Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the exhausting title to the seventh entry in the Planet of the Apes series and it serves as a sort of reboot, as well as a prequel.  I know how much you like prequels and reboots!  I was not looking forward to this one whatsoever, if only because the last effort to revitalize this franchise was a huge disappointment for me, and that movie had a much better cast and director.  This director had made only one other movie, and I had never even heard of it.  What would it take to make Rise even halfway decent? 

Hint: more than a tire swing

Well, a different focus, for starters.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes begins with brilliant scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) experimenting a new drug on chimpanzees.  You see, Will's father, Charles (John Lithgow), has Alzheimer's and Will is trying to find a cure.  In other words, his drug will repair the brain, or enchance the brain if no damage is present.  When Will finally finds a chimp that responds positively to the drug, he pleads with his boss (David Oyelowo) to approve human testing; boss-man agrees to give Will a chance to convince the Board of Trustees.  On the very day of Will's presentation, the super-chimp (dubbed "Bright Eyes") goes, um, bananas, attacking people and destroying property.  Obviously, the drug is bad and all the chimps must be killed.  But wait...!  Will and his monkey handler guy (Tyler Labine) discover a teeny, tiny baby chimp in Bright Eyes' cage --- Bright Eyes wasn't drug crazy, she was protecting her child!  Aww...!

Free shipping?  Why wouldn't you buy a monkey?

So, yeah, that was tragic.  Will won't let the baby monkey get all murderdeathkilled, though.  He does what any scientist in a similar situation would do --- he experiments on the monkey because its momma was taking some crazy drugs when it was in the womb sneaks it out of the building and takes it home with him.  This was going to just be a temporary solution, but Will's dad seemed to like the monkey, so it stuck around.  More than that, this monkey turned out to be super-smart.  In fact, little Caesar (motion-capture-acted by Andy Serkis) is brilliant enough to convince Will to steal some of his experimental drug and try it out on his dad, on the sly.

"Pizza!  Pizza!"

Everything seems to be coming up Will for a while, but eventually Caesar is discovered by the neighbors and Will is forced to give him up.  And this is where the movie gets interesting.  Up until this point, Rise of the Planet of the Apes has been about Will raising Caesar almost like a son.  From this point on, the film is about Caesar becoming a man.  Well, not literally.

The human actors in Rise of the Planet of the Apes are just okay.  I don't completely buy James Franco as a brilliant scientist, but I thought he handled his role fairly well.  Freida Pinto's character didn't add a whole lot to the story, but she was also fine.  John Lithgow was pretty good as Will's father, but I would have preferred seeing his character's big breakdown happen at night.  David Oyelowo was less impressive as the greedy and ruthless science boss; his character could have legitimately had a mustache-twirling scene where he counted his imaginary money.  Brian Cox plays a small supporting role and is decent, although I think he has played the same basic bastard character a few times over by now.  This is the first first big post-Harry Potter role for Tom Felton, and he is once again stuck playing a villain.  I really wanted to like Felton here, but I couldn't wait to see him die.

If only for his lame "It's a madhouse" line

As the primary chimp, Caesar, Andy Serkis was phenomenal.  It's too bad that his acting isn't considered legit by most big-time awards shows, because his motion-capture work is just astounding here.  Really, the emotional weight of the film depends on Serkis' physical acting and he does not disappoint.  Shifting the focus of the story onto a monkey --- without a human to narrate to the audience --- was risky and potentially hilarious (in the wrong way), but Andy Serkis absolutely made this film.

Now, kiss

Director Rupert Wyatt did an impressive job with the actors who were imitating monkeys; the rest of the film he could have handled better.  The second half of the movie, which focuses almost exclusively on Caesar's struggles, is pretty great.  Monkeys fighting each other, monkeys fighting Draco Malfoy, monkeys being monkeys...the only thing missing was poop throwing.  Not all directors can handle CGI directing, but Wyatt did not appear to have a problem with that.  The first half of the movie, though, occasionally veered into the realm of ridiculousness.  Not all of it is Wyatt's fault, but as director, he should have prevented some of this.

Let's start with the title/tag line.

