Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, the movie which quite frankly has a ridiculous title, is actually a really, really good prequel/reboot to the Planet Of The Apes franchise. It’s surprising really, because you’re essentially watching a movie about super intelligent apes tearing up the place and ripping humanity a new asshole. Or at least that's what the promotional poster's and ads are telling you. Believe it or not, the movie has a seriously strong emotional core centering around the main ape Caesar, which is partly due to great acting and great CG work. It's spellbinding drama, the film basically chronicles Caesar’s life, from baby to adult and how he slowly over a period of time comes to resent the human race. Andy Serkis, who is responsible for the motion capture work on Gollum in Lord Of The Rings and Kong in the reboot of King Kong, excels here in making us believe in his character, without uttering one line of dialogue. We can tell pretty much everything Caesar is thinking and going through emotionally thanks to the incredible motion capture performance that nearly looks (and I mean reeeealy close) 100% real. It's really all in the finer details: key moments, like when Caesar realizes that he’s merely a pet, being kept on the lead or when the other apes are stupid and try to kill him is a master class in facial art performing. Every muscle and expression is articulated to the point of perfection. It's so good I think this man deserves an Oscar for his work here, as well as the SFX Team,  their efforts make you not only sympathise with these apes but you end up hating the humans just as much as they do when the final act comes smashing around and things basically go apeshit, literally. 

This movie’s sole focus is to set up further sequels, and by knowing how it will all end almost works to the movie’s advantage here. Because we know how it must end, how the apes shall rise and eventually triumph over humanity, we’re fascinated to see it eventually get there, and it's great fun seeing the cogs turn in Caesars head as he is sitting in his filthy cage at the ape facility plotting his revenge. In fact a large chunk of the movie is him planning the uprising in the facility, slowly coming to terms with the fact that humans are some mean bastards. The drama just builds and builds, till it eventually explodes and the baddies get their due. By the way, if I had one major criticism with this movie it would lie with the one dimensional villains. The bad guys are stereotypically evil to the point of maniacal laughing, to the point were it's embarassing at times. Heck, the head chairman at the Genetyx lab basically flat out says 'I don't care about these apes, I'm only interested in money MUHAHAHAH!' as his first line in the movie! The rest of the human characters are either really well done, like James Franco’s character who is trying to save his Dad from Alzheimer’s syndrome, or given nothing to do like his Girlfriend or Harry Potter's Tom Felton (that guy has made a career out of being the wimpy ass bully!). By the last act, when the tension and the drama reaches its climax, it all of a sudden becomes an all out extravaganza of ape on human actoon. Even thought the cheorography was well done (you see how the apes can take on the humans and win) I was shocked that the actual action part to this movie is negated to a small section at the end of the film! There was no real finale either, it just sort of shuddered out as well. Perhaps I'm being a bit to harsh on the movie, but the action set pieces just don't hold a penny to some of the other Holywood Blockbuster's out there. But it had already struck me by then, this movie is NOT an action movie. In fact if I were to class it into a genre it would be more tragedy/drama than anything summer fare. The filmmakers had obviously just put the fight at the end in so it could technically 'class' as a summer blockbuster. Its mainly just one big character piece apart a main character who just happens to be an ape, and evoques strongly the black uprising from slavery. 

For a Summer movie its almost anti-summer I thought, barely an explosion or set-piece in sight apart from a few minutes at the end. But it does have bags of emotional weight and drama, groundbreakingly realised by some really top-notch special effects. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is probably my third best film of the Summer alongside Super 8, and it's good for all the right reasons. I would give it a solid 9/10. Go see it, and don’t be put off by that damned title!
With it being the end of the Summer, I thought it would be nice to rank my top movies from one to six:

1. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2
2.Thor
3. Super 8
4. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
5. X-Men First Class
6. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

Its been a brilliant few months for Movies, Overall.