Movie Review: The Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Good Lord that's one long ass movie title. Ano yan tongue twister? And writing this review took me what? Two weeks? I know I'm starting to lose focus once more but hell, I rarely watch t.v. these days and rarely go online. So now on with the movie...

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When this was announced, I wasn't particularly excited with the concept. I mean, really? A movie where almost all of us knows the ending? It's practically written in the title so you know what to expect. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. And the tagline states: Evolution becomes Revolution. Basic math na lang yan and context clues, ohhh me know math!! hooh hooh haah haah! me likey.


Was I surprised when I watched this film and found myself engaged in one of the best movies so far this year.

First of all, coming in the theater, I was assuming that the apes will play an antagonistic role in the film with the humans fighting a losing battle until the conclusion that leads to, well, the rise of the planet of the apes (pucha ang haba talaga) only to find out that I'm wrong and that the film basically revolves around one particular ape: Caesar.

Talk about evolving. (via)

Caesar (Andy Serkis) is the joey/kid/pup/baby of a failed experiment by Will (James Franco) at the film's beginning. We see the experimental drug Will is trying to create to cure Alzheimer's, which his father also suffers from. We then see it being applied on apes and we witness its effects on the test subjects. They gain: higher IQ, Lily Potter's green eyes, and I guess being extremely dangerous and awesome at the same time. Caesar's mom dies and the remaining subjects were executed except for the awww-kawawa-naman-sya baby Caesar. He gets adopted by Will and gets raised by him at home.

Awww ang liit/cute cute! (via)

From there, we witness Caesar's progress from being a child to a full grown teenager(?) who became a part of Will's everyday routine. We then learn that Caesar inherited his mother's altered genes (obviously) but if I remember correctly, his IQ was growing at a much faster rate. You'll notice subtle differences through the years: his improving writings, his social interactions, and more importantly, his posture while standing/walking.

Then it became pretty clear that this movie is not a film on an epic scale of wars between humans and apes, it's about one ape's evolution from being a child into a full grown adult capable of making his own decisions. The film was pretty clear in showing what the motives of each characters were when they're making decisions. Caesar, as you may have guessed you genius you, actually starts the revolution part of the film. However, they are not revolting against all of humanity per se, just the mistreatment that they were all suffering under Draco Malfoy (Tome Felton), William Stryker (Brian Cox), and some of the scientists, etc.

No more LATUNDAAAAAN! (via)

You gotta give credits to the actors in this film, they were all very believable in their parts and a standing ovation on the actors who brought the apes to life. Andy Serkis gave an amazing performance once more as a digital character. I'll count this as his second role (Gollum's first) where he deserves an Oscar nod for best supporting actor or even best actor but will probably not get one due to the absence of his physical body in the film (Kong doesn't count). But seriously, give him an award already! Kung pwede gawan nyo sya ng special award or something!

The writing is superb as well. Not expecting much when I entered but maaan, the story was intelligently written as far as I've seen. And the scenes actually has emotional weight to them even if they're dominated by the apes.

Overall, I'd say a 4.5 out of 5.

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notes:
launch of a spacecraft shown on t.v. could be the ship in the original film.
the end credits was a wonderful resolution on how the planet of the apes came to be. watch it.