Release Date – 8/5/2011
Will Rodman is a scientist working on the cure for Alzheimers Disease. His father suffers from it so the work he does hits very close to home. They have almost perfected a drug that re-generates brain cells and are in the stages of testing it on chimps. When testing goes wrong, the project is shut down. All chimps are ordered to be put down, except Will saves one infant that was given birth to by one of the chimps that were experimented on. This infant has the drug in its system from birth and brain function is accelerated. Years go by and the chimp, Caesar, lives secretly with the family. They treat him as a human and not as a pet. But after an accident, the chimp is sent to an ape rescue facility and due to his higher intelligence plots a way to escape. Maybe its because I had low expectations, but I really liked this movie. It was an entertaining story, awesome visual effects on the apes and packs some action in the end. Surprise hit of the summer I’d say.
James Franco may be the star on paper, but Andy Serkis motion captured as the ape Caesar steals the whole f’n show. Franco plays Will Rodman, a man fueled by anger over the disease that has changed his father (played excellently by John Lithgow). He rushes along experiments and even starts stealing drugs from the facility when they deny human experimentation. After Caesar comes into the picture and a lady friend (Frieda Pinto), life is looking good. But Caesar isn’t fully on the level of humans and still has that wild animal instinct inside him. He attacks a neighbor that is picking on the father and is sent away to live at an ape rescue facility. Meanwhile Will and his family await court dates in order to get Caesar back with them. While at the facility, its like high school when the new, weird kid arrives. Caesar gets picked on and is deemed an outcast. He doesn’t understand why and sets out to escape. But his hate for the two men running the facility (Brian Cox & Tom Felton) and seeing his fellow apes in terrible conditions, the need to free his fellow apes engulfs him. He starts plotting a way to become the leader of the pack and free in turn, free them all.
I have to give a hand to the special effects team here. The same guys that did the motion capture work on James Cameron’s Avatar worked on this movie. The apes look fantastic. The best actor in the film was a goddamn monkey! Without speaking, the facial and body expressions were enough to convey real emotion. This movie made me sad while thinking of a household pet that has to be sent away and also creeped me out when apes started getting smart. Caesar was made really creepy looking towards the end. It was a really entertaining movie from beginning to end. The director is a relative unknown, Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist), but he did a great job. It had some cheesiness to it (did they really have to add in the GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME line AGAIN?!) and some small parts that would make you snicker (an ape on horseback?). But all in all, it’s a movie about family. Not your ordinary family, but still about that relationship. And the outcast that is never going to fit in. Then it becomes full on action during the final half hour, edge of your seat kinda stuff. Again, I must say, in a summer of not so many great films, this one was a surprise hit. STAMP IT for all ape-kind!
IMDB – 7/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 79%
Movie Wiseguys – 8/10
