Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

WARNING

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS THEN DON'T READ THE BITS WRITTEN IN RED.

OTHER THAN THIS BIT, OBVIOUSLY.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

And so it has come to this. Forty three years since the arrival of Planet Of The Apes, after numerous terrible sequels and a totally pointless remake, we have all arrived at the only logical final step for this franchise, a reboot. This isn't your average reboot though, not only does it succeed in rebooting a long dead franchise, but it also works as a prequel to the original 1968 film and as a loose remake to the series fourth installment COTPOTA.

For the few of you with a high enough IQ to be able to cast your minds back to four days ago, you'll remember that I quite enjoyed COTPOTA. My favourite aspects of that film being the lead characters dark evolution throughout the flick and the slightly unsettling 'we're all fucked' ending.

The story this time revolves around James Franco raising an ape by himself after his Animal testing lab has been shut down. The baby ape (named Caesar) has a much higher than expected IQ on account of him being born of a mother who had been used to test a drug that had the potential to cure Alzheimer's by regenerating dead brain cells, thusly making a healthy brain more intelligent. Caeser soon grows up to become as smart if not smarter than many of his human cohorts which eventually lands him into some trouble, getting him locked up in some kind of ape prison. I'll allow you work out the rest of the plot based on either the title or the films over revealing trailer.

The aforementioned trailer for Rise really does do a good job of giving away much of the films third act. It also misleads the audience into expecting a big, hollywood blockbuster action film when in actual fact the film is a deliberately paced drama, something which makes Rise a much better film than the trailer advertises.

As any regular movie goer will know, two major keys to a successful drama is good acting and good direction. The acting side of this film relying almost entirely on the shoulders of Andy Serkis's mo'cap performance as the films leading ape. Serkis, now becoming a veteran of motion capture acting, delivers a performance here that is emotionally engaging, tense, enjoyable, fun and menacing all at the same time. The performance, unlike Serkis's live action attempts, is remarkably subtle, relying entirely on facial expression rather than vocal work. At the time being, it's hands down my favourite performance of this year. Sadly the same can't really be said for the human actors.

The downside to the film being told from an apes perspective is that we don't get to spend much time with the human beings in the film, leading to many of them coming across as one dimensional plot requirements rather than fully fledged characters. Playing Will Rodman is James Franco who does his usual decent job, making the somewhat ridiculous story believable while supporting the performace of Serkis's Caesar. The trouble is though that by the films end we still don't know very much about Will. Same can be said about John Lithgow who does a great job of portraying Will's dementia suffering father, only to drop out of the story during the films second act. Freida Pinto, a great actress in other movies, also suffers by playing a one dimensional, typical girlfriend role who, as far as I'm aware, only exists in order to prevent the film from becoming a proverbial sausage fest'. It is worth noting however that the human characters aren't very important to Rise's story and had they been featured more heavily then, no doubt, the film would have suffered in terms of pacing, something which Rise gets spot on.

There is very little writing going on in Rise, not that this is a bad thing. What dialogue there is, doesn't come across too badly with the exception of that inevitable moment when they quote Heston in very much the same way the writers did in Tim Burtons film. As I have already said, Rise follows the story from Caesars point of view which ensures very little talking seeing as the ape doesn't possess the power of speech. What this means is that the film rely's more heavily on its actors and director rather than the power of the written work, but for what its worth, the writing is on the whole solid and serves the film well, albeit in more of a supporting role.    

At the head of the Rise project is relatively unknown director Rupert Wyatt, a man who's previous credits include a small budget brit' flick called The Escapist and a few episodes of Hollyoaks. After reading that kind of resumé you'd be forgiven for expecting the direction of Rise to be akin to that of the Titanic's maiden voyage when in fact the end result is much closer to the experience of watching a toddler fellate a horse, namely captivating and oddly pleasing in a non sexual way. The films tone, pacing, atmosphere and dramatic weight are all top notch. Rupert Wyatt's work levelling that of many other, more experienced directors. His control over the films dramatic first two acts is wonderful, as is his visual flair during the all action closing moments. His work in Rise as a whole comes across as fresh and original, something which I feel should make him a dead cert' when it comes to hiring for Rise's inevitable and in my opinion much needed sequel.

I think its pretty obvious by now that I'm going to award Rise fairly well. I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the film, only being drawn back when it came to the handling of the human characters. I can only hope that the writers have something more in store for Franco and company in When The Apes Have Just Taken Over And Plan To Lead The World Down The Wrong Path, Turning Humans Into Lesser Beings And Loosing Their Way On An Emotional Level While Trying To Live Happily On The Planet Of The Apes, or whatever they plan to call it.  

It will probably be this years best big budget Hollywood blockbuster. It also supplies 1968's Planet Of The Apes with its 'prime' mate. (Thats the last one, I promise. I just couldn't resist one last chance to monkey around!)

