It all started out with an experiment gone wrong, a heart-wrenchingly cute baby monkey and an oddly handsome scientist wanting to cure his ill father. (More heart wrenching)
It ends with the destruction of mankind.
The Planet of the Apes series is a little extreme to begin with, but the newest movie The Rise of the Planet of the Apes has taken it to a new level. It has added new meaning to the series; new metaphors, new depth and new perspectives.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes did a great job of explaining the back story to the original Planet of the Apes movie. However, it did not explain why its name is so tedious and why it uses the word “of” so much.
On one hand, the CGI monkeys had fantastic graphics. They were realistic looking, and all the actions done by the monkeys seemed like things real life monkeys would do.
On the other hand, there was not a single real monkey in the whole film, and you could tell. The CGI monkeys were very close, but there were many moments when their computer animated-ness was jumping out at the audience. It’s hard to lose yourself in the story when you keep noticing that the monkeys are not real.
Another thing that was unrealistic: Tom Felton’s jerk act. We all know by now that Tom Felton doesn’t have to pretend to be a jerk. He just naturally is. But this time he overdid it. He did his job of making the audience hate him while sympathizing with the monkeys, but he was just a little bit too obnoxious.
It’s not that he was faking it – we know he can’t – he just overdid it. Maybe he was too passionate about his role. Maybe the director was pushing him too hard. Either way, he just seemed like a scruffier version of Draco Malfoy.
And what was up with Frieda Pinto’s role? They hired a Bollywood actress to look pretty and act wussy. They had to have atleast one female role in the film to satisfy feminists, and they had to have one minority race role who didn’t die to satisfy just about everyone else. So they figured Frieda Pinto could cover both.
The only female role in the film was so weak, I don’t even remember the character’s name, and I didn’t know for the whole movie. She just did a lot of small, pointless scenes and she was barely fit in there.
But Tom Felton and Frieda Pinto gave room for other actors to shine. John Lithgow was the most believable character. The audience groaned and their hearts broke as he tried to remember through his Alzheimer’s how to play the piano and how to hold a spoon.
This is also one of James Franco’s best performances. He was a captivating main character, and a good companion to Caesar.
Caesar was not an actor, but his acting was just as brilliant. Whoever thought him up – his actions, his facial expressions, even his words – deserves a medal. There were moments when his character was so intense and so developed that I believed he was really alive. He was the only monkey that remained believable almost the whole time, despite the constant CGI.
Overall this is a really creative movie with a moving plot. There are very few slow parts, and the movie moves along naturally.
I give it 4 stars.
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