Hail Caesar.

As the Summer blockbuster season drew to a close it dawned on my that it had been largely underwhelming. It all kicked off with Pirates of the Caribbean 4 which was average, had sprinkles of mediocre with Cars 2 and The Green Lantern, and a large dollop of boredom with Transformers 3.

It’s no surprise then that I didn’t walk into Rise of the Planet of the Apes with high hopes, and yet I walked out pleasantly surprised by it.

The movie is obviously a prequel to the movie: Planet of the Apes, I don’t think it matters if it’s Burton’s version or Schaffner’s. It starts off with a scientist called Will Rodman, played by James Franco, who is working on medication that will treat, and possibly cure Alzheimer’s. His father has the illness and so this motivates him to carry on his work.


The testing takes place with chimpanzees, and after a while of giving them this magic medication they show signs of high intelligence.


It’s quite a strange movie because you already know what happens, it’s just a case of seeing it unfold. It’s a little like watching The Revenge of the Sith. You know Anakin turns to the dark side, you just watch the story unravel.

Even so, the movie is very well told and provides us with a lot of good drama; it showcases some great action sequences and has more than enough to keep you interested. The cast is good, Franco with the lead role, Dick from Third Rock from the Sun plays his father, and Draco Malfoy plays, well Draco Malfoy.

The other main character is a computer generated chimpanzee named Caesar, played by Andy Sirkis, but don’t let that put you off, it isn’t as obvious to you that it’s not a real monkey. Sometimes in movies like this where one character is computer generated it starts to look unrealistic and stupid, although there are tiny elements of that here, it’s largely a seamless transition.

Caesar is the chimp who gets rescued by Franco when his research gets pulled. He continues his research and experiments at home, raising the chimp like a young boy. As time passes Caesar gets more and more intelligent, however still has the natural instincts of a monkey which gets him into trouble from time to time.

Unfortunately for Caesar, his instincts get him into a little too much trouble and he’s taken away and housed in a monkey sanctuary where he is abused by Malfoy. In all seriousness it is absolutely vital for Tom Felton to start getting roles that don’t require him to play Draco Malfoy. The guy is possibly the most type-cast actor in the world right now.

Anyway, due to this unnecessary abuse by Malfoy, Caesar goes ape and gets himself an army of monkeys hell-bent on getting free of their cages and into the forest. This is quite good I thought, they don’t want to kill all the humans, they just want to be free. The humans just kill themselves which is far more realistic.

I really enjoyed Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was one of the late arrivals to the Summer blockbuster season, but it was definitely one of the best. Come to think of it, all the best ones were released towards the back end. Probably to avoid Harry Potter. I haven’t seen that movie by the way, but I’m assuming it didn’t end well for Draco Malfoy... from Slytherin to Monkey World.

The only thing I can find wrong with this movie is the name: Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Why didn’t they just call it Rise of the Apes? Far better, but I suppose these days you have to spell everything out for everyone so I can see why they went with the rubbish name. I don’t think there will be much more in the way of sequels, perhaps they’ll do another prequel and call it Rise of the Rise of the Planet of the Apes or just remake Planet of the Apes yet again.

Overall Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a good movie. It’s enjoyable to watch, has a good cast, and features monkeys in trousers, what more could you possibly want?

Final Verdict: 4 Stars. Another good science fiction movie in 2011. Who’d have thought it?