When you go to watch a summer blockbuster, you expect a popcorn flick that doesn’t really stimulate the brain beyond bringing about pleasure, joy, and excitement. With Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this movie stimulates far more, if you’re open to listening and receiving what is being said. Rarely do we get a popcorn flick the makes us question moral values, explore the relationships between humans and animals, deliver a compelling story, and still toss us into an exciting action film. This movie has all of that.
A reboot to the popular Planet of the Apes franchise, this is easily just the latest chapter that could become a whole new series of movies if they keep the formula used for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Will Rodman (James Franco) has a dream to cure the deadly disease Alzheimer’s. The disease plagues more and more people every year, including his father. Using apes as the test subjects for a fresh new drug, it shows great promise to become a cure for this fatal disease. But after a mishap in the lab, the plug is pulled and his dreams crushed, until he finds an unlikely surprise: a baby ape (Andy Serkis plays Caesar when it gets older) whose mother passed the drug to him before birth.
Will brings Caesar home to join his family and meet his father, John Rodman (John Lithgow), who is the source of Will's determination and drive to find a cure to Alzheimer’s. We get to experience much of Caesar’s life as he grows from baby ape to adult. Will later falls in love with a woman, Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto), who becomes a major source of support for Will.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a very enjoyable movie as I was pleasantly surprