movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Hey there! The movie post has returned from a week-long hiatus. I loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so I hate to give it the quickie review treatment, but mama’s got a big to-do list.

Synopsis from IMDB: “Eight years of being raised by humans and now left behind in an abusive sanctuary, a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee will lead a revolution of apes towards freedom from man's torturous exploitation.”

What I loved about this movie, first and foremost, was that it wasn’t some cheap, ride-on-the-popularity-of-the-original-movie cheesefest. This movie could easily stand on its own. The bond between Caesar (the chimp) and Will (played by James Franco) is believable as an interspecies father-son relationship. Intellectually, Caesar is more human than ape, however he still has animal problems - instincts and such that get him into trouble.

The aspect of this movie that I really remember them pushing when it came out in the movie theater was the special effects. They were pretty darn awesome. The facial expressions of the apes, Caesar in particular, were very human. If I remember correctly, they used actors with some sort of motion capture technology. In this movie, it came off as quite realistic.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes = A for awesome.