It’s not a monkey! Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Ok, so you should know that I saw this one on Saturday and I should warn you, Saturday was a stressful day, so this review might be a bit sh*t! I should also warn you once again, this review may give away a little more than you’d like to hear.

My first thought here was that the title is stupid. I mean, maybe they are hamstrung by the fact they needed to include the words ‘Planet of the Apes’, but it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. If it were me that got to decide these things, and there are good reasons why it isn’t me, but if it were, I’d probably have given it a sub-title. Maybe something like ‘Planet of the Apes: Genesis’, but we’re lumbered with it as it is.

Moving away from such trivial matters, the movie itself (I hate that word, I much prefer to say ‘film’ but when it comes to Hollywood blockbusters/franchises, the word movie just seems more appropriate). Anyway, the movie itself opens with a scene of Apes being rounded up for a spot of casual scientific testing. From there on it’s pretty obvious what’s going to happen here and together with a decent amount of ‘story’ the story plays out as one would expect.

I have seen little of the original films and I always struggled with the premise of a spaceship somehow travelling through time and ending up back on earth with the Apes somehow not only in control, but with infrastructure and society matching our own, as we see at the end of Tim Burton’s 2001 remake. However, this film provides a believable premise and genuine identification with the main protagonist Caesar. The film hinges on the act of one human, doing what we all fear will happen, producing a drug which is both the ultimate cure and the ultimate killer. His humanity is what gives Caesar his future and his arrogance leads to the beginning of a world changing battle. The plot spends a long time winding around Caesar’s early story and yet provides us with little justification for the ultimate change and final outcome; a rather violent affair given the Ape’s earlier life experiences. The end of the film leaves us with something to ponder, why exactly did they go through all that they did and what exactly do they expect to happen next? In other words, this is a film designed entirely to make us come and see another one and whilst it is good, I’m not sure it’s good enough to have the audience flocking back for more.

The effects appear pretty standard, although the apes are entirely CGI, which is both impressive and a touch unnecessary, we are advised on the poster that the people who made Avatar are involved, but I can’t see a great deal over and above Burton’s film to get the juices pumping. Serkis is fantastic as Caesar though and he has proved again that he is the king of motion capture.

In terms of timeline and relationship with the rest of the franchise, for people that care about these things, the film generally works. You can understand why the Apes don’t like Humans, you can see how they were able to bring this to bear, it leads nicely towards the ultimate outcome told to us in the original stories, the question is, how long can they drag it out until we get there?

Overall a good film movie and worth seeing on the big screen, but not one to sate the appetite of purist Apes fans nor those looking for a rich storyline. On the plus side, Helena Bonham-Carter is nowhere near this one!

3.5/5

616