Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

It wasn’t difficult to initially underestimate Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).  Tim Burton’s reboot of the series (2001), now a decade old, left a bad taste in a lot of mouths.  Between the goofy ending and the wooden performances of Mark Wahlberg and Estella Warren, the only redeeming qualities to the film were Helena Bonham Carter and Danny Elfman’s percussive score.  Although Burton’s film was a financial success - it grossed $362 million against a production budget of $100 million - Fox decided against further exploration of one of their many tentpole franchises for years because of the critical backlash against it.  When Rise of the Planet of the Apes was announced for 2011 and a lackluster trailer (The medicine the characters are working on is called “THE CURE!”) hit a mere few weeks before the film’s release, it felt as if Fox was going back to a well of poison for a second time.  Thankfully, however, Rise of the Planet of the Apes benefits from generic manipulation.  A trait which, unlike the prescription enhanced ape of the film, goes unpronounced in Fox’s marketing campaign.   

The set up is fairly straight forward.  Dr. Will Rodman (James Franco) works for a pharmaceutical corporation located in the heart of San Francisco.  Inspired by his father’s (James Lithgow) battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Will develops and tests a cure on chimpanzees.  When the medicated chimps exhibit increased intelligence, it appears the medicine has the potential to be beneficial, both to the patients and to the corporation’s projected profits.  Will is asked by his boss (David Oyelowo) to present his work to the corporation’s board of directors which goes awry when one of the apes goes, well, ape shit.  As a result, Will’s research is put on hold and the test chimps are ordered to be euthanized.  During the process of euthanization, Will discovers the reason for the ape’s angry attitude:  it had a hidden baby chimp, Caesar (Andy Serkis), that she was struggling to protect.  Will takes him home, telling himself it will just for a couple of days…until he finds a proper shelter.    

The days turn to years and Caesar exhibits increased brain functions and physical abilities.  Will teaches the chimp how to communicate via sign language and how to look after his ailing father, who Will is secretly treating with the medication he developed.  Initially, the medicine helps his father and, along with Will and his girlfriend veterinarian Carolina Aranha (Freida Pinto), they form a surrogate family to Caesar.  It isn’t long, however, before Caesar matures, dad’s medicine wears off, and the family goes nuclear.  After assaulting an angry neighbor, Caesar is sent to Dr. Brian Cox’s Primitive Primate Prison, where he learns true human nature and, given his genetic enhancements, decides to lead his fellow prisoners (including a gorilla named Buck and a giant orangutan that looks like Chewbacca).  From there on out, the film becomes less Bedtime for Bonzo (1951) and more Battle of Algiers (1966) until it becomes a thematic inversion of the original film:  the apes are right, we are wrong.  We’re only mistreated by them because we mistreated them first. 

What makes Rise of the Planet work so well is the critique of animal testing.  While the ethical question is handled a bit too simple mindedly, it adds science to science-fiction, a genre that has devolved into spectacle-fiction for the most part.  Moreover, what makes us care about the critique is Wyatt’s direction of Andy Serkis and the all-CGI motion capture performances we are given for the apes.  Franco and Pinto have little to do here (although they do little decently); the film shines the most when it is essentially a silent film, leaving all the emotion on the faces of the apes.   Outside of Pixar films and The Iron Giant (1999), it’s incredibly rare to feel emotion via the tools of animation.  It takes a hell of an artist or, in this case, a hell of an actor and a team of artists, to break through the noise. 

Finally, the film is not without a decent action sequence.  The finale on the Golden Gate Bridge uses fog and sound effects to shake up what essentially sounds like a ludicrous premise:  apes vs. a SWAT team.  Wyatt and screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver know how to use the apes’ increased intelligence for plausible motivation, sending the cyber chimps climbing the wires of the bridge and coordinating an attack in a ghostly shroud of marine layer.  The end, when it comes, feels a little off simply because it leaves us with so many questions that will undoubtedly, considering the box office return and critical word of mouth, be answered in subsequent sequels.  However, unlike Burton’s attempt, Wyatt’s Planet of the Apes rises above thanks to an extraordinary combination of brains and technical brawn.