THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Pierre Boule's novel Planet of the Apes was such a captivating story no one expected it to become a film franchise until it did. With such inventive lore that came from it, there still wasn't a clear answer on how the apocalypse began. Thankfully, the 21st century provided the needed technology to tell the origin just right.
PLOT
Rise of the Planet of the Apes takes place in the 21st century and follows genetics chemist Will Rodman who works at the genetic therapy pharmaceutical company "Gen-Sys", hoping to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. His motivation comes from how his own father Charles who suffers from the said disease. His latest design, the ALZ 112 appears to be promising when having test results on the chimpanzees. One chimp named Bright Eyes would be arranged for a presentation when her intelligence is shown to be increasing after being exposed to the drug. It goes awry when she goes on a rampage all over the building upon being separated from her cage. Her ballistic anger causes her to shot by security in front of the board Will was presenting. With the incident being embarrassing, his superior Steve Jacobs orders all apes in the lab to be euthanized to prevent another incident from happening, and instruct the chemist to start all over with the project to figure out what went wrong. However, Will would discover Bright Eyes was protecting her newborn that the crew did not know about, meaning she was pregnant when taken in. Not wanting to to put down the baby, he adopts him to live with him and his father, who names him Caesar. The young ape would be proven to be extremely smart as he is able to feed a bottle of milk to himself without assist and for the following three years, he would continue surpassing Will's expectations due to having the genes of the 112 passed from his mother, being able to communicate via sign language. Still wanting to cure Charles, he goes out of his way to test him with a sample which appears to be effective when he plays the piano perfect compared to when being sick. The same day of this breakthrough though, Caesar would be attacked out of fear by Will's neighbor Mr. Hunsiker (David Hewlett). This causes the chemist to take him to the zoo, where a veterinarian named Caroline would stitch up his wounds. Ironically, Caesar would instigate a date between her and Will, in which they take him to the redwood forest at the Muir Woods National Monument, a place perfect enough for him to free roam without consequence. Five more years later, Will & Caroline have been dating since, but Caesar becomes curious of his own existence. Will would then show him the HQ of Gen-Sys explaining that was where he was born and where his mother died, while also admitting he sees him as his own son and not a pet. Caroline would then express concern on the drug's dangers since he never talked about it with her until now. Will is still hopeful with the 112’s potential but is proven wrong when Charles' Alzheimers returns to overwhelm the drug. It would be proven true when he accidentally carjacks Hunisker's car and causes a minor accident. Caesar would see this and defend him from the aggressive neighbor, but goes too far by biting off his finger. The incident would cause him to be sent to an animal control sanctuary for primates. This would be a difficult process for the chimp as he never spent time with other chimps before. Despite this, the chief guard John Landon assures Will & Caroline he'll be integrated overtime. Although Caesar would get along with an orangutan named Maurice and one caretaker named Rodney (Jamie Harris) is shown to be timid towards everyone, the same cannot be said towards John’s son Dodge and the alpha chimp Rocket who choose to bully him. Not wanting to give up on neither his dad nor his adoptive son, Will pitches the AlZ 113, a stronger variant of the 112 that promises to increase like it briefly did for Charles. When they tested it on a bonobo named Koba, the process is almost smooth when the ape chooses to struggle, knocking off a hose from a machine that would give him the drug; He would also knock off the mask of Will's co worker, Robert Franklin (Tyler Labine). Will would consider giving the new drug to Charles, but his father would turn it down and choose to die in his sleep. Rather than be patient with the process of the 113, Jacobs rushes it due to being in awe of how smart Koba has become and wants to capitalize on the potential business profit. Rather than listening to Will's warnings and willing to proceed wither way, the chemist chooses to quit Gen-Sys. As this happens, Robert has been ill due to being exposed to the virus, which is proven when sneezing blood. When he tries to contact Will of what he's going through, he is unable to reach him before dying of a viral infection but would last be seen sneezing on Hunisker days before his death. At the sanctuary, Caesar would learn how to get out of the cage on his own. He would use this to an