Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Sequels are never good news. Some worked, but most were forgotten. Hollywood understood this, people do not like sequels. So a new trend appeared, prequels. Some say this trend appeared with Spider-Man, others say, with the Incredible Hulk. The basics are simple, take a popular story, and say how it all began. Ever since then, we have learned how the A-Team formed, how Batman got his fetish for bats, and how James Bond got his Aston Martin DB5 on a civil servant’s salary.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes follows the trend. The original Planet of the Apes told the story of a civilisation where the apes are now the evolved species, and humans are mute slaves. In Rise, we learn just how the Apes got this boost in evolution. Guess who’s responsible. That’s right, bio-medical companies. We follow Will Rodman (James Franco) who is trying to find a cure to Alzheimer (which his dad has coincidentally) by creating a virus that allows the brain to repair itself. The test subjects for this project are, you guessed it, apes. After a failed experiment, Will finds himself adopting a super-intelligent ape, that he calls Caesar. Caesar learns about the world very fast and soon becomes aware of the dangers facing him. After turning other apes like him – super-intelligent thanks to the virus-, he goes on to cause havoc in San Francisco in order to free the apes from the burden of human civilisation.
The story itself is very interesting, and raises some genuine concerns regarding animal welfare, and bio-medicines. Turns out that the virus that gives the apes the power to become super-intelligent does not have the same effects on humans, thus answering the other part as to how the apes took over. One man’s dream to change the world caused all this.
On the cinematic side, the way the apes are portrayed is genuinely novel. We have close-ups of their faces, and see their emotions through their eyes. We see that we are not dealing with pure animals, but an evolving species. This is shown through two very important events, one of which sees all the apes rising on their hind legs. The other scene is too good to spoil. The more the apes seem to involve, the more they are filmed like normal humans. When they do not have the virus, they are shown from a distance, usually in groups. Once the virus has an effect on them, the focus is more on individual apes and their reactions and feelings. This does culminate to the point when a dying gorilla scene is treated in similar Hollywoody fashion.
Finally, as to how Rise fits in with the franchise, well as I said it is a prequel. There are some nice references to the space mission that left for the original film. To properly understand it you have to forget the 2001 remake ever existed.
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable film, which is really well done. What is scary though is that theoretically it is possible……..

4/5
Liked: Story, actors, novel portrayal of apes
Dislikes: Guess what, leaves room for a sequel….