Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

I loved the original Planet of the Apes movies.  When I heard that they were doing another remake (really not a fan of Burton’s flick) I was not expecting to like it.  But after catching it on DVD I’d have to say that it is a pretty good movie.  More on what I thought in a moment, 1st lets talk about the story.

This movie starts with a researcher named Will, played by James Franco, who is trying to cure Alzheimer’s.  His project is shut down when his star chimp goes haywire.  Everyone thinks that it is because of the experiments, but in fact she was protecting her infant.  He takes him home and names him Caesar.  The experiments that were performed have been passed onto Caesar and after a few years he has become almost as smart as the humans around him.  Because of his size and a misunderstanding with a neighbor he ends up in a sanctuary with other apes.  Here he learns the hard facts and starts to plot a way to help his “people”.  Much chaos and destruction ensues as they make their escape.

Okay the thing that most surprised me about this movie was the CGI.  I just didn’t think that using digital was going to work since the apes are the main characters in the movie.  But the special effects really came thru and allowed the apes to be characters.  I never would have thought that and in fact I was ready to hate this aspect of the movie.  It didn’t take that long for the movie to win me over though.  I actually felt myself feeling very bad for the Caesar character and what was done to him.  The other bit that the movie does very well is switching things up from the original.  Here we see not Heston’s astronaut character, but Caesar going thru many of the same traumatic experiences.  I won’t ruin them for you but pay close attention to the dialogue and some of the things that happen.  When you are going to remake a movie like Planet of the Apes then you had better make sure to tell your own story, but also have a few clever nods to the fans as well.  This movie does a great job with that.

I’ve already talked about the special effects.  Again though I feel the need to point out that they are excellent.  The CGI apes look realistic enough to be scary and to connect with the audience.  This is a neat trick because the apes obviously have no dialogue, which again is credit to the wonderful special effects work.  With just a nod of the head or a look in the eyes we know what they are up to and feeling. 

The original series will always be my favorite (well at least the first couple…) but this movie is damn good and worth checking out.  The fact that they set it up for a sequel (actually a couple of ways to go with it) gives me hope that we might see this version of the apes again.  I can’ think of a better endorsement then that.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer