Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

Directed by: Rupert Wyatt

Rebooting the series from the late 60s, Rupert Wyatt’s movie is very well done.  Scientist Will (James Franco) is seeking a cure for Alzheimer’s for his bio-tech employer, but also for his afflicted father, played by John Lithgow. Will takes home a baby chimp when its mother is destroyed after a trial of a promising viral drug seems to have gone wrong.  But the drug works, and young Caesar grows up to be smarter than his human family.  The drug seems to work on humans, too, initially giving Will’s dad more than just respite from the illness.  However, he later develops a resistance to the drug, his dementia returns, and when he gets into a fight with a neighbour whose car he has trashed, Caesar intervenes violently.  Locked away in a brutally-run simian centre, Caesar goes through fear and depression and then finally anger, and begins to organise his fellow captives.

Meanwhile, Will has developed a successor drug to which humans don’t develop resistance.  This is a shame, as it also turns out to be fatal to humans.  As the newly en-smartened apes escape into the San Francisco bay area, the humans starts falling prey to the virus…

In contrast to so many recent sci-fi movies, this one has a story that doesn’t resemble a Swiss cheese.  Major plot strands and individual scenes are credible (unless you scrutinise at the level of a professional primatologist: apparently chimps’ vocal chords prevent them from being able to pronounce words), and motivations are plausible.  Some of the early animation of the baby Caesar is a little cartoon-like, in contrast to the superlative quality of the grown-up versions. You could argue that a moral perspective is largely lacking, but it’s more that it is drowned out by the action. Apart from Will, there is little for the humans to do and Freida Pinto, as his girlfriend, is largely wasted.  There is a depressing familiarity about the fact that the two main bad-guys (the bio-tech company owner, and the simian “prison” manager) are both played by British actors, and I am more than a little worried that Andy Serkis is getting typecast as a creature.

But these are minor quibbles.  Overall, this is an excellent movie, and left me wanting rather than dreading the inevitable sequel.