Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Reboot, remake, sequel, whatever you want to call them these days, a lack of creativity or risk taking has been plaguing Hollywood as of recent. But, with Americans being tighter with how they spend on entertaining themselves not alot of studios want to bankroll big budget movies. It just makes more business sense to modify something that's been done in the past and release it to the masses.

Rise of Planet of the Apes, is a reboot to a franchise that began in the 60's, with Planet of the Apes, which starred Charlton Heston. It depicts the life of Will Rodman, (James Franco) a San Fransisco scientist who has been developing a serum in the hopes of curing Alzheimer's. He's been testing a genetically engineered retrovirus on primates and the results are coming back very positive. The virus changes the primates in a way that vastly increases their brain activity, essentially giving them a human level of intelligence. But, their are negative side effects, when a primate becomes aggressive and utilizes her newly acquired intelligence to escape a secure room in a test facility and interrupt a very important board meeting, that would've secured more funding for the Alzheimer's cure research.

Rise is a very fascinating movie, with not too much write home about acting wise, unless you can wrap your mind around the incredible accomplishment of Andy Serkis, the actor who portrayed Gollum in the Lord of the Rings franchise. He or CGI modified versions of him, make up the character, Caesar, who is the central ape character in the film. Watching his body language, facial expressions, and general mannerisms enmeshed the audience in the struggle that the primates faced against their human overlords, if you will. I wasn't rooting on the humans in some of the final battle scenes on the Golden Gate Bridge, I was compelled by Caesar's look of betrayal, when he was "abandoned" at an ape facility later in the movie, to pull for the apes and their desire to acheive freedom from the testing facilities and zoo's of the Bay area.

Rise is certainly a very well-made, worthy summer movie that may just spawn the likes of another movie in the franchise sometime down the road.