What results is a film that is by turns heartwarming, heartbreaking, and incredibly absorbing. Franco and Lithgow form the core of the human side of the story, and both actors bring their A-game. The relationship between the two characters feels very real and very deep. It almost brings a tear to one's eye to see Charles Rodman fall apart while his son desperately tries to save him. Franco really sells the intense emotion required for this to work and Lithgow, as always, inhabits the personality of his character. Another dimension is added to Will's personal life when he meets, and falls in love with, the veterinarian Caroline Aranha, played by the GORGEOUS (a little bit of author editorializing there) Frieda Pinto. Unfortunately, Pinto is not given much to do and is therefore a much less engaging character than her co-stars. But this movie is supposed to be about apes, right? Caesar is the real star of the show here, and boy, what a star he is. the cg work used to bring the chimp to the screen is visually fantastic. It's the best cg in years, maybe ever. Normally, these reviews will attempt to avoid hyperbole, so rest assured, there is no exaggeration in that statement. Over the five years portrayed in the film, Caesar and Will develop an intense bond, as Will serves as a father figure for the animal. The nuances captured in Caesar's face as he reacts to Will scolding or praising him are unbelievable. The viewer can see a wide variety of individual emotions clearly register and disappear from his face. This makes his transition into an angry revolutionary leader all the more chilling. He is a superbly defined character, and Andy Serkis deserves all the awards he can handle (hello Oscar) for his motion capture work.
The writing is 98% intelligent, enthralling sci-fi epic and 2% suspension-of- disbelief-required movie logic. The audience might not completely buy into some of Will's decisions, but they will hardly care. What does work, works amazingly well. the script is not afraid to take the focus away from human characters and place it squarely onto no-dialogue animals, which pays off in spades. The viewer will sympathize with both sides of the ape-human struggle, and will not soon forget the hairy characters. To top it all off, the climactic battle is indeed climactic, providing a "I'm going to have nightmares about screaming chimps tonight" kind of edge-of-the-seat confrontation.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, despite having one too many prepositions in its title, is a movie that should not be missed. Anyone who loves sci-fi or just darn good dramatic entertainment owes it to themselves to go out and see this A.S.A.P. There isn't even a poop flinging scene, that's how serious this movie is. Thank you, Planet of the Apes. Because of you, summer 2011 goes out in style.
Cannon's rating: 9/10