Save Your Money, Skip “Rise Of Planet Of The Apes”
Imagine, if you will, a drug that could reverse the damage caused by Alzheimer’s. How revolutionary would that be? Now, imagine if that drug went further and boosted your intelligence — but when does science cross the line? When does science become something darker in its attempt to shine the light?
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” opened on Friday. It stars James Franco in the lead role as scientist Will Rodman, developer of a new medical drug, Freida Pinto as his love interest Caroline Aranha, John Lithgow as Will’s father Charles Rodman and Andy Serkis in the titular role of Caesar, the primate that sparks the revolution. The film is rated PG-13 and is directed by Rupert Wyatt.
Caesar the primate is blessed and cursed with an elevated intellect due to the fact that his mother is Rodman’s original test subject – causing the experimental drug to invade Caesar’s genetic makeup. However, due to a horrific laboratory incident, Rodman has to smuggle baby Caesar out of the workplace and into his home, thereby continuing his research. The rest of the film deals much with Caesar finding his place in the world. He does not really know what he is. Although Rodman assures him he is not a pet, he cannot really explain why he is treated like a beast.
Why this movie works: It really doesn’t work. I really wanted to like this movie, but in the end, it is not what is advertised. The rebellion takes up about a quarter of screen time, and even then the real rise comes from an off screen menace.
The best performance comes from John Lithgow playing a father stricken with a debilitating illness — although at one point I could not help but giggle as I watched Lithgow conjure up some of that “Third Rock from the Sun” magic to play a senile old man. The second belongs to Andy Serkis who keeps recycling his motion capture camera act he made famous as both Gollum in the King of the Ring trilogy and King Kong in King Kong.
Why this movie does not work: This movie is simply dead on delivery. James Franco gives a listless performance. He starts off as the smartest guy in the room at the beginning, but somewhere around the third act, you want to reevaluate that thought. Frieda Pinto is used for nothing more than a personal nurse for Caesar. This is muddled filmmaking because it deals with multiple subplots. This movie suffers from the typical shortcomings of suspended belief.
For example, why would the city of San Francisco respond with only one helicopter to suppress an ape rebellion? Next, Rodman thinks he could fix the fact that San Francisco is being torn apart by primates, by simply taking Caesar home. At one point, Will Rodman relies on paperwork in order to retrieve Caesar.
What should have been a scene that belongs on a DVD extras reel as cutting room filler becomes a prominent scene in a movie that cannot make up its mind whether it wants to humanize Caesar, or give him probable cause to spark an insurrection. To make matters worse, there is yet another subplot that literally takes place during the rolling credits which is the true backbone of the uprising of the apes.
The bottom line: Save your money. This movie is not even worth checking out on Netflix. It operates on a formula that is cookie cut so badly, you would have thought M. Night Shyamalan was at the director’s helm. I thought the lowest point of this sci-fi franchise was the Tim Burton remake of the original “Planet of the Apes.” I stand corrected.
Follow Oscar Barajas on Twitter @Oscarcoatl.
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