Review

Review Date: 7-August-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Amazing as this sounds for a movie-lover, I first watched Planet of the Apes (1968) just two months ago. It wasn't the famously cheesy nature of the picture that kept me away, but rather its star, Charlton Heston, whose pompous on-screen presence I have never enjoyed. I didn't think I could muster much interest in his suffering even if he was being abused by apes while representing my own species. And I was right: I didn't care for Heston, nor did I care for his abusers.

Forty-three years after the original, the seventh movie in the franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, rectifies the problem of not having anybody to root for. Its story, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, is structured around a hero whom every viewer must like. I'm not referring to the human star, James Franco, even though he does give a strong performance as a scientist seeking a cure for Alzheimer's disease in an attempt to save his father (John Lithgow). I'm referring to Caesar, a computer-generated chimpanzee. The movie introduces Caesar on the day after his birth in the laboratory where his mother is killed trying to protect him. The baby is, of course, awfully cute, which is why Franco smuggles him home and cares for him. Caesar is also awfully intelligent, having inherited his mother's chemically enhanced DNA, which is why Franco raises him more like a son than a pet. The chimp learns sign language early on and apparently understands spoken English after a few years. He has his own room at the top of the house (a lovely San Francisco Victorian) and exhibits repentance and compassion after anger rouses his wild side.

In order to give rise to Planet of the Apes, however, human-ape conflict must occur. (Lest the title doesn't provide sufficient warning, Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto becomes Franco's girlfriend in order to point out that humans shouldn't mess with nature's plan.) An altercation with a human neighbor lands Caesar in the primate version of the dog pound, where he is subjected to homesickness, bad food, and a vicious caretaker. The scenes of animal abuse are, thankfully, brief and not too violent; still, they boost Caesar's good-guy status to an unimpeachable level. The one bright spot of his captivity is that he meets others of his kind for the first time. After a few uncomfortable moments when he is challenged by other males, Caesar becomes their leader. (And if the apes recognize that the smartest guy should lead, they're already one up on the humans.)

The action kicks in during the movie's final third, when Caesar uses his connection to Franco to obtain mind-enhancing drugs for all his followers and liberates them from bondage. Clever and pissed off, the barrel of monkeys rampages through the city en route to freedom among the redwoods. Hoping to regain his surrogate son, Franco pursues Caesar to his showdown with the police on the Golden Gate Bridge, then on to his final destination. The scientist's actions in the lab, towards his father, and towards Caesar are motivated by a tender heart, but the movie grabs and holds one's attention and affection because the chimp really deserves a happy ending.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.