If you're a fan of the original series, which included five films and an animated cartoon for children and people whose ingestion of hallucinogens had reached such a fever pitch that only talking apes could sate it, this film is.. well, odd. It almost requires two reviews; one for people who are familiar with the original series, and one for those who will instinctively find the very premise laughable.

The original Planet of the Apes, a stunning science fiction film featuring the late Charlton Heston, is a cinematic benchmark. As previously pointed out, the premise - talking apes - is silly on paper. When viewed properly, however, the movie became terrifyingly earnest; the apes, which hemmed Heston's character in and harried him at almost every turn, became startlingly alien, yet eerily familiar. Planet of the Apes was a parable about man being the true animal, and it featured the greatest twist ending ever. It was based on a French science fiction novel, La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle, and whilst the differences between book and film are numerous, both managed to capture imaginations.

It's effectively a story set around the moment when the Planet of the Apes is born, and everything kicks off courtesy of Will Rodman (James Franco), a scientist desperately working on a cure for Alzheimer's. His father, Charles (John Lithgow), is afflicted with it, and he's managed to secure funding from a vast, somewhat morally fluid firm to use apes to synthesize a cure. A series of tragic incidents lead to the project being halted prematurely, and to Will taking home an orphaned ape child, lest it be put down with the rest of the test subjects. This ape grows up into Caesar, named so by Will's father Charles.

The film effectively works on two levels: animal, and human, with Caesar (played by Andy Serkis, the same talent who brought Gollum to life in Lord of the Rings) as the bridge between the two. The prototype Alzheimer's cure developed by Will ended up augmenting intellect, reasoning and sentience in test subjects, which means that not only does the cure smuggled home by Will work on his father (watching Lithgow go from tragically baffled to impishly alert is marvelous), but it also turns Caesar, year by year, into a member of the family. He becomes Will's son, and watching the three boys interact at various stages is the core of the film. It's a story about fathers and sons, and, by extension, it's a film about loss and acceptance. But it's also about apes smashing stuff

Rating* 6/10