Rise of the Planet of the Apes
I have long been a fan of The Planet of the Apes, a series of movies, a television series and a Saturday morning cartoon all based on a novel by French writer Pierre Boulle. While the Apes television series from the 1970s is more or less kids’ stuff, the original 1968 film starring Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell is a classic work of science fiction. Not only does the film make social comment in the guise of a space fantasy, but it includes one of the most memorable endings in twentieth century cinema, thanks to screenwriter Rod Serling.
The subsequent Apes films became progressively poorer, and the 2001 reboot by director Tim Burton was met with mixed results.
But Apes has had legs, and remains a valuable property for 20th Century Fox, so it’s no surprise that Fox has rebooted again with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, starring James Franco, Frieda Pinto, John Lithgow and Brian Cox. Hollywood loves telling “origin” stories these days (Green Lantern, Iron Man, X-Men: First Class, Hulk twice, the upcoming Spiderman 4) so it seems logical that Fox feels that audiences need to be told how people Earth becomes monkey Earth.
As with many “origin” stories, Rise strikes me as an attempt to get a lot of back story out of the way so that the real apes stories can be told in later films. Indeed, there are many clues throughout this movie as to what may be coming later in the franchise. But this particular story seems rushed, and there were moments toward the end of the film that I thought the material would work better as a TV mini-series than as a feature film. The movie does a pretty good job of developing the character of Caesar, the super-intelligent chimp who goes on to lead the ape revolution against mankind, and that of Will, Caesar’s caretaker and the inventor of the serum that turns dumb apes into smart ones. But most of the other characters are so much stereotypical window dressing.
There are some nice allusions to the previous Apes movies, which should please fans: apes using the word “no,” an orangutan named Maurice (the orangutan in the original Apes was played by English actor Maurice Evans), the head of the genetics firm named Jacobs (the original Apes was produced by Arthur P. Jacobs), a chimp playing with a toy Statue of Liberty, and so on. And the portrayal of Caesar, a CG capture of Andy Serkis, Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is eerie engrossing and stunning and occasionally brilliant.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is great summer popcorn fare. It has suspense, action and an intriguing story. But I can only wonder what it could have been in the hands of a J.J. Abrams or Bryan Singer. Then again, the great Tim Burton helmed the 2001 Apes reboot and….well…. I guess I’ll wait for the sequel. In the meantime, check out 1972’s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. At least that one has Kahn in its cast, and Ricardo Montalban doesn’t monkey around.
The subsequent Apes films became progressively poorer, and the 2001 reboot by director Tim Burton was met with mixed results.
But Apes has had legs, and remains a valuable property for 20th Century Fox, so it’s no surprise that Fox has rebooted again with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, starring James Franco, Frieda Pinto, John Lithgow and Brian Cox. Hollywood loves telling “origin” stories these days (Green Lantern, Iron Man, X-Men: First Class, Hulk twice, the upcoming Spiderman 4) so it seems logical that Fox feels that audiences need to be told how people Earth becomes monkey Earth.
As with many “origin” stories, Rise strikes me as an attempt to get a lot of back story out of the way so that the real apes stories can be told in later films. Indeed, there are many clues throughout this movie as to what may be coming later in the franchise. But this particular story seems rushed, and there were moments toward the end of the film that I thought the material would work better as a TV mini-series than as a feature film. The movie does a pretty good job of developing the character of Caesar, the super-intelligent chimp who goes on to lead the ape revolution against mankind, and that of Will, Caesar’s caretaker and the inventor of the serum that turns dumb apes into smart ones. But most of the other characters are so much stereotypical window dressing.
There are some nice allusions to the previous Apes movies, which should please fans: apes using the word “no,” an orangutan named Maurice (the orangutan in the original Apes was played by English actor Maurice Evans), the head of the genetics firm named Jacobs (the original Apes was produced by Arthur P. Jacobs), a chimp playing with a toy Statue of Liberty, and so on. And the portrayal of Caesar, a CG capture of Andy Serkis, Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is eerie engrossing and stunning and occasionally brilliant.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is great summer popcorn fare. It has suspense, action and an intriguing story. But I can only wonder what it could have been in the hands of a J.J. Abrams or Bryan Singer. Then again, the great Tim Burton helmed the 2001 Apes reboot and….well…. I guess I’ll wait for the sequel. In the meantime, check out 1972’s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. At least that one has Kahn in its cast, and Ricardo Montalban doesn’t monkey around.
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