Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Intelligent in Multiple Ways

Rise of the Planet of the Apes contains many of the expected motifs of a summer blockbuster, among them genetic experimentation by a corrupt lab, tropes of science fiction mixed with contemporary America, a dash of young romance, and even a climactic setpiece featuring the Golden Gate Bridge, the latter of which it surprisingly avoids demolishing. But though Rise never fully subverts the tropes of an action movie or a drama, it still manages to transcend them with obvious emotional intelligence oozing confidently from a humanist identity. It is a movie about both the dangers of playing God and the inherent value of the people - or animals - that you're playing God with, and it grants many of these people and animals dense personalities that will make you understand why they would make such otherwise stupid decisions; love will do that to you, and it's an emotion that emanates from this movie. Perhaps the most incredible thing about Rise is that it didn't need to be great to sell tickets. It was a reboot of a then forty-three-year-old franchise that chose to be, instead.

The young and dashingly handsome Will Rodman wasn't looking to be a father, but after an unfortunate and deadly incident at Gen-Sys drug trial labs involving an experimental Alzheimer's treatment and one of the chimpanzee test subjects, Will takes home a newly orphaned baby chimp before corporate can euthanize him. Will's father, the Alzheimer's-ridden Charles, decides to name the animal. Caesar, he christens him. Charles's symptoms have only been getting worse in recent months, and Will wants, needs to find a cure. Never mind that giving someone an experimental drug is career suicide.

As Caesar grows older and Charles grows smarter, it becomes increasingly obvious that Caesar is no ordinary chimpanzee. However, a grown chimp's strength makes for but one ingredient in a volatile cocktail of things that could go wrong when combined with human intelligence and unpredictable scientific experimentation. After Caesar viciously attacks the Rodmans' reprehensible neighbor in a moment of completely justified passion, he's impounded at the local ape sanctuary, which is run by a cruel handler named Dodge whom John, the indifferent sanctuary owner, enables with his attitude of don't look at me, I didn't do anything. What neither of the men realizes is that Caesar, who's far smarter than either of them could know, has a plan. And what Caesar doesn't know is that his plan will play a significant role not only in freeing the apes, but in irreversibly changing the face of the planet forever.

No, this movie has almost nothing to do with the Icarus or any other aspect of its parent franchise, for that matter. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an intelligent prequel, even if it's not really a prequel at all.

The biggest part of what makes it tick, while many other summer blockbusters don't, is that it cares more about its characters than it does the bombastic, ticket-selling things that happen to them. Andy Serkis's motion-capture performance as Caesar is unbelievably expressive, conveying a wide range of emotions with no spoken dialogue. By and large, the other characters are relegated to their roles in the plot, and some are more complex and well-written than others, the less sophisticated of whom exist either to be loved or hated by the audience. Take Charles, for instance, whom John Lithgow solidifies as this movie's sobering high point. Lithgow's performance is phenomenal, and he perfectly sells both the well-worn weariness and the child-like naivety of Alzheimer's.

Another aspect that makes Rise and the rest of this trilogy unique is its dialogue, not because of what gets said, but what doesn't. Caesar and the rest of the apes display a massive range of all-too-human emotions without uttering a word, and while this approach doesn't quite fit the bill of "show, don't tell," it still effortlessly relays everything the apes want you to know without forcing them to speak. The amazingly expressive rendering of the apes seals the deal by creating animals with eyes that display such personality, as computer-generated as they may be. When baby Caesar looks up at his new father with eyes full of love, or grown-up Caesar glares with disgust at the lab he just discovered he was born in, his eyes paint a million words he can't otherwise say. They say the soul hides behind the eyes, and the soul of this movie is there to see in Caesar's.

Yet, as capable an underdog as this movie might be, it's still the weakest member of its trilogy, and struggles primarily with tying together the two competing movies inside of it, one of which is a firm and well-managed story of Caesar winning over the apes at the sanctuary, and the other of which is a necessary but occasionally rushed story about Caesar's physical and emotional growth under Will's parenting. One could argue that this movie tries to jump through one too many narrative hoops at the expense of focus. Still, even if it struggles to transition from the story it needs to tell to the one it wants to tell, Rise remains a subtle movie in which the slightest actions of its characters mean all the difference for their life directions. Again, one of its greatest assets is that it knows you're going to dismiss a movie about talking monkeys from the outset. It's counting on your underestimating it so it can tip the scales in its favor and surprise you.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a movie with the trappings of an average blockbuster but the intelligence of a more serious and thoughtful story. Its cast is incredible, bringing to brilliant life a truly humanist drama that is a smarter, more heartfelt alternative to an often distressingly shallow competition. It takes the sort of spectacle we've all seen before and milks it for a range of emotions that I sometimes forget can technically exist in a popcorn flick. It is emotionally literate filmmaking, with more on its mind than whether the Golden Gate Bridge will be felled or not.

This movie will please a wide range of people. It's a familiar fantasy laced with enough adrenaline to satisfy less picky audiences looking to relive a previous experience, but it's also deep, mindful, and different enough to satisfy anyone looking for something more intellectually and emotionally wholesome than a thematic cousin to Transformers. Yes, this movie is technically about the humble beginnings of an ape civilization that eventually takes over the entire planet, but it's really about the people and animals caught in the middle of this prehistoric power shift. It will resonate with a lot of people on an emotional level, not because it's weepy, but because it's intelligent enough to understand feelings instead.

Lesser movies will ask their audiences to turn their brains off and shame those who refuse to. This one will reward those who pay enough attention to realize how special it actually is.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - 8/10

Genesis 11:1-9