Cinema 2011 #77: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

While Tim Burton’s 2001 reimagining of the simian sci-fi saga Planet of the Apes managed to greatly revamp the make-up and prosthetics work that had won the original 1968 film an honorary Oscar, in many ways the Mark Wahlberg starrer lacked the searingly bleak intelligence and dark heart of its Charlton Heston ancestor. In short, while the primates looked and sounded prime, Burton’s baboons just weren’t damned dirty enough to appeal to fans old and new. With Rise of the Planet of the Apes, itself something of a spiritual reimagining of 1972’s Conquest of the etc., director Rupert Wyatt offers audiences a long awaited prequel to the Heston Planet, telling the story of one genetically altered chimpanzee named Caesar, who like his namesake, rises to power to create a new world order.

In a near future San Francisco laboratory, scientist Will Rodman (James Franco), is struggling to concoct a viral cure for Alzheimer’s disease, of which his father, John Lithgow, is a patient. Will’s ALZ 112 formula seems to be the Holy Grail for banjaxed brains, but an unfortunately timed bout of monkey business results in corporate suit Jacobs (David Oyelowo) shutting down the project and pulling the plug on the test chimps. Rodman chances upon an infant primate, a brilliant mo-cap performance by mo-cap maestro (King Kong, Gollum) Andy Serkis, and adopts the little scamp, taking him in to share his home with his worsening father.

A number of years later and Caesar has developed far beyond the intellectual capabilities of either his species or human children of the same age. Able to communicate by sign language with his de facto family (suck it, Chomsky), Caesar offers Will the chance to rebuild his scientific career as well as save his father from the degenerative effects of the disease claiming his life. Together with veterinarian Freida Pinto, Caesar lives a carefree life, solving puzzles and leaping lithely from every nook and cranny of his attic, with a knowing sparkle in his CGI eyes.

He'd already made it clear to the waiter that he didn't want any milled pepper

But problems arise when Caesar’s innate primal urges lead to his incarceration in Brian Cox and son Tom Felton’s animal sanctuary. Locked away from his sheltered upbringing and encountering fellow chimps for the first time, Caesar’s intelligence and comprehension of his own strength leads to a growing distaste for the brutality and heartlessness of humankind. Rising to power, in a slyly comic hominid homage to 2009’s Un prophète, it’s not long before Caesar is staging a great escape and evolutionary revolution, culminating in a highly satisfactory set-piece of gorilla warfare on the Golden Gate Bridge.

In many ways Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a victim of its own successes, with its scenes involving Caesar and co a triumph of animation and CGI spectacle. Serkis, who deserved an honorary Oscar for his work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, builds upon his niche career, saying more with his Weta animated face than most actors manage with a leading role. And that face really does say it all, with Serkis showing flashes of despair and cunning that are instantly recognisable, regardless of genus.

The computer work is fluid and fun in its build-up, and bold and dangerous in the big battle scene at the end, with a genuine sense that the raw power of wild animals paired with brilliant intelligence could spell trouble for mankind. While the rendering isn’t always perfect, the apes occasionally looking too glossy to really pass muster, it is certainly good enough when coupled with the undeniable soul in the performances of the team of motion capture actors. The interaction between Caesar and orang-utan Maurice is a particular standout, touching and cleverly established, with just a few lines of sparse sign language.

The queue for Chunky Monkey at the Ben and Jerry's concession was getting out of hand

On the other side, the human characters fare rather less well. While the acting is generally fine, the problems lie more with the characters themselves. Franco’s Will gets the most to work with, and he’s solid, if rather one note and diverting from the main thrust of the film’s more interesting narrative. Freida Pinto, however, gets to do nothing but prettily stand around occasionally decrying mankind’s tampering with nature, but she is very pretty at it. That it takes her, a vet specialising in primates, so long to figure out that her scientist boffin boyfriend may have tampered with the genius Caesar is a tad unbelievable, though.

Oyelowo is the stock corporate villain, getting to shout clichéd catchphrases about business vs. science and profit before people, but doesn’t do any of this hackneyed stuff particularly badly, nor memorably, though. John Lithgow, always watchable, suffers from a typical case of Movie Alzheimer’s, whereby he’ll go doolally and sentient at the most contrived of times to drive the plot along, and Tom Felton shows that playing a childhood villain for a decade means you’re well capable of taking on the role when you don’t have to bleach your hair and shave your stubble.

Essentially, Wyatt’s film is at its best when sticking close to its champion chimp, scenes which are cleverly directed and, despite the schlocky sci-fi origins, well developed. That makes the suggestion of an all-simian sequel all the more fun.

3½ Likes

Released Nationwide: August 12th

Runtime: 105 mins

Certificate: 12A