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes gets...

                              

4 out of 5

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

WARNING

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS THEN DON'T READ THE BITS WRITTEN IN RED.

OTHER THAN THIS BIT, OBVIOUSLY.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Jesus motherfucking Christ I am so awesome. Over the next seven days, not only will you get your usual, undeserved review but also an extra six reviews leading up to it. As a sort of celebration of the release of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes I have decided to bring you reviews of every 'Ape' movie to have come before it. Honestly I don't know why I treat you so well. So sit back, take me for granted and have a gander at the first review of the week, 1968's Planet Of The Apes.

Planet Of The Apes has become revered within the world of modern cinema. It set a high precedent for mainstream science fiction and paved the way for the likes of Star Wars, Superman and the Star Trek motion pictures. From the films settings to the films script Planet Of The Apes has become a part of todays society, often being quoted or referenced to in everything from TV shows to advertising campaigns. To say the Planet Of The Apes was an important cinematic release would be a gargantuan understatement.

Based on a french novel of the same name Planet Of The Apes tells the story of Taylor, a modern day astronaut who, along with his crew crash land on an unknown planet in the year 3978. Three members of the crew survive, only having aged 18 months due to time dilation after travelling at near light speeds for 2006 years. Together they set off to explore, discovering that super intelligent apes rule over the planet and use human beings for scientific experimentation.

As plots go it doesn't hold up to too much heavy scrutiny, but anyone with a half active retarded braincell will be able to work out that Planet Of The Apes has bigger, more important things on its mind. Themes of animal cruelty, close mindedness, organised religion and social classes are all about as subtle as Michael Bays directorial technique and are explored at great length during the film. Not to say that the film is incapable of subtlety, for those who really want to see it, Planet Of The Apes also works as a commentary on the American governments policies in Vietnam and as rather strong anti nuclear statement, two themes which were very much relevant in 1968.

As far as writing goes the movie is very strong. Like all films of the era, Planet Of The Apes is not what you would call fast paced, not that this is a bad thing. The dialogue in the film is strong, to the point and services the themes of the script well without getting the the way or becoming distracting. The action-adventure balance is as close to perfect as you could wish for and the twist ending is delivered incredibly well, something which I would have enjoyed much more had the ending not been played to me so many times in other forms over the years.

The cast is great. Charlton Heston plays the part well, doing a decent job of conveying the danger his character is in which in turn helps the audience accept the absurdity of what is going on. What also works well is his rather odd speech pattern, adding a unique twist to the films script which is what has made the film so quotable since its release. Not bad for a guy who was only hired in order to have a famous name in the credits.

The most notable other cast member is perhaps the most important when it comes to the franchise, Roddy McDowall. McDowall reprised his role of Cornelius in four of the five sequels and does a really good job here despite the heavy makeup. Also worth looking out for is Pierre Boulle's work as the corrupt Ape scientist Dr. Zaius, the films emotionally flawed, secretive villain.

In terms of direction an awful lot has been done with very little. A relatively unknown name at the time Franlin J. Schaffner had something which many of todays directors don't. He had the ability to open a film up and make it appear much grander in scale than it was in reality. Planet Of The Apes looks and feels like an epic despite only having a handful of sets and very few actors. If this film were to be made today (which it wouldn't be) the only directors I can think of that could pull it off are the Coen Brothers and Ridley Scott, give it a few more decades and the art of pulling off epic to this scale without the use of costly special effects and extensive outdoor sets will be a lost art. Sad fact and a testament to how well this film was directed.

Another important aspect of the film is its score. An early piece of work by Gerry Goldsmith, the score behind Planet Of The Apes is like nothing else I've ever heard before or since. The sound is made up with a mixture of traditional orchestral score and odd sounding household objects such as metal mixing bowls. The end result is on the whole a successful endeavour. There were, it has to be said, one or two moments where the score stood out a little too much and called attention to itself but thankfully these were few and far between. Clearly a lot of thought went into the score and on the whole it benefits from it.

With all of that being said the film does suffer on account of its age. Being a product of the 60's the sets have a look about them that reminded me of the kind of decor seen in your average Flinstones episode. This isn't helped by overly harsh lighting and an abundance of yellow gels which give every set that 'early episode of Star Trek' feel. I feel somewhat dirty criticising a film for not ageing well but it's my job to watch films and sound like a wanky arsehole, therefore I have no choice.

On the whole I was rather impressed with Planet Of The Apes. It has a solid, simple structure, good casting, talented direction and enough underlying themes to keep my impressive brain occupied. As a contribution to the world of film its significance is undeniable and very much deserved. I would be happy to recommend it to any fan of film or science fiction.

Planet Of The Apes gets...

4 out of 5