Not been an ape film fan and have avoided most of the previous incarnations but the involvement of James Franco, who's been making some great films recently drew me to the cinema.
The story revolves around Franco's character Will who works for a drugs company and is experimenting on chimpanzee's in order to develop a drug for Alzheimer's which his father happens to be suffering from.
When the experiment goes wrong it is closed down and the chimps are destroyed apart from a baby which Will sneaks home and raises, continuing with his drug trial. The drugs allow the chimp, named Caesar, to develops beyond the normal capabilities of his species. All is going well until one day, the grown up Caesar attacks a neighbour who had been violently confronting Will's father.
Against Will's wishes he's sent to a penitentiary for naughty and unwanted apes which is where the trouble really begins.
And I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It's an intelligent enough story to engage, the principle characters are interesting and likeable and there are some fantastic cinematic moments. But it still has enough heart to give it depth. Harry Potter's Tom Felton channels Draco as a cruel keeper at monkey prison but it is the CGi apes which are the real stars.
Just watching the Twilight saga's New Moon last night and the contrast between the wolves in that and the chimps in Planet of the Apes is like comparing a CD discman with an iPod.
In an interview Andy Serkis, who plays Caesar, said he approaches CGi characters in exactly the same way as he would a human character. He is also on set acting with those playing the humans (above) and it is this attention to detail which I think gives Caesar both character and realism.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is entertaining and ends satisfactorily but with just enough loose threads to lead into a sequel which I'll certainly be seeing, especially if Mr Serkis and Mr Franco reprise their roles.
I'm going to give it 78% while on IMDB it's got 80% from users and a Meta score of 68%. On Rotten Tomatoes the critics have given it 83% and users 89% so a winner all round really.
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