I went on saw The Rise of the Planet of the Apes there at the weekend and I actually thought it might be at first another clumsy semi remake just like the naff Tim Burton film was. But thankfully it turned out to be not bad at all, as these origin films actually tend to be quite good, as case in point Wolvering X-Men Origins was quite decent, X-Men First Class also pretty good.
SO PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!
So the plot basically follows how Government scientist Will Rodman (James Franco of the Spiderman films) is trying to discover a cure for Alzheimer's disease and tests it on chimpanzees. However one of the chimpanzees they test it on runs amok and is soon killed by one of the security guards, but it is later revealed that the chimp was protecting its new born son. When ordered to put down the other chimps, Will decides to secretly take home the new born chimp and names him Caesar. Then we cut to Caesar over the years developing and growing, as he too was born with the genes of his mother with the retrovirus, as he shows intelligence and problem solving capabilities. However years later Caesar one day attacks a neighbour who threatens Will's father (John Lithgow) who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease himself. As a result Caesar is taken away to a facility where other apes are held in captive and are also treated cruelly by one of the staff Dodge (played by Tom Felton, or Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter). In time though Caesar manages to escape the facility and go back to Will's house to steal the retrovirus which is held in canisters, and rolls them into the apes cells. After this the other apes show growing intelligence and after this they fight their way out of the facility and run amok through San Francisco in order to release their fellow apes from zoos so they can establish their own race, free from the humans.
The film does though have a bit of a slow start as it establishes how the apes are used for testing and how Caesar grows up etc, but it is quite entertaining and as the pace moves it gets better. The performances aren't too bad, James Franco, while not terrific in his part, is not bad as the compassionate scientist who takes his chimp away from facing death at the hands of a cold research facility. Brian Cox, who naturally is easily one of the best performers in the film, does quite well with his part, playing a man who isn't evil but is definitely thoughtless, although I think John Lithgow give the film's best performance, as Will's dad, a man who is tormented by a terrible disease that disintegrates his mind. I also quite liked Tom Felton as the nasty Dodge who takes great pleasure with sadistically mistreating the apes, and Frieda Pinto as James Franco's love interest is without a doubt quite the honey (sexist!). But of course they can't resist but put in dialogue that references the original film with Tom Felton at one point using the classic line "get your hands off me you damn dirty ape!!".
Special mention also deserves to go to Andy Serkis who performs the actions of Caesar, and this is certainly something he isn't in any way unfamiliar with, having done the movement for Gollum in LOTR and King Kong. On thing I would say about the film that did irk me a little is that the film is set over 10 years or so and James Franco and Frieda Pinto don't appear to age one bit!! I guess they just wanted to avoid using any unecessary makeup, but its almost like they never age! :-/ I also think the CGI in the film, while it isn't bad, doesn't work quite as well for all the apes, Caesar's CGI is very good though, but the orangutang in the film does look a bit daft!
Despite that The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (also quite a mouthful) is a worthy addition to the series and marks a big improvement over the duff Tim Burton flick from almost 10 years ago. So give it a watch if you get the chance.
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