Theater Whore: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

So I finally got around to watching Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. Damn, I need a soda after writing that long ass title. From now on I will refer to it as Rise. This movie is about chimps being taken from the jungles and experimented on. There is a cure for Alzheimer’s that needs to be found, and damn it, we need these monkeys to do it!

James Franco (127 Hours, Pineapple Express, Eat Pray Love) is researcher Will Rodman whose father played by John Lithgow (3rd Rock From the Sun, Dexter, The World According To Garp) is suffering from Alzheimer’s and Will is doing everything he can to find a cure. After an ape breaks free and is taken down. They discover she had a baby that Will takes home. The ape, Caesar, inherited all of his mother’s abilities and is very smart.

Will steals some of the medicine from the research facility and gives it to his dad which cures him for a while before resurfaces…badly. Caesar witnesses a neighbor try and fight Will’s father and Caesar goes into beast mode!

                                     This is the last thing you want to piss off.

Caesar had a few other incidences in the neighborhood. He acts like a young human but super smart but has moments where he goes ape shit (see what I did there?!). After attacking someone and biting their finger off he is locked in a jacked up sanctuary where he has to learn how to be around apes. He has spent his life with people and wearing clothes and eating at tables. Now he is served slop and pretty much tortured by an asshole played by Tom Felton (Harry Potter, The Disappeared). The place is run by Brian Cox (Manhunter, The Ring, X: Men) who knows that his son is fucking with animals but does nothing about it.

While locked up Caesar adapts to the point where even when he is free to leave with Will he decides not to. Instead he gains the trust and respect of all the other primates. Meanwhile Will has been working on a better version of the cure. One of his assistants gets infected by it and eventually dies from it. Hurts humans, helps apes.

                                                                        Oh shit…

Caesar breaks free and he and the apes end up fucking things up! When I saw the trailer and saw the way they were handling cops with guns I thought “Oh, that’s nonsense. No way in hell monkeys and wreck shit like that.” But after watching it made sense. The battle on the Golden Gate Bridge is awesome and I ended up cheering for the apes. This film was really cool and I would actually see a sequel to it. The character of Caesar was that interesting.

Before I forget, I have to mention the guy who did the motion capture for Caesar, Andy Serkis. You may know his work as Gollum in Lord Of The Rings, King Kong in, uh, King Kong, and The Prestige. His performance as Caesar, a fucking chimp, was amazing. People have been saying he should be nominated for his performances and I have to agree. He was that damned good.