Okay, that's a pretty cool bit of promo work, but it (and the movie's trailer) definitely imply a hell of a lot more fighting and, well, revolution than the final product provides.  There are only two definite ape-on-human deaths in this film, despite a swarm (a flock?  A pack?  A murder?) of apes fighting the police on the Golden Gate Bridge.  Those scenes were entertaining, but if you went into the movie hoping for a lot more action like that, you would be sorely disappointed.  Instead of there being a "revolution," SPOILER ALERT: the apes go into the redwood forest.  Humanity then apparently suffers a pandemic during the closing credits.  That's right, the deadliest part of this movie happens off-camera.  Really, that was the most disappointing realization I had with Rise of the Planet of the Apes; it wasn't so much a "rising" as it was winning by default.

Fact: apes love railings

That ending would have been a slight let down in the best of times, but when you combine that with a supposedly smart story doing many stupid things, things start to get ugly.  I won't dive into my first problem with Rise of the Planet of the Apes in depth, but I have to mention it.  This movie takes place over a span of eight years.  Eight years!  And the only character that has even a slight cosmetic change in all that time is Caesar.  I'm not saying that Freida Pinto needed a perm or that James Franco should have had a mullet, but every human character is static over those eight years --- they have the same appearance, the same jobs, live in the same homes, and apparently have the same opinions.  If anything argues that this movie is about the CGI monkeys, it is that indifference to character development.

Slightly attracted strangers, or longtime lovers?  This could be any scene in the movie.

My biggest problem had to do with the way Will's scientist gig worked.  I'm not a high-profile scientist tasked with the job of creating something new, safe, and ridiculously profitable, but I imagine security at places where that sort of thing happens would be fairly strict.  Not only is Will able to sneak out a baby chimp in a perforated shoebox on "Kill the Monkeys" day, but he steals what amounts to dozens of canisters of his super-secret brain drug.  At least they hid stuff inside shaving cream cans in Jurassic Park --- he just puts them in his pocket.  And does nobody take an interest in Will's life at work?  "Gee, Will, it sure sucks that the company wants you to stop researching the drug that might cure your dad's Alzheimer's...oh?  Your dad's much better now?  That...um...shouldn't happen, but...great!  Are we missing some of the brain drug canisters?"

There are moments of Rise of the Planet of the Apes that are truly entertaining.  Caesar's schemes were pretty cool and the CGI/motion-capture expressions were fantastic.  But this is a clumsy movie.  It has ham-fisted references to the original film (although the spacecraft bit was subtle and cool) and extremely shallow human characters running around in a plot with many convenient logic holes.  I can't overlook my utter surprise that this movie wound up entertaining me, but I was disappointed in the overall direction of the picture as well as its numerous moments of stupidity.  Given the same overall story and a less ridiculous script, I would probably give this movie eight stars.  But Rise of the Planet of the Apes sucks hard on the stupid lever, and I can't ignore that.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

This review was prompted by a request from DJ Hates You at No Bulljive.  I had no intention of revisiting this classic for a while, but I was reminded that the upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes was just around the corner.  So, here we are.  Here's a tidbit that I found interesting: Netflix describes Planet of the Apes as a "camp classic."  While there are certainly many chuckle-worthy moments in the film, I don't think it falls into the camp genre.  Then again, I had this song stuck in my head for two hours after watching the movie:


In the far-flung future of 1972, faster than light speeds are not only possible, they have been implemented in NASA spaceships.  George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and his fellow astronauts have achieved the objective of their space mission (to...go somewhere for...something?), and they are going into a hibernation sleep with the expectation of arriving back on Earth sometime around 2040.  Who would volunteer for a mission that --- best case scenario --- turns you into a person without friends, family, or a place in society?  Astronauts, apparently.  Asshole astronauts, specifically, in Taylor's case.  He seems to revel in pointing out his crew's position ("everything you know is dust," he mocks) whenever he can.  Well, something went wrong.  Instead of arriving home in 2040, they crash on an unknown planet, with the spaceship clock reading 3978 AD.  Whoops.  Someone overslept. The planet they crashed on has a breathable atmosphere, but is very different from our world.  Here, humans (or something like them) are mute, cavemen-ish beings, and apes are the dominant species, walking on two legs, wearing clothes, speaking, and all that jazz.  If I had to describe this concept in a house-related metaphor, I would call it a "madhouse."  A MAAAAAD HOOOUUUUUSE!!!

So...where does all the leather clothing come from?

