Many years ago I was at Center Parcs with a friend, and for whatever reason we stayed in one day, all day, watching a Planet of the Apes marathon. By the end of the day I think we’d watched the 5 Apes films and seen more of Roddy McDowall then his own family probably did in one day. I liked the films at face value, as well as for their political messages, and of course Charlton Heston has a couple of memorable lines in the original (in the days before my memory of him was tainted by his obsession with the NRA).
Planet of the Apes
Recently I watched the new Planet of the Apes film ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and was impressed by it, it was much better than I thought it was going to be. Although not as good as the original (few films are in a franchise), it is definitely better than the several sequels and the Tim Burton remake that it spawned. The film basically shows how the apes ‘rise up’ and start their evolution (or revolution) into becoming the dominant species on earth. It is similar to Conquest of Planet of the Apes; however it differs to Pierre Boulet’s book in explaining how the apes take over.
In the book (which admittedly I haven’t yet read), apes are enslaved and relied upon to do manual labour, to the point that humans become so lazy and reliant upon them that the apes overthrow them. In Conquest cats and dogs are wiped out due to a disease and apes are also taken in as pets as well as being relied upon to do chores, and the same result occurs.
In the new film (SPOILERS), the origins are changed. There are two new storylines explaining this – one (which I find very clever) is based upon a new drug to cure Alzheimer’s that increases the intelligence of apes. The protagonist ape, Caesar, is the offspring of one test ape and the effects are passed down to him genetically and he becomes as intelligent if not more so than a human. By the end of the film he has rebelled and a helped a group of rogue apes become intelligent and unafraid of humans (who they subsequently attack in order to escape). However, they are a long way away from taking over and despite his anger Caesar instructs the others not to kill (with the exception of one character) and they obey. The second storyline is also linked to the drug. While it increases the intelligence of apes, it can prove fatal to humans if they are exposed to it. Which of course, happens, and very slowly an epidemic/pandemic begins to occur, although you only see a couple of characters suffering from this but it is obvious what is going to happen.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Although I liked the ending, it disappointed me slightly. The human protagonist is Caesar’s ‘owner’ (played by James Franco), who is rescued by Caesar when another ape tries to kill him towards the end. In an earlier version of the script Franco was meant to die, and I believe should have. There is a very evil looking ape who I presume will have a part to play in a planned sequel (the whole series is allegedly being relaunched, it is the age of the remake/sequel/prequel in Hollywood right now). I thought Franco would end up accidentally shot dead by a fellow human in a fight between the apes and the humans. This would cause Caesar to change his apathetic attitude towards killing humans and trigger the more violent attack on the human race. Or, the ‘bad’ ape would kill Franco, starting a fight between him and Caesar, which Caesar loses, making him the dominant ape and creating a more violent and deadly group of apes which evolve into the world we see in Planet of the Apes. Or, simply, the bad ape and Caesar fight and Caesar loses. Basically, Caesar and/or Franco should have died to explain how the apes come to not only hate humans but kill them as well, although I’m sure this will be explained in a sequel. And, thinking about it, in Planet they aren’t actually that violent – they do look down on humans but tend to enslave and/or imprison them rather than just kill them.
Still, it was enjoyable; my only complaint being the annoying Tom Felton who I don’t believe can act, will forever be attached to Harry Potter (along with the rest of the younger cast) and has a really dodgy accent in the film. Anything with John Lithgow in is always welcome, and the lovely Freida Pinto has a supporting role and thankfully doesn’t try to cover up her accent too much.
I normally hate CGI in films, finding make-up, stop motion and puppetry much more creative and realistic, but it’s quite good in this. There are also a lot of nods to the previous films, including one over the top one given to Felton to utter. In an unimaginative era for film-making (particularly ‘blockbusters’) this was a nice surprise. Although this isn’t a review as such I’d give it a 7/10, perhaps even 7 and a half.
