Movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Year: 2011
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Thriller
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Stars: James Franco, Andy Serkis and Freida Pinto

Snapshot of Story:
The Planet of the Apes franchise movies have been with us close to 50 years owing much to it’s unique story and the play of Apes being the closest animal to humans. The version of this new movie goes back to the early times when a few apes come to have the same level of intelligence as humans and lead to the ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’.

Storyline:
There have been no references made about the accuracy of the movie in terms of the previous original movie and the version of the story in the original book. Since movies are made to entertain the audience, the issues of accuracy in content does not become significant as say a documentary. However, what is important are the true depictions of events that make up the whole story and stands well on it’s own merits. In this movie of ‘The Planet of the Apes’, the director has done well to capture the meaning and essence of the story in the two hours permissible but the story itself lends to some lack of credibility by the audience.

One of the primary conflicting points in the telling of the story is how ‘Ceaser’ the super intelligent ape is able to communicate effectively with the other normal apes in a humanistic way whereas humans to date have failed miserably to have any effective communication with apes. The director does well to picture Ceaser observing the behavior of his counterparts and have the apes take on his side and follow him to a revolt against the humans. This to me is the most difficult part of the story since Ceaser needed to deploy reasoning at the human level to convey to the other apes of his superior intellect, power and leadership. I particularly liked the ‘gesture’ of the ape in showing their hand face up with their heads bowed to the leader as a means of submission. The leader would swipe the hand with his fingers as a token of acceptance. One could argue that this gesture alone is a very high form of intelligent communication.
Another turning point in the movie is when Ceaser utters his first word ‘No’ that is made more credible by the director by deliberately leaving it late in the movie.

The special effects in this movie are superb and again we are mezmorized at how real the CGI graphics are becoming from year to year. It would only be a matter of time when entire movies are made from CGI graphics and we would not require real actors although this could be an overstatement.
There was another part of the story where I felt that the personality shift was too swift when the researcher Will Rodman played by James Franco who worked on the drug Alzheimer’s drug was quick to administer it to his father but was also adamant later in conducting more trials. However, in most cases the research establishments depicted in movies are often over dramatized to keep the momentum of the story going and hence lacks any substance but always includes more of the emotional content.

The Final Thought
The movie is a fair rendition of ‘what it could be like’ if there ever happened to be a super intelligent ape and the possibility of the ‘rise of the apes’. Although, in reality that would never be the case even if one were to create one intelligent ape since apes would never be able to work as an organized group. However, the movie scores well in portraying a fictitious movie that is both stimulating to watch and highly entertaining.

Score:
7.5/10

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