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Friday, August 5, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Animal Planet, In San Francisco,
U.S.A.
A CGI chimpanzee, aka Caesar (voiced and sometimes inhabited by Andy Serkis) in
"Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes".
Fox
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday,
August 5, 2011
The documentaries
"Nénette" and "Project Nim" have chronicled
orangutans and chimpanzees respectively in 2011. "Rise Of The Planet Of
The Apes", the new feature which opened nationally today, showcases both.
More significantly, Rupert Wyatt's drama is a rousing, triumphant and often
superior companion to previous "Planet" films.
"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And
you...will...atone!", is a line
spoken with gruff force in "Network".
Humans meddle aplenty with primal forces of nature in "Rise". In
present-day San Francisco, Gen Sys scientist Will Rodman (James Franco)
discovers a drug that radically improves brain function and the power to heal
brain injury. Will uses the drug to help cure his Alztheimers'-afflicted
father (John Lithgow). The results are encouraging. Gen Sys CEO Dr.
Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo) wants Will to experiment on a chimpanzee at their
lab with the drug and its genetic enhancements. Result: chimp intelligence
levels are sky-high. Human-like behavior. Very human.
Will adopts a chimp named Caesar (Andy Serkis voices the CGI ape, pictured
above.) Will's girlfriend Caroline (Freida Pinto), doesn't like what's
happening. "You're trying to control things that are not meant to be
controlled," she says. Sure enough, things will get out of hand. The
film blends a standard story line: well-meaning scientist has eureka moment and
tries to do good for humans in general. Ape "out-of-water" tries to be
understood, not feared, in new environment. Corporate man turns
opportunity into rampant greed. Results wreak havoc.
WETA Digital (which did effects on the Oscar-winning "Avatar" and "Lord Of The
Rings: Return Of The King") brings its CGI primates to life with powerful
realism. Sequences of violence are especially real, edited crisply by
Conrad Buff IV and Mark Goldblatt. Patrick Doyle's pulsating score
reinforces the film's blunt impact when the consequences of mistreating a
species are fully realized. The score matches and alternates with the mood
and rhythm of its characters; sometimes gentle and peaceful, and at other times,
harsh and anarchic.
Caesar has a human pulse. He's able to reason where some of his cohorts
aren't. This balanced film cleverly modulates the worst human impulses
(exhibited by Tom Felton's nasty, abusive zookeeper character Dodge Landon) with
its most hopeful ones (the compassion of Mr. Franco's Will character), and does
the same for its creatures.
"Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes" has such a deep reservoir of feeling and
emotion that you can't help being drawn into and transfixed by it. You
needn't have seen the previous group of films to understand and appreciate it.
As lensed by Andrew Lesnie, "Rise" looks and feels authentic, and is
occasionally terrifying. I was awed, enthralled and touched by its
sensitivity and heart. "Rise" cedes much of its stage to the apes,
embracing them as the film's center. Scenes are devoted to apes examining,
comprehending and being.
What "Rise" does so well is showcase a world of humans, apes and their
complexities. As I watched I kept thinking, why are humans so obsessed
with tampering, meddling and controlling? Mr. Wyatt shows us what happens
when apes tamper back. The film unleashes its "King Kong" moment minus Fay
Wray: a climactic showdown of the species on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
It's a staggering stage, spectacular and arresting, each moment of it crafted
meticulously and convincingly.
Screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver take care to layer the stage to a
degree that's commendable and unusual in a blockbuster Hollywood summer
action-adventure movie. We witness an evolution of ape and a struggle to
understand. Both ape and human species talk past each other and within
their groups. Every action prompts a reaction. The line between ape
and human is blurred. There are laboratories of experimentation and
laboratories of anger-building. "Rise" shows us the best and worst of
ourselves, in impulses that are ugly and altruism that is commendable.
"Rise" is a tense, gripping and breathtaking sci-fi adventure. Mr.
Franco is its lead figure but its true star is Caesar, memorable and as real as
any human, and designed by WETA. Someday, maybe 200 years from now, when
the Academy contemplates honoring work by CGI created characters they'll go
centuries back and look at Caesar, a not-so accidentally-named ape. As
engineered by Mr. Serkis and WETA, Caesar gives a keener and more subtle
performance than any of the film's human actors.
Ultimately, "Rise", which has tender, disturbing and humorous moments, is a bold
cautionary tale about humanity, and carries a hopeful look at the future.
Swift, sharp and entertaining, "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes" is impressive,
easily one of the summer's best films.
With: Brian Cox, Jamie Harris,
Tyler Labine, Madison Bell, Makena Joy, David Hewlett, Ty Olsson.
"Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for intense and frightening sequences of action and
violence. The film's
running time is one hour and 45 minutes.
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