Rise of the Planet of the Apes

by

Synopsis: Read on IMDB

Should you watch this movie? Definitely! It is a fantastic story which ties in beautifully with the Planet of the Apes saga (which I found out recently it was originally a series before the famous Charlton Heston movie)

Dr. Will Rodman is working at the Gensys lab experimenting with apes a new drug which could be the cure for Alzheimer’s disease. He is motivated by the rapid deterioration of his father Charles by this terrible illness. After an unfortunate even in which a female ape is killed, Dr. Rodman ends up caring for its offspring, a baby ape he calls Caesar. As he grows, Caesar displays remarkable intelligence, a byproduct of the genetic testing his mother went through. As an adult chimp of course, this guy is going to wreck some havoc as you can imagine.

The movie is brilliantly executed and you cannot help but feel moved by Caesar the ape, portrayed by Andy Serkis via the wonders of CGI and motion capture (you may remember him as Gollum or as the mighty King Kong in the latest installment of that movie). Every scene where this ape is in is compelling, captivating, and will make you forget any shortcomings of this movie. James Franco did a fairly decent job, not his greatest, but he will make you forget what giant douchebag he can be (remember the Oscars?)
John Lithgow plays a great Charles, Will’s ailing father. Other characters however were far from memorable. Freida Pinto is barely there, it is a miracle she got top billing on this one. Brian Cox is also barely there, but in the few scenes he played, he did show his typical badass, character we all love and cherish. The other character I will certainly remember, and may I say not necessarly due to a great performance, is Tom Felton. In so many scenes I almost expected him to say “what’s the matter, Potter?” and take out his wand and do some mischief on the apes. He really, really needs to get away from the asshole roles, otherwise, he’ll be typecasted in both magical and non-magical Draco Malfoy lookalikes forever.

Regardless, the movie is just great. Serves as a great prequel to the Planet of the Apes story, and I would even like to see a good remake of it (as opposed to this one) of it with this style and direction.

Paola’s mood after watching this movie:

 

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published.