Film Review: Thrilling, Marvelous ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’

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CHICAGO – “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is spectacular entertainment, a perfect capper to the blockbuster season that is arguably the most purely enjoyable film of the warmer months of 2011. Rupert Wyatt’s highly-anticipated prequel is an old-fashioned piece of sci-fi escapism made with some of the revolutionary new toys available to special effects artists. The biggest surprise in a long time simply delivers what it promises and then goes way beyond that to become one of the most memorable summer thrill rides of the last few years.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.5/5.0
Rating: 4.5/5.0

Perfectly meshing with the mythology (complete with beautiful in-references that only real fans will catch) that technically began with the 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle but really took off with the Charlton Heston sci-fi classic “Planet of the Apes” in 1968, this prequel attempts to answer some of the questions presented by the beloved twist ending of the original film. How did Earth become overrun by talking apes? Where did it all begin?

StarRead Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” in our reviews section.

It turns out that the end of humanity started in San Francisco. That’s where our story begins with a scientist named Will Rodman (James Franco) working on a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease (which afflicts his father played well by John Lithgow) by experimenting on apes. The first test backfires horribly but leads to an offspring that Will rescues from the facility and raises as his own pet/child named Caesar (played in an amazing bit of motion capture by Andy Serkis, who did the same thing for Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings”).

It turns out that the impact of his experimentation can be felt even more strongly in the next generation and Caesar is not your average ape. He not only learns sign language but develops an incredible range of human emotion, expressions, and needs. When his protective animal nature gets the best of him, Caesar is forced into an ape habitat, ripped from his family and those he thought loved him. Of course, Caesar is too smart for his captors and the final act of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” becomes the action movie heavily advertised this season.

StarContinue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” review.

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” stars Andy Serkis, James Franco, Freida Pinto, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, Tyler Labine, and John Lithgow. It was written by Amanda Silver & Rick Jaffa and directed by Rupert Wyatt. It is rated PG-13 and opens on August 5th, 2011.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Photo credit: Fox

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