Serkis goes 'Ape,' Franco not so much
That's motion-capture actor Andy Serkis under the computer-generated skin of angered chimp Caesar.
(20th Century Fox)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Running time: 110 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13 (Intense and frightening sequences of action and violence)
On the Web
Monkey see, monkey do a major banana pile of damage in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."
Like perhaps you, my first thought when I heard about a resurrection prequel to the "Planet of the Apes" cinematic library was something like, "Take your stinking paws off a new 'Apes' script, you damed dirty bottom-line profit guys."
All of that changed for me when it began to become apparent that the performance capture work in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is equal, if not superior to, James Cameron's sci-fi space adventure "Avatar" (2009).
Set in modern-day San Francisco, "Rise" predates the Charlton Heston "Planet of the Apes" primate-dominant sci-fi series of 1968 to '73 and Tim Burton's 2001 re-boot starring Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter.
Scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ("Eye for an Eye," "The Relic"), the new adventure goes ape with man toying with the human mind and, as you can guess, screwing everything up.
Scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) thinks he's discovered a brain-restoring drug that will end the horror of Alzheimer's, which his father (John Lithgow) is suffering from. Things go bad at the lab, though. A dog-and-pony show for investors yields one dead prize chimp and a scrubbed cure for damaged human brain cells.
Without giving too much away, let's just say that Will takes his work home in the form of a baby chimp and continues his work in secret. If movie scientists could somehow pay attention to what other movie scientists learned before, Will could have screened last year's "Splice" and saved himself -- and perhaps all mankind -- some major grief.
The baby chimp, inheriting "bright-eyes" smarts from his mama, is named Caesar and is portrayed in stunning motion-capture glory by great Brit Andy Serkis, the most amazing actor you probably have never seen.
Not his face, anyway. In a motion-capture performance, the actor wears a suit covered with electrodes to monitor every body movement. They are attached to the face as well, then the computer wizards electronically add the character's image around the human actor's performance.
When it's done right, as Serkis has done as Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, as the title character in "King Kong" (2005) and especially here, the process is quite spectacular.
The old "Planet of the Apes" films had significant things to say about big issues (man destroying his home planet, for instance). The ape suits, however, took away from the impact of the story.
What director Rupert Wyatt ("The Escapist") and senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri (a four-time Oscar winner) do here is make great use of film making technology that has finally caught up to the visual needs of the story.
From this aisle seat, the only drawback is Franco as Will. He was a dud as co-host of the Academy Awards earlier this year and Franco (an Oscar nominee for "127 Hours") is about as non-interesting here.
I liked Freida Pinto OK as Caroline, the love-interest primatologist. And Lithgow is fine as the mentally withering dad.
But Franco. I don't know. He seems to be slow-walking through this one.
Overall, however, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" lives up to the title. And once you see the ending of this film, you'll likely have second thoughts about ever wanting to face a monkey on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Like perhaps you, my first thought when I heard about a resurrection prequel to the "Planet of the Apes" cinematic library was something like, "Take your stinking paws off a new 'Apes' script, you damed dirty bottom-line profit guys."
All of that changed for me when it began to become apparent that the performance capture work in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is equal, if not superior to, James Cameron's sci-fi space adventure "Avatar" (2009).
Set in modern-day San Francisco, "Rise" predates the Charlton Heston "Planet of the Apes" primate-dominant sci-fi series of 1968 to '73 and Tim Burton's 2001 re-boot starring Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter.
Scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ("Eye for an Eye," "The Relic"), the new adventure goes ape with man toying with the human mind and, as you can guess, screwing everything up.
Scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) thinks he's discovered a brain-restoring drug that will end the horror of Alzheimer's, which his father (John Lithgow) is suffering from. Things go bad at the lab, though. A dog-and-pony show for investors yields one dead prize chimp and a scrubbed cure for damaged human brain cells.
Without giving too much away, let's just say that Will takes his work home in the form of a baby chimp and continues his work in secret. If movie scientists could somehow pay attention to what other movie scientists learned before, Will could have screened last year's "Splice" and saved himself -- and perhaps all mankind -- some major grief.
The baby chimp, inheriting "bright-eyes" smarts from his mama, is named Caesar and is portrayed in stunning motion-capture glory by great Brit Andy Serkis, the most amazing actor you probably have never seen.
Not his face, anyway. In a motion-capture performance, the actor wears a suit covered with electrodes to monitor every body movement. They are attached to the face as well, then the computer wizards electronically add the character's image around the human actor's performance.
When it's done right, as Serkis has done as Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, as the title character in "King Kong" (2005) and especially here, the process is quite spectacular.
The old "Planet of the Apes" films had significant things to say about big issues (man destroying his home planet, for instance). The ape suits, however, took away from the impact of the story.
What director Rupert Wyatt ("The Escapist") and senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri (a four-time Oscar winner) do here is make great use of film making technology that has finally caught up to the visual needs of the story.
From this aisle seat, the only drawback is Franco as Will. He was a dud as co-host of the Academy Awards earlier this year and Franco (an Oscar nominee for "127 Hours") is about as non-interesting here.
I liked Freida Pinto OK as Caroline, the love-interest primatologist. And Lithgow is fine as the mentally withering dad.
But Franco. I don't know. He seems to be slow-walking through this one.
Overall, however, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" lives up to the title. And once you see the ending of this film, you'll likely have second thoughts about ever wanting to face a monkey on the Golden Gate Bridge.
