‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto

The scathing reviews of Tim Burton’s 2001 remake should have scared Rupert Wyatt away from creating a sixth ‘Planet of the Apes.’  Instead, the director delivered a stunning slice of Hollywood ingenuity.

The film opens with the brilliant young scientist Will Rodman (James Franco), who believes he has found the cure for Alzheimer’s disease. His promising career is derailed when one of the test subject chimpanzees bursts into his meeting with investors, wreaking havoc in the building before it is shot dead by a security guard. Will’s boss orders the death of all the adult chimpanzees, but one orderly keeps a baby chimp hidden and later hands it over to Will.

His career suspended, Will gives a sample of the cure to his afflicted father, Charles (John Lithgow), who is cured of the disease seemingly overnight. Will and Charles take a liking to Caesar the chimp (Andy Serkis), who becomes a sort of child in the family. Caesar, who has received treatments of the cure since birth, becomes a veritable genius and acts like a pseudo-human by adulthood.

The community discovers Caesar when he viciously defends Charles when accosted by a neighbor. The brilliant chimp is sent to a grimy animal control penitentiary, where he harnesses his newfound hatred toward humans. He leads his fellow imprisoned apes on an uprising that could potentially doom humanity.

‘Rise’ focuses much more intently on the characterization of the apes than the previous ‘Planet of the Apes’ films. The realistic interaction between apes demonstrates the power of subtlety in a large-scale production.

The king of motion-capture acting, Serkis accurately mimics the movements of an ape and exhibits a broad, utterly mesmerizing range of wordless emotions. Serkis played Gollum in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and Kong in ‘King Kong,’ and Caesar marks his best motion-capture performance yet.

Despite an underwhelming performance from an oddly uncharismatic Franco, multiple weak scenes involving Will and his love interest, Caroline (Freida Pinto), and stretches of borderline laughable dialogue, ‘Rise’ is close to perfect. A drama disguised as an action flick, the film simultaneously blends the sensibilities of Pixar and Peter Jackson. Tonally and emotionally, it shifts so much the engrossing storyline takes a backseat to the sheer wonder of great Hollywood moviemaking.

Any displeasure at the few jarringly unpolished sequences quickly dissipates when the film’s only big action sequence commences: an epic, elaborate and heart-stopping battle staged on the Golden Gate Bridge. It seals the film’s billing as first-rate entertainment, preserving its pedigree as a character study while giving viewers what they want: the booms, thrills and suspense — what Hollywood is all about.        

smlittma@syr.edu

Published on August 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm