Rise of The Planet of The Apes (2011)

• Story
• Effects
• Soundtrack

The Rise of The Planet of The Apes (2011) is an American sci-fi movie directed by Rupert Wyatt. The film is a reboot of the original Planet of the Apes series and is intended to lay a new foundation for a whole new series. After I saw sample footage with digital created apes by Weta Digital I really wanted to check out this movie on the big screen.

[ please note ] This post contains spoilers !

Plot

Will Rodman is a scientist who is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by developing a retro virus and testing it on chimpanzees. The virus mutates the chimpanzees, giving them a human level of intelligence. A female chimp displays extraordinary development and might be the key to finally let Rodman test the virus on humans. Unfortunately the chimpanzee goes crazy and is shot down after escaping the lab and disturbing an important board meeting. Later Rodman finds out the chimp didn’t go crazy because of the virus, she was protecting her baby. Rodman decides to take the baby chimp home and continue his research.

Rodman’s father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, names the chimp Ceasar and is very happy to have a new family member. When Rodman sees the development of Ceaser, who has inherited the retrovirus from his mother, he decides to give the retrovirus to his father. Rodman’s father seems to be healed and no longer shows any signs of Alzheimer. But a couple of years later he has developed anti bodies to the virus and he again starts to suffer from Alzheimer disease.

Rodman thinks a more aggressive virus could be the answer and reports his findings to his boss. He develops a new virus and starts testing it again. Unfortunately the new virus has some side effects. Even though Rodman wants to test it more, his boss wants him to hurry up and speeds up the production process. Meanwhile Ceasar is struggling with the fact that even though his intelligence matches that of a human he will always be seen as a monkey. When he defends Rodman’s father and attacks one of the neighbors he is send away to a primate facility.

Ceasar has never spend time with other chimpanzees before. What will happen to him? Will his friend Rodman rescue him? What will happen to the dangerous virus?

Thoughts

Of course the plot of ‘Rise of The Planet of The Apes’ is not really new. If you’ve seen Deep Blue Sea (1999) you would already know finding a cure for Alzheimer, testing it on animals, making these animals smarter – always results in ‘bad news’ :P But ‘Rise of The Planet of The Apes’ has monkeys and technology on it’s side, making it a slightly better movie than ‘Deep Blue Sea’.

The movie has a great start in setting up the plot. Rodman wanting to help his father who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease touches a lot of people. Also the orphaned baby chimp Ceasar is just too cute. Even though Ceasar is a very smart monkey he doesn’t seem dangerous in the first half of the movie. It’s interesting to see how Ceasar tries to deal with the dilemma that he is not human, but also no ordinary monkey as he grows up. Weta Digital did a great job in creating a very life like monkey and creating Ceasar’s various expressions so the audience was really able to feel his emotions. Especially seeing Ceasar express his feelings of sadness and total disappointment were very impressive.

Then the second half of the movie starts when Ceasar decides to choose for his monkey side, if you could put it like that. In a way I understood his decision, but at that point you realize the characters and the simple plot of the movie are somewhat lacking. I couldn’t quite grasp Ceasar’s motivation, nor Rodman’s who suddenly bails out from his cure for Alzheimer’s disease research. That just went a little too quick without too much contemplation. Ceasar stands up against the humans and frees the monkeys, not only from his confinement but also the local zoo. He heads for the forest where he is home. The writers also thought of a very convenient way to spread the virus *sighs*

I know this movie sets up the story for a sequel, but the end felt kind of rushed and filled with questions. I guess that was how it was meant, but it did leave me with the “so this is it?” feeling.

Verdict

If you’re expecting Rise of The Planet of The Apes (2011) to offer you a solid plot as strong as the visuals, you will definitely be disappointed. It will not offer any substance for deep contemplation about an ethical dilemma. Yet, the movie does offer some good entertainment worth watching. Don’t feel bad if you’ve missed this in the cinema, it’s a pretty decent movie you can always pick up as a rental or if you’re a scrooge wait till it airs on TV.