HAIL CAESAR

MOVIE

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
James Franco, Andy Serkis
Director Rupert Wyatt
Review Ray Chan

I’M old enough to remember watching the original Planet of the Apes series as a kid in the 60s and not being impressed by Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall and co, who appeared even to my young eyes to be just humans wearing masks with mouths that did not close shut when talking, even if the prosthetics were ground-breaking at the time.
    And unbelievably, the make-up was considered even worse for Tim Burton’s lightweight 2001 remake, which was critically panned.
    So the trepidation was high as the lights fell on the first instalment of the newly energised franchise, rebooted for the times. But it was needless, as today’s technology reveals that you too can believe that a monkey can talk.
    In San Francisco, Dr Will Rodman (Franco), a brilliant genetic engineer working for a typical money-hungry conglomerate, wants to cure Alzheimer’s to save his fading father (John Lithgow).
    He designs a serum aimed at repairing the brain, but it does something even better in one of the chimps on which it has been tested, boosting her intelligence without any noticeable side-effects.
    As time passes, the subject duly gives birth to a chimp which had the magic potion delivered to him in utero.
    When she breaks free from her shackles at being separated from her child, she is killed by panicked security guards, which encourages Will to take the orphan chimp home as his own, naming him Caesar.
    As he grows, he proves to be not just smarter than other apes of his species, but smarter than humans of similar age as well.
    He also picks up language better than a human kid, and as he develops from baby to moody adolescent, his vocabulary and curiosity expands even faster, as do his expectations of what he wants from the world from which he is isolated, but which he watches in fascination from his attic window.
    Over-riding the weird science factor – in which viewers may question whether such fanciful notions are possible – is the emotional tug in the storyline which focuses on father-and-son relationships, as Will does everything he can to find the cure for his dad’s disease, yet thinks with his heart when it comes to taking care of his surrogate son.
    No moment is more poignant than the one when Caesar asks whether or not he is regarded as a pet. It’s a theme that lurks throughout the film, as animals who haven’t had Caesar’s advantages are treated without regard to their status as entities with feelings.
    The primate prodigy's world changes when he protects Will's dad from an aggressive neighbour, causing injury in the process. He is sent to a simian shelter where he assumes the alpha role among the caged menagerie of chimps, baboons, gorillas and orangutans.
    Caesar eventually breaks free from the facility and uses canisters of Will's drug to enhance the abilities of his new-found tribe, which he also liberates into the city, including some apes from the zoo for good measure.
    The camerawork is brilliant as the lens zooms in on the apes, swooping madly while negotiating the world on their terms, whether it’s crashing from room to room in the Rodman household, through the wilds of the surrounding woods, or swarming the Golden Gate Bridge in a devastatingly effective action sequence that plays to emotion and adrenaline.
    The star of the movie is undoubtedly Caesar, and that means actor Andy Serkis (seemingly making a habit of playing fantastic beasts), who puts in an absolutely triumphant performance.
    While the use of CGI has transmuted his appearance into that of a chimp, the actor creates a character of vivid complexity, the anthropoid face and form as full of empathy as that of a human.
    The childlike joy, the troubled confusion, and finally a stare of cool, focused malevolence as Caesar stands up to a tormentor, physically and intellectually, is gripping for its intelligence and for its inexorable desire for retribution.
    Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is a splendidly wrought cautionary tale about good intentions going astray, but one executed without sounding too preachy.
    It combines smart storytelling with groundbreaking effects to create an experience that is gripping from start to finish, standing as proof that the best movies entice us not just because of the mayhem, but from the ability to make us care why it's happening.
    The deliberate open ending of the movie sets up the promise of a sequel (or two), and if the same standard of emotion and adventure can be maintained, then it is something to look forward to indeed.

#riseoftheplanetoftheapes