Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes – Film Review

Ape escape

Release Date: 11 August 2011
12A | 104 minutes
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: James Franco, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, Tyler Labine, David Hewlett

Used to be that if you got on the wrong side of a captive ape, the worst that could happen was a fistful of faeces flying your way. Not so in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, where super-smart-simian Caesar and his primate pals initiate their own great escape and take the fight to humanity.

A superior rebirth for the Apes franchise after Tim Burton’s risible 2001 remake, Rise begins as a Modern Prometheus fable – genetic scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) plays with fire while developing a cure for Alzheimer’s – before mutating into a pseudo-prison escape movie as Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads his kind to sanctuary.

Rise is at its best when it gets down to monkey business. If there’s one motion-capture performance the Academy is going to recognise it’s Serkis’s Caesar. Even when bathed in bright daylight the effect is dazzling. But this doesn’t mean the apes are always convincing, particularly in occasional sequences of dizzying virtual camerawork. Conversely, it’s the homo sapiens that prove the recessive gene in Rise’s DNA. Franco is a charisma-free non-event, while Tom Felton seems to have forgotten he’s no longer playing Draco Malfoy.

There are plot holes to contend with and a handful of potential jump-the-shark moments, but the smart ending and stunning Golden Gate Bridge stand-off ensure you leave on a high. Not quite essential viewing, but you’d be bananas not to give it a chance.

Jordan Farley