Don't monkey around with genetics
The movie prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the missing link to just how apes got that smart
One of the great iconic images in cinema history is the closing scene of the original Planet of the Apes movie, when stranded astronaut Charlton Heston confronts a half-buried Statue of Liberty and realises that he is on Earth, not some strange ape-dominated world.
It is the final masterstroke in the exceptional 1968 movie that, sadly, was followed by a steady stream of half-baked sequels, all trying to cash in on the original Planet of the Apes concept. There was Beneath, Escape From, Conquest of and Battle For, before Tim Burton had a rare lapse of judgement and remade the original in 2001, which was a turkey.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a prequel, filling in the detail of how it was that (a) apes got smart, and (b) humans vanished as the dominant species and, unlike most stories where you know the ending, this film is good, mainly for one large, furry reason. The fur in question is that worn by Andy Serkis, responsible for the unhairy and unattractive Gollum in Lord of the Rings.
Serkis plays Caesar, the ape transformed by genetic experimentation into a very smart leader of the apes. Serkis uses all his physical acting ability to portray a profound depth of emotion in the animal as he understands his true potential – and his regrets at leaving his human friends behind.
Caesar is a baby chimp rescued from a genetic experiment by scientist Will Rodman (James Franco). He has developed a cure for Alzheimer's – largely to help his father (John Lithgow) who is rapidly disintegrating from the disease. When the experiments are cancelled and the ape test subjects killed off, Caesar is smuggled out and shows amazing learning ability.
However, the neighbours start objecting to a large chimp running around, strong enough to pull an adult's arm off, and thus Caesar finds himself in a hellish compound run by Brian Cox and idiot keepers.
There he learns how to survive and soon takes control, just as the genetics company Franco works for tries out a more aggressive version of the treatment that created Caesar.
This has some unfortunate side effects, in that it hugely accelerates the growth of intelligence in apes while killing off humans. Thus you have the scenario that leads to the ape world of the 1968 film, and an argument against genetic testing on animals, or indeed humans.
There are excellent special effects and top-class acting from Serkis and Lithgow, although some of the lesser roles are a touch lightweight. It is the apes that capture the limelight, making the film more thoughtful than all previous Planet of the Apes, apart from the original. It is a worthy successor.
Planet of the Apes (12a) Running time 105 minutes
Review rating ****
Review supported by Newbury Vue
PS...
See how many visual references to the 1968 original film you can spot. I saw a couple (watching the original film on TV, model of the Statue of Liberty), but there's probably more.