Anyway, one thing leads to another and Taylor and his astronaut buddies are ambushed, along with a tribe of mute humanoids, by apes; one of the astronauts dies and Taylor's vocal cords are injured in the attack.  The captured people are brought to some scientists for study.  Here, Taylor draws the attention of Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) because he can clearly understand them and communicate, even without his voice.  The very concept of an intelligent human is too much for the ape government, though, and they make moves to have Taylor castrated and/or lobotomized.  What does the ape power structure have to fear from a single alien humanoid?

Sad fact: Roddy McDowall would be typecast as an ape, due to his clear ape ancestry.

Sure, I can understand the possibility of  Planet of the Apes being campy.  There are a lot --- a lot --- of unintentionally hilarious moments.  I love that Taylor is abrasive and mocks any sense of hope that his crew members might have in the beginning of the movie --- that's true leadership.  I also laughed when the astronauts found their first sign of life on this strange planet, a small plant, and they dig it up; it's like they were trying to say, "We found life!  Let's kill it!"  It's also silly that the astronauts found proof of intelligent creatures (the scarecrows) in an area and immediately opted to all get naked and swim.  It amused me that a movie that insisted on a man-ape kiss...

...would also have movie posters vilifying the concept of man-woman sex.

I don't really see the whole "forced to mate" tag line as a problem.  Zira wants to reward Taylor for his intelligence, so she has a beautiful and, surprisingly, not too hairy woman (Linda Harrison) placed in his cage.  Taylor seems insulted that he is being offered sex as a reward, but I have a feeling that a more realistic reaction would have been along the lines of "I'll have sex with this beautiful woman, but not just to please you apes."  Also unbelievable is the scene where Taylor runs and climbs circles around a city of apes.  Really?  He's better at climbing than them?  Well, I guess that's slightly more believable than the ape society of 3978 AD speaking (and writing) in 20th-century English.

The acting in Planet of the Apes doesn't help the silly tone any.  Charlton Heston is not exactly an understated thespian, especially in films that are supposed to be larger than life.  Aside from his inexplicably dickish behavior to his fellow astronauts, I was fine with Heston's overacting; he has so many classic lines in this movie and I can't imagine anyone delivering them better.  I will say that Heston is the worst fake mime I have ever seen.  Sadly, he's pretty much the only cast member that is allowed to emote.  Linda Harrison did a good job as a sexy cavewoman-ish lady, but it's not like that was a role that required much.  The chimpanzees, played by Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter, were fairly expressionless in their prosthetic facial makeup.  The orangutans, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) and James Whitmore (Brooks from The Shawshank Redemption) were a little better.  I actually like the Dr. Zaius character, if only because he's believably complex; he's probably the most well-rounded character in the film.

Maurice Evans' honest-to-goodness IMDb profile picture

I'm not really sure how to gauge Franklin J. Schaffner's direction in this movie.  The script is filled with dozens of eye-roll-worthy references to 60s culture and bits that are supposed to point out how similar the ape society is to ours, and the makeup (while impressive for the time) inhibits almost all of the acting in the movie.  And the acting that isn't hampered by makeup is the ridiculously macho performance from Heston.  Something about Planet of the Apes makes me want to argue that Schaffner did a good job, though.  For as silly as movie is at times, it is able to maintain an epic scope that isn't hurt by the silly costumes or over-the-top dialogue.  It helps that the score is pretty cool, even if it is melodramatic, but I think this director had a vision for this movie and made it happen.

Is Planet of the Apes subtle or thought-provoking?  Not especially.  The two things that everyone that sees this film can agree on is that it is epic, and it is science fiction.  Even with the abundance of silliness in this movie, there is something kind of awesome about how everyone in this movie just goes with the flow.  As much as I find Heston's lines (especially the "damned dirty apes" one) to be funny, I also find them genuinely effective.  This is a movie that should be, by all rights, absolutely awful.  It's called Planet of the damned dirty Apes, after all!  However, it is keeps a pretty quick pace, and keeps any philosophical notions about the nature of man as minor plot points that don't hamper the adventure.  I don't know if it's actually a good movie, but I find it pretty entertaining.

Here's my favorite Planet of the Apes reference, via The Simpsons.  In my opinion, I would have rather seen this musical than the Tim Burton remake.  Apparently, the internet is a little scarce on English-language embeddable Simpsons clips.