advantage by befriending a gorilla named Buck, allowing him to be free of his cage temporarily. This alliance would help him gain alpha-ship from Rocket and winning over the other apes out of respect. When Will tries to bring him back home after bribing John, he chooses to turn him down and stay in the sanctuary. By night, he chooses to break out undetected to come home only to get the 113 samples and share it with the other apes. The following night, he chooses to challenge Dodge in the yard. The caretaker tries to finish him quick by using his cattle prod, but the ape blocks him for the first time and grabs his hand to stop the abuse. When John demands him to be let go, Caesar would audibly speak "NO" for the first time before hitting him with the prod and locking him in his cage. At that point, the intelligent ape would free everyone in the sanctuary. He would then send Rodney without force, knowing he was harmless towards him. John gets out of the cage due to still having a key and when he tries to use the prod, Caesar sprays him with a hose that accidentally electrocutes him. Despite committing accidental murder, he moves forward with liberating other apes from Gen-Sys and the zoo. By morning, John, Will & Caroline would find out what happened at the sanctuary. The latter couple would head to Muir Woods knowing Caesar would want to be there to live freely. Jacobs would not know of Robert's death until reaching work and seeing a horde of free apes. Knowing the apes have a leader, he directs a helicopter gunship to pursue them. The apes would then pass the city and cross through Golden Gate Bridge, causing the police to evacuate the said bridge. Despite knowing a war zone has emerged between both species, Caroline helps Will sneak in the bridge to reach Caesar. The apes are able to overcome the blockade but Jacobs' gunship still hovers across. Buck would make the ultimate sacrifice by lunging towards the chopper, causing it to crash but at the cost of his life. Heartbroken of losing a friend, Caesar allows Koba to push the aircraft off the bridge which causes the death of Jacobs. Will would still pursue Muir Woods and promise Caesar to protect him if he comes back home with him. The alpha chimp would audibly speak to him for the first time "Caesar is home" due to how he identifies the forest. Out of respect, Will accepts his wishes and all apes embrace their new lives in the forest. The film however would end in a shocking cliffhanger with Hunisker unintentionally passing on the virus to across the planet due to his line of work as an airplane work, as a result of Franklin sneezing on him, causing a deadly pandemic.
THOUGHTS
Due to being a fan in advance, I was onboard with seeing something different and boy was this the definition of it. Director Rupert Wyatt quickly pulled us in for another sci fi film that does feel thought provoking like before. The franchise has been defined off of the makeup effects that brought the apes to life before, but the 21st century finally sparked things up was incredible motion capture visual effects this time around. It could've backfired, yet delivered spectacularly to create the apes at their most lifelike. From second to second, the details are so surreal you would think they're the real deal and not actors. This benefits the editing & cinematography, especially in the climax in which the apes overcome the police blockade at Golden Gate Bridge in epic fashion. Now the reason I find the film an ideal example of being thought provoking is because of how it expresses the consequences of expressing dominion. Whatever the intentions placed to have the need to control something that shouldn't be, it is going to backfire in epic proportion the more you choose to take such action. The uprising of the apes being superior over humans is the example we must remember in order to avoid making similar mistakes. All of this would not have been well told thanks to an impressive ensemble. It's hard to hate Will because James Franco ensures he had all the right reasons. All he wanted to cure his dad which would lead to him saving others which shouldn't be ridiculed at all. You can't really blame him since John Lithgow showed Charles to be extremely fragile in his condition. He thought he was on the right path after seeing how it worked for Caesar, but just because it worked once doesn't mean it should be used again. He tried to go back on what he was doing, but it would be too late for him to fix the mess that would be past his control. I also respect Freida Pinto as Caroline because even though she doesn't know everything compared to him, she was sure to know some things should've been left alone, hence having a similar form of compassion. It is a shame that became victims of the outbreak as implied in Dawn because they would've been the only ones to defend the apes from everyone that would be afraid of them. On the bright side, there is someone who will honor what they stood for. Andy Serkis takes my breath away as Caesar for having nothing but stoicism from the moment he was born. He doesn't hate humans like other animals rightfully would due to the privilege he had to be raised by one, but was mature enough to understand not all are the same. He chose to live in the forest rather than simply go back to Will because he knew solitude was better than isolation and he shared his intelligence with all the apes due to believing all deserve a chance to become something greater. From that perspective alone, he gained unlikely allies. Terry Notary was impressive enough for playing the protective Bright Eyes, but then he shook it up as Rocket. He was one who expressed dominance like any alpha would, but had this sense of pride all along, which he continued when Caesar took the reigns. He sticks to it throughout the trilogy because he knows that Caesar is the better at planning for the bigger picture and he stood by his side because he trusted him. Maurice was a treat to see because Karin Konoval portrayed such warmth and nobility to the scene. He sided with Caesar as well because they share the same background knowing not all are bad but don't need to rely on any to live. Richard Ridings was great as Buck because he came off as one who became mistaken as one who preferred being reclusive but preferred freedom all along. He clicked with Caesar out of respect for him giving just that and chose to return the favor by putting his life on the line. His death definitely stung because he knew he didn't have to but wanted to protect him. One thing for certain, Caesar honored him as well by being a great leader as long as he got to be, as well as not take the blow of vengeance. Koba's barely in it compared to the other apes, but Christopher Gordon spoke volumes at every time due to being fueled with anger after years of being experimented on. When freed by Caesar, he didn't hesitate extracting the aggression done on him and relished all of it when finishing off Jacobs. Little would anybody expect he had already caused before and after this. It was already one thing to hate on Huskiner for choosing to hate on something he didn't understand. And since Tom Felton used his inner douche from Harry Potter when playing Dodge, I wasn't even sure what to feel with Brian Cox since he is so ignorant and doesn't seem to care as much as he should. The true villain here however is Jacobs because David Oyelowo made him way more ambitious than Will and didn't care of the sacrifices that were being made in which every ape he looked above. Had he been patient of the work being done, there could've been the breakthrough they were both looking for. And for that, his greed led to his demise which is a shame because he did have me think he cared on what Will was doing. I’m serious when I say I enjoyed this film very much, but there were some things I wish were done differently. For example, why didn’t the security have tranquilizers to stop Bright Eyes instead of guns? I know this allows Caesar’s arc to truly start but if Franklin had a tranquilizer on him, so should security. That was dumber than them not knowing Bright Eyes was pregnant when brought in. And why are there still supplies of the 112 if they stopped producing them after 3 years? This is a bad excuse for Will to take a vial when he could’ve already had one at home. That’s more surprising than how inventory never noticed the vials he took after 5 years. Speaking of the time jump, how was that family surprised of seeing Caesar at Muir Woods? If 5 years are going by, the locals who go to Muir Woods should be used to seeing him. If this is saying they weren’t locals of San Fran, that should’ve been clear. Will even takes bigger risks taking Caesar to Gen-Sys and no one outside notices which is insane considering he was supposed to put him down. It is great tension when Koba unintentionally causes the outbreak when knocking down the hose, but why use the aerosol delivery chamber system anyway? They already restrained him, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use a needle like before. Trust me when I say I’m rooting for Caesar like we should but it’s hard for me to believe he took the pocket knife from Dodge’s friend when we don’t see him move his left arm to reach into the pocket. This movie relies heavily on humans being oblivious, which is a given, but if I were in John’s position, I would’ve freaked out seeing Caesar and the apes conspire and not ignore it. I don’t want to pick on Caroline, but how could she tell there was commotion on the bridge when it’s so foggy from where she’s at? The helicopter ain’t even there yet so she shouldn’t be sure the apes were already there. Ignore this, then you’ll appreciate this movie for what it is. In short, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a fascinating entry in the sci fi franchise for getting the basic questions answered before setting a new era to answer the rest. Whatever kind of fan you are with this franchise, this is totally worthwhile.
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