No. You’re not a pet.

Plot:

Will Rodman (James Franco) works hard to find a perfect medicine to cure Alzheimer, which his dad, Charles (John Lithgow) has suffered for some quite time. Using apes as test subjects, a female one showd a bright future and potential cure after showing an enhancement of intelligence, but not until she created havoc in the lab. Turns out, she gave birth, and indirectly the ‘intelligent upgrade’ was genetically transferred to the baby ape. Decided to adopt it, Caesar (Andy Serkis) grew up intelligently, and staying with Will. Can Caesar become both part of a family and society, or forever still being a pet and lab test?

Review:

The original 1968 Planet of the Apes was a cult classic, with several sequels followed afterwards which never came close both quality and money making compared to the original one. Tim Burton's remake in 2001 was even a disastrous one (starring Mark Wahlberg). So, when I read the idea of people try to bring this franchise again, in a prequel form, I was totally sceptical, it was doomed to fail big time!

Now, I have to eat my own words, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (RoTPoTA) is a great and superb summer movie, although I still think the title was silly. Story was good, stellar cast performance, plot pace was never boring and kept me on the hook, and what a brilliant CGI usage. Using an animals (in this case, apes) as test subjects is nothing new really, but the idea of make them smarter is a tough thing to deliver. Using real apes to perform many of human thingy convincingly of course can be totally difficult, but using a CGI to make them as real as possible is even more challenging. Apparently, RoTPoTA opted to go through the latter way, and it worked awesomely!

From the cast point of view, RoTPoTA actually has a stellar cast, ranging from James Franco, John Lithgow, Frieda Piento, Brian Cox, Tom Felto a.k.a Draco Malfoy, and lastly Andy Serkis as the magnificent Caesar. But halfway through, it was overwhelmed by the CGI apes. Overall, the movie is kinda divided into 2 halves, where the 1st one mostly filled up by the humans, before the apes took the whole scenes downturn on the latter half. This role maybe an easy job for Franco, but he is still mesmerizing and captivating as a young scientist whose goal was solely only to cure his father's Alzheimer. Even only as a supporting role, I think Lithgow's character is probably the scene stealer, as his performance was kinda heart-breaking one. While Piento didn't do much, only as Will’s love interest, nothing more...but she's cute, so I'm okay with it. On the evil side, Brian Cox as the nasty 'ape prison' warden, never fails me with antagonist roles, while surprisingly, Felton's character is much more hateable and irritating than his Malfoy's portrayal...let's hope he does not stick up with this stereotype (although he did a pretty good job on it).

The second part of the movie is like 80% dominated by the apes revolution. It was a well crafted plot, especially when most of the time the apes communicate through body language. Fast fact, the movie costs only $90M, and by looking the amount of CGI usage, I must say it's pretty damn impressive. The apes' motion capture, especially Caesar (thanks to the brilliant performance by Andy Serkis), and the fur rendering, even facial expression, was rendered perfectly, efficient, and most importantly, convincing! Andy Serkis' performance may not tops Gollum, perhaps on par or even better than King Kong. The best thing from him is that he gave a ‘personality’ to the character, which made us stick up with him. Caesar, being both the leader and smartest ape, shows lots of human emotions and intelligent body language, but still in the ape form. There will be some moments the distinction between CGI and real apes became undistinguishable...well done WETA, another good portfolio!

Stylishly directed by unknown Rupert Wyatt, he must be grateful to have a bunch of great artists such as Oscar-winning Cinematographer, Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings trilogy), and of course the WETA team to render the whole magnificent motion capture CGI-apes. Storywise, I felt the third act was kinda rushed a bit, and the conculsion was not satisfactory (save for sequels, I assume). Half drama, half action, and partial moral message to save the apes. It’s far better than those mindless summer entertainment flicks, and although it’s not as grandeur and complicated as Transformers, the CGI is a technological marvel indeed. Pass on the banana!

My Review: 8.5/10