Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The star of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is Andy Serkis, an actor who appears in the film solely through the use of motion-capture technology. He plays Caesar, a chimp who is presented to us entirely through computer-generated imagery inserted into a real-life environment. Serkis, who previously provided the movements of towering ape Kong in Peter Jackson's "King Kong" remake, succeeds in conveying emotions more so than any of the live-action humans in the film, all while playing an animal who isn‘t really there; as such, his performance completely steals the movie along with the special effects used to physically create the furry character.

Caesar is the son of an ape that has been genetically modified in a San Francisco laboratory. This mother chimp has been experimented on with a retrovirus that is hoped to be a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, and one of the side-effects it has on the chimp is increased intelligence. One day, while scientist Will Rodman (James Franco, “127 Hours”) is giving a presentation on the project, this mother chimp escapes from her cage and is shot dead by security.

Will discovers baby Caesar in the mother’s cage and decides to bring the newborn to his home to spare Caesar from being put down. Soon enough, Will discovers that Caesar’s mother’s increased intelligence has genetically passed down onto her baby. Caesar quickly becomes a member of the family, living with Will and his father (John Lithgow, “Leap Year”), who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, as well as Will’s primatologist girlfriend, Caroline (Freida Pinto, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”).

Eight years later, the increasingly brainy Caesar finds himself thrown into a primate facility after attacking a neighbour to defend Will’s father. Kept in a cage and abused by keeper Dodge (Tom Felton, aka Draco Malfoy off the “Harry Potter” films), Caesar grows a resentment for mankind, and starts to scheme a rebellion against the human race along with his fellow inmates.

As you should know, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is a prequel to the Franklin J. Schaffner sci-fi classic “Planet of the Apes” of 1968. Rupert Wyatt's film serves as an explanation of how exactly the planet of the apes came to rise, how the apes took over and how our planet would eventually be run by a bunch of horse-riding chimps capturing humans in nets and dumping them in cages.

You may be against this decision; a sense of mystery surrounding background stories never hurt anyone, and just explaining away could possibly damage a storyline‘s strength. But no, in this case it doesn’t, instead doing sufficient justice to the beloved original, shining a light on the story's past as well as superbly standing on its own two hairy feet as a singular movie.

Anyway, the film does not tell the whole backstory; indeed, the ending very much sets up for a sequel that could continue leading towards the dystopia (or at least a dystopia for humans) that is presented in the original. It acts as a spark that sets in motion the planet being managed by intellectual primates; how the story gets from the ending of this film to the beginning of "Planet of the Apes" is anyone’s guess.

As the sixth film in the long-lasting franchise (not including the drab 2001 Tim Burton remake), it’s the first to not have the apes simply presented as actors in monkey costumes. As previously mentioned, they’re all computer-generated, Serkis providing the movements of main ape Caesar. For the first half of the film, Franco’s Will is the protagonist, and then in the second half this position shifts to Caesar when he is taken to live in the facility.

The first half sees Will becoming a loving father to Caesar, keeping him in his home while studying this chimp’s mental capabilities. Caesar, however, suspects over the years that he is nothing more than a pet on a leash. The second half sees the beginnings of a rebellion, as Caesar’s opinion of humans significantly decreases, yearning for freedom as his brainpower rapidly grows and grows, causing him to become simian McGyver at one point.

Serkis’ performance flawlessly takes us through this development from family pet to jail-breaking world-dominator. It’s all in his eyes, in his demeanour and in his facial expressions, the kind of stuff that even many non-motion-captured actors struggle to exhibit effectively. He makes this character faultlessly enthralling, even when we know that we really shouldn’t be rooting for him; to root for him means our demise as a species.

It’s a triumph for motion-capture technology, and Serkis certainly deserves significant praise for making this character feel so real. It’s with his performance that this sci-fi prequel really becomes so fascinating and engrossing, making “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” mesmerising blockbuster entertainment both for humans and damned dirty apes alike.

9/10