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Anyone who criticizes Rise of the Planet of the Apes for not developing its human characters as well as it develops its title characters is missing a few important points. First of all, the apes are the central characters here, and therefore, deserve to enjoy much more development than the humans on screen. Secondly, these apes are a thousand times better developed and display much more emotion than the dozens upon dozens of one-dimensional human characters who rear their ugly heads in multiplexes, especially during the summer. This second point is what makes the film work much better than we'd ever expect it to and to position itself above the mostly pedestrian fare that the 2011 summer blockbuster season has offered us. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a supremely entertaining cinematic offering, and the fact that, like Wall-E three years ago, it manages to accomplish that through characters who hardly ever say anything makes it even more of an impressive feat.
I expect a lot of people won't be aware of this, but this isn't the first time that James Franco has shared living quarters with an ape that is initially quiet and eventually starts talking. In 2005, he directed and starred in The Ape, in which he played a writer who moves to an apartment alone in order to have much-needed privacy so he can focus on his writing. But soon, he realizes that he's not alone in the apartment, because there's a talking monkey also living there. Human and ape form a turbulent relationship and it all goes ridiculously haywire from there. The movie went straight to DVD, so um, you can imagine how good it is. Thankfully, things are different (and much better) in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in which he plays Will, a scientist who's performing experiments on apes to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Problems arise, the experiments are shut down, and an order is given to get rid of all the apes, but Will manages to save a newborn and take him home. We then discover that Will's participation in the experiments has a very personal layer to it: his father has Alzheimer's. Will and his father decide to name the ape Caesar, and they raise him as though he were a member of their family. As you'll predict, things get complicated once the years pass and Caesar becomes an adult ape.
The early scenes in which the ape is being raised in Will's house benefit from never entering cartoonish territory, even in the scenes in which Caesar gets into scuffles with Will's neighbor. However, there's no doubt that the best material the film has to offer comes once it's discovered that Will has been keeping Caesar in the house, and is forced to put him in a place in which several other apes are kept together, especially because the always fantastic Brian Cox enters the movie at this point. The very best moments in the film are the ones in which there's no dialogue at all and the apes simply communicate with one another. There are times at which subtitles are necessary, but it never feels like a gimmick. The reason why these scenes are so great has to do with the fact that the CGI is truly top notch, and in the case of Caesar's role as the film's central character, the greatness is amplified by the fact that he's played by the fantastic, utterly brilliant Andy Serkis (who also gave unforgettable renditions of Smeagol/Gollum and King Kong, back when Peter Jackson was making great films just a few years ago). Serkis breathes so much life and fury into the protagonist that there are times at which it's almost too much to take.
The final act of the film is meant to embody the film's title, as the apes (including Caesar) escape from the place where they're being held and begin swarming the cities. There are plenty of effective aerial shots that depict said "swarming" as the stampede of apes move into the city areas. The final action sequence (which takes place on a bridge) doesn't quite have the panache needed to make for a searing last half hour, though I do appreciate the fact that the farewell that takes place during the film's final few seconds has JUST the right amount of sentimentality, and doesn't go overboard with it, which it easily could've done.
Like I said, while one could wallow in the criticism that the humans in the film don't feel as "human" as they should, it's hard to ignore the fact that these apes feel more like living, breathing characters than the average guy in tights who shows up on screens during the summer months. I understand the reasons that led Academy voters not to consider Serkis for a nomination for his masterful and humanistic work as Gollum, which made the character by turns hilarious, pathetic and frightening. But regardless of how much of it comes from the perfomance and how much of it comes from the CGI, Serkis has created some truly fascinating on-screen personas, and his work as the character that dominates the running time of Rise of the Planet of the Apes is further proof of that.
7/10
