RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011)

— RANKING: 69 —

IN THE BEGINNING . . . Caesar (Andy Serkis) grows ever more aware of his own identity in this prequel to the 1968 classic. A similar story had been the basis for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), though that B movie cannot boast the technical and dramatic qualities on view here. Courtesy: Chernin/Dune/Big Screen/Ingenious/20th Century Fox.

CREDITS

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Dune Entertainment/Chernin Entertainment; Rupert Wyatt, dir.; Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, scr.; Jaffa, Silver, Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, pro.; Patrick Doyle, mus.; Andrew Lesnie, cin.; Conrad Buff IV, Mark Goldblatt, ed.; Claude Paré, prod. design; Dan Hermansen, Helen Jarvis, art dir.; Renée April, costumes; Bill Terezakis/WCT, special makeup effects; Aaron Sims, Kazuhiro Tsuji/The Aaron Sims Co., character design; Tony Lazarowich, F/X; Shaun Friedberg “Pyrokinesis”/Weta Digital, visual effects; Simon Baker/Weta Digital, technical effects; Thelvin Cabezas/Weta Digital, digital effects; 105 min.; Color; 2.35:1.

CAST

James Franco (Will Rodman); Freida Pinto (Caroline Aranha); John Lithgow (Charles Rodman); Brian Cox (John Landon); Tom Felton (Dodge Landon); David Oyelowo (Steven Jacobs); Tyler Labine (Robert Franklin); Jamie Harris (Rodney); Ty Olsson (Chief Hamil); Andy Serkis (Caesar); Karin Konoval (Maurice/Court Clerk); Terry Notary (Rocket/Bright Eyes); Christopher Gordon (Koba); Devyn Dalton (Cornelia).

BACKGROUND

As Fox’s original Apes series, production overseen by Arthur P. Jacobs, degenerated from a lofty artistic endeavor into a routine money-making franchise, a single series entry stood out as something special. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson, 1972), fourth in the quintet, revealed in prequel form an explanation as to how the turnaround—apes ruling over man—occurred. Such a vision of rebellion by a mistreated underclass would decades later provide the basis for a reboot. Following the failure of Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, Fox had to decide between dumping an outworn project or entirely re-imagining the piece for a new generation. Happily, they chose the latter. Rise of the Planet of the Apes proved true to the spirit of the original’s still-potent mythology without suffering from slavish devotion to specific details.

THE PLOT

Youthful scientist Will Rodman dedicates his life to a search for the wonder drug that will help regenerate diseased and/or decomposed tissue in a person’s brain. He pursues this dream for reasons altruistic (it’s the right, that is, idealistic, thing to do for humankind) and personal (his dad, suffering from Alzheimer’s, falls deeper into a vegetative state each day). To actualize this agenda, Will has become a workaholic at a major biotech corporation. Gen-Sys accepts his project from a cold, cynical, consumerist point of view: if it works, profits should be huge. All testing is done on chimpanzees. When a female primate whose intelligence has been expanded by doses of the experimental “ALZ-112” is accidentally killed, Will brings her orphan home to raise as a pet. Caesar has inherited the still-uncertain virus strain genetically and is developing a near-human IQ.

THE FILM

The reboot offered one more example of the manner in which, during the early twenty-first century, the invisible walls between avant-garde/indie filmmaking and the commercial mainstream gave way to a new Hollywood cinema. At their best, such hybrids presented intact artistic integrity and provocative ideas while providing the conventional romance between attractive leads and the heavy-hitting action sequences now considered requisite for a box-office success. The English director Rupert Wyatt (1972–) established his reputation with The Escapist (2008), an edgy indie that convinced the powers-that-be that such creative directorial achievement could be fused with the elements of a blockbuster to produce an Apes reboot.

For the character of Caesar, the husband and wife screenwriting team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver drew on the character of that name in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and the fifth installment, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), both directed by J. Lee Thompson. The female chimpanzee, Cornelia, recalls Cornelius from the original. Jaffa and Silver were inspired to create the story line less from a desire to be the avatars of a franchise reboot than from Jaffa’s coincidental reading of a newspaper story about pet chimps. Too smart to exist as simple domesticated pets, the chimps could not completely mesh with the humans around them, experiencing great frustration. The screenwriters realized that such a story, told in a realistic fashion and set in a near-future, could segue at the movie’s mid-point into a more fantastical tale of a rebellion that resulted from man’s inhumanity to . . . our not-so-distant relatives, the semi-human simians.

The term “performance capture” defines the manner in which artisans at Weta Digital in New Zealand created the ultra-convincing ape characters. Actors were filmed, in motion-capture suits, while performing in natural settings, and then, after a careful study of chimpanzees in the Wellington zoo, the team used digital enhancement for convincing appearance. The person most associated with this approach is Andy Serkis (1964–), who played Caesar and also appeared as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit prequels (2012–2014) for Peter Jackson. The process, also known as “motion capture,” uses a specially designed camera to record, as Serkis describes it, “the actor’s movements and expressions (which) are electronically tracked and (then) translated into computer imagery.” Essentially, this might be most easily understood as a twenty-first-century state-of-the-art equivalent to the traditional rotoscoping technique.

THEME

Nearly two hundred years after Mary Shelley created the precursor of literary science fiction with her Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, Rise proved that her original genre theme still remains the most significant idea existing in this form. Once more, a well-meaning scientist, who wants to improve the lot of humankind through state-of-the-art experimentation, creates the possible source of extinction for the human race. As such, Rise presents another cautionary fable about the dangers inherent in the very field of study that gives this narrative form its name.

Wisely, Jaffa and Silver added other thematic dimensions, also appropriate for sci-fi, to give the work more gravitas and expand its horizons. This includes genetic engineering in the first half and the increasing danger of pandemic diseases, owing to international travel, toward the end of the film, setting up the sequel. At least by implication, the theme of evolution is explored, the DNA connection of humans to apes being essential to the vision.

TRIVIA

Nominated for five Saturn Awards, Rise won in the following categories: Best Science Fiction Film, Best Supporting Actor (Serkis), and Best Special Effects.