Australian Penthouse

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo, Brian Cox, Andy Serkis
20th Century Fox

ORIGIN stories and prequels seem to have an unfortunate tendency of wasting precious viewing minutes before jumping into the crux of the story, despite the audience knowing the direction of the narrative. Thankfully, Rise of the Planet of the Apes does not conform to this mould. A shrewdness of apes is rounded up and shipped off to a not-so-local American research facility whereby the latest wonder drug is trialled on them in the hopes of advancing to human trials.

Scientist Will Rodman (Franco) is trying hard to impress his boss Steven Jacobs (Oyelowo) and a board of investors with a drug that shows promise as a cure to Alzheimer’s disease. After the presentation goes horribly awry, all test apes are euthanised with the exception of newborn Caesar (brought to life with motion capture work from the ever-nimble Andy ‘Gollum’ Serkis). Will takes young Caesar home for a temporary stint of care that becomes more permanent when his father, Charles (Lithgow), who suffers from Alzheimer’s, takes a shining to the infant ape.

As time passes, it becomes clear that the wonder drug has been passed genetically to Caesar and his intelligence readings are off the charts. When Jacobs tries to shut down Rodman’s research, he uses his father as a test subject with impressive initial results. More time passes and Caesar struggles to assimilate into the human world, ultimately leading to his imprisonment and the beginnings of an ape revolution.

The biggest problem with creating prequels to familiar material is how difficult it is to create an overall sense of tension. After all, any cinemagoer with a loose understanding of the original films will know how the ultimate story arc ends for this chapter. Despite this, the film is brimming with humour, cleverness and a lot more heart than your average popcorn film.

Thankfully, Rise of the Planet of the Apes swings away from cliché territory by avoiding the trap of populating the film with evil humans to justify Caesar’s plight. While there are some bad eggs, the majority of the human characters that Caesar interacts with portray our better, redeemable qualities, resulting in a layered and satisfying core narrative.

John Lithgow is the standout performance that, unfortunately, gets far too little screen time as he infuses empathy and frustration into the role of the Alzheimer’s-ridden Charles. The rest of the cast do a solid job of carrying the film from A to B, but not in any particular form that makes their performances particularly memorable.

The action sequences may be a bit sparse but they are sufficiently epic, particularly towards the end; even if the apes do suffer from a politically correct sense of ‘militant pacifism’. Caesar’s okay with revolting, but apparently has major issues with taking human lives, which is just plain weird. Couple this with the at times confused soundtrack cues that make it difficult to know who the audience should be rooting for—humans or apes—and some of the more visually impressive action sequences lose momentum.

On the topic of visually impressive sequences, the all-CGI ape contingent of the film are Weta Workshop’s (of Lord of the Rings fame) best work to date. Considering the sub-$100-million budget for the film, Weta continues to show they’re at the top of their game, infusing the ape characters with rich personalities and conveying believable emotion.

While it may be difficult to fully engage with a storyline whose ending is already predetermined, Rise of the Planet of the Apes still manages to impress for the most part, injecting heart and intelligence into what could have easily have been just another popcorn film.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes opens August 4

Review: Nathan Lawrence

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