Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I'm sorry I haven't blogged this great movie sooner.  I better hurry before its out on DVD.

As I said, this was a great movie and Alice and I both enjoyed it.  A long time ago we saw the original "Planet of the Apes" but this was a far better movie.  It really wasn't as much about people as it was about apes or chimpanzees.  I didn't care for the hero character of the movie (Will played by James Franco) because he created the problem and, in my opinion, didn't deal with it properly.

The point of the movie revolves around the Gen-Sys Company which is trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer's.  Will's boss Steve Jacobs (played by David Oyelowo) is an unlikable character who is all about money and when the medicine being developed has negative consequences he orders all the test animals to be destroyed.  Will illegally takes home a test animal and the chimpanzee (Caesar played by Andy Serkis) is remarkably intelligent.  A few years later Will gives the same medicine Caesar received to help his father Charles (John Lithgow) overcome Alzheimer's.  It works but has consequences.  In my opinion, John Lithgow deserves an Oscar nomination for his characterization.

It's complicated but, ultimately, after being confined in a zoo, Caesar is able to share the same intelligence building medicine with apes and monkeys as they escape from the zoo and eliminate the mean zoo keeper.  A standoff on the Golden Gate Bridge leads to the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and, in the closing credits, a plague which will wipe out most of human kind.

Caesar is a character you can love, though he doesn't have as much "soul" as I would like. The elderly Orangutan is a delightful character as are many of the chimps and gorillas.  When they eventually escape to the Redwood Forrest Will warns Caesar that in the forest humans will hunt them down, but that he can protect him if he returns home. Caesar, now capable of speech, gently tells him that "Caesar is home."  The movie ends with the apes standing upright and climbing to the top of the Redwoods overlooking San Francisco Bay.

The movie is definitely worth seeing on the big screen.