Now Playing: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

For years, ever since I saw the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film and it's many sequels, I've been a big fan of the series. I can't remember when I first saw them, but I know I found them fascinating. I have various memories of all the movies, and probably even some of the TV series, all jumbled around up in my brain, because I saw them all out of order at random times. What I can tell you for certain, is that I was REALLY looking forward to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and it had some HUGE expectations to live up to. Let's get into the swing of things after the jump!


For those unfamiliar with the Planet of the Apes films, this film shows us in great detail how the apes started to rise to power. While this story has already been told in a way in the original films, it also involved a lot of complicated time travel paradoxes. This movie gives a new take on the evolution of the apes. In this film, scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) is trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer's disease, and engineers a virus that causes the brain to regrow neural pathways, thus counteracting the degeneration. The experiments result in a baby chimp being born with the serum already in his system. This ape is named Caesar, and with no neural damage to fix, the virus causes him to become intelligent, nearing that of, and possibly surpassing most people. It isn't long before a war between ape and man breaks out. Is this the beginning of the end for mankind?

It's time for Caesar to show them who's boss around here now

While the story may have been altered from the original films, I really liked it and it made an already fantastical scenario a little more believable. As a rule, time paradoxes just kinda get in the way. This way we still have the first intelligent ape in Caesar, who also makes several other firsts for apes, and he leads his kind to freedom from the enslavement of mankind. But while the original story had the odd and pretty unbelievable future where people used apes as slaves around the house, they are now slaves to be tested on for medical experiments. It's just more believable for today's world and I appreciated it for that.

But while the story was altered to make it more bearable for wider audiences, there were still plenty of little juicy morsels for fans of the series too. Little cameos, lines from the past films thrown in, and hints at events we saw take place in the original films too. I'm pretty sure I caught most of them, because I saw a lot, and I loved every single wink to the fans that they lovingly placed in the film!

OK, lets get the graphics out of the way; they're absolutely amazing. Enough said.

Now how about some action? If you said yes, then you'll be pleased with this movie! There is quite a lot of apes fighting people, and generally just kicking their asses all over San Fransisco. Action is fast and awesome, enough said.

There is some amazing ape action to behold in this movie

In addition to all the action, though, we also are treated to some really good human characters and pretty good acting. James Franco is joined by Freida Pinto, who I last saw as the grown up love interest in Slumdog Millionaire, and my god is she ever a sight for sore eyes. We also get to see some great work by John Lithgow as Will Rodman's father who is falling apart at the hands of Alzheimer's. We get to see Brian Cox (from tons of stuff) and Tom Felton (I think from all the Harry Potter movies) as the mean spirited, and sometimes evil, ape handlers who make Caesar's life Hell until he takes matters into his own hands. Last but not least is Andy Serkis who brings Caesar to life with his amazing motion capture and facial capture work.

So lets count the positives. Good story, good effects, good action, good acting, and best of all, some great Easter eggs for old time fans. The only possible downsides are some potential plot holes that my friend pointed out, but personally what they said were glaring instances of things that simply wouldn't happen, they simply didn't bother me. I mean, I'm willing to accept the fact that the world eventually gets taken over by talking apes and Charlton Heston meets them in the future, I think I can accept what's going on in the movie.

To put it simply, I think this is by far my favorite movie of the big summer blockbusters of the year. I had such a huge smile on my face, and as a fan and wanting a lot from this movie, I feel I got what I wanted and then some. The added bits just for fans of the old movies were fantastic and I really wasn't expecting them to go that far with it. I hope and pray we get more Planet of the Apes movies like this, because that last one with Mark Wahlberg was TERRIBLE! I loved this movie for so many reasons, that I obviously have to strongly recommend this film, especially to anyone who liked or loved the old films, but new comers should be just as welcome. So rise from wherever you're sitting, and go see Rise of the Planet of the Apes!