Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

I just got back from seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes with Justin on August 5, 2011. This movie was awesome!!! The storyline centers around Will Rodman played by James Franco who is working on designing a serum to cure Alzheimer's disease which his father Charles has played wonderfully by John Lithgow (who some may know as the Trinity Killer in Dexter). The serum works on apes and through the first group of apes, he finds that the serum passed biologically to the offspring. He takes this ape home naming him Ceaser (who is portrayed by Andy Serkis who some may know as Smeagol/Gollum and another interesting tidbit is this isn't his first time providing facial scans for apes as he also was King Kong in 2005). As his intellect and motor skills develop, he becomes attached as part of the family unit. He goes so far as to protect the family in one of my favorite scenes and is forced to be relocated to a primate research facility due to the defense of Charles. The film does an amazing job of showing the emotion within Ceaser and the loyalty he has to Will and Charles and the love interest played by the beautiful Frieda Pinto (who played Latika in Slumdog Millionaire, a personal favorite film of mine). Other characters were portrayed by Brian Cox and Tom Felton (who stayed very true to his Draco Malfoy characteristics). After a while, Ceaser shows his mistrust for human beings slowly but surely. Other apes, gorillas, orangutangs and other primates band together in some of my favorite scenes ever. The stars of the movie are really the apes. You cheer for the apes and feel for them as they are tormented constantly by the human vermin. Two scenes between Ceaser and Tom Felton are amazing. One scene Ceaser's superior intellect comes through when Felton utters the famous line that Charlton Heston did in 1968 and when Ceaser responds with speech the whole audience applauded and cheered. That was an awesome moment!! If you look at some of the apes many resemble characters from Tim Burton's 2001 film (which I personally enjoyed). I recognized Thade, Mattar, and that orangutang from the dinner party with the senators. One interesting aspect of the film is that Will creates a stronger serum to try to make the cure for Alzheimer's permanent as it briefly works on his father, but he deteriorates shortly after. This new serum works marvelously for the apes, but instead causes human beings to regress by making them fatally ill and it seems almost like a scene from Outbreak (an underrated film). The Golden Gate Battle as I will call it is one of my new favorite scenes. There is so much great action with apes overpowering humans through brain capacity and military strategy. Ceaser riding a horse into battle against police cruisers was awesome. Ceaser will not go against Will as he has a bond with him and is actually not interested in killing humans, but he does instruct other apes to carry out the deed. I felt the Golden Gate bridge scene was similar to the crossing of the Rubicon story which is of course linked with Julius Ceaser. There was an emotional scene between Ceaser and Buck (the gorilla) and the audience felt the emotion and it made the apes in the film seem human. That is why you feel for the apes. We can feel the same type of abuse on ourselves that the apes experience and we often times want to rebel against those in power and people that hold us down for their own personal gain. I give the movie a 4/5. I highly recommend it. You will be entertained the whole time. There are no dull moments and that is rare.