Delayed Reaction: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Premise: A scientist researching cures for Alzheimer's creates a drug that is toxic to humans but exponentially increases the intelligence of apes.

No one was asking for this movie. The original Planet of the Apes was a sensation. It spawn four sequels with diminishing returns. After sitting dormant for nearly three decades, Tim Burton attempted a remake in 2001 starring Mark Wahlberg that is the rarest of box office unicorns: a box office success that was so thoroughly rejected that it killed franchise plans immediately. We forget that the 2001 movie did good business ($180m domestic, $182m international, on a $100m budget). There were plans to have this launch a new series, but people were so turned off by the movie when they saw it that Fox didn't even bother making a sequel; not even at a reduced budget.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes showed up only a decade later with one of the clunkier titles you'll find. I certainly needed some convincing to see it. The selling point for me was the promise of Andy Serkis' motion-capture performance as Caesar: patient zero of the ape takeover. 9 years later, it's striking how much that performance and the CGI hold up. It's a crime that none of the movies in this trilogy earned Visual Effects Oscars. And I say that as a big fan of Hugo, Interstellar, and Blade Runner 2049 (the movies that won instead).

What's notable about this movie is how much it is just a prequel. Dawn of and War for the Planet of the Apes are the real blockbuster movies. Rise is a pretty small movie, all things considered. Even the climactic battle on the bridge is pretty reeled in. The movie ends up foregrounding things incredibly though. The relationship between Caesar and James Franco's character is perfectly tragic. I didn't appreciate how well this was done until I saw Dawn in 2014, and the most moving scene was when Caesar visits Franco's old house and remembers his past.

Even though none of the movies in this trilogy are strictly tied to one another by more than Caesar, Rise really does work best when followed closely by Dawn and War. It's not a movie that earned a sequel. It's part 1 of a trilogy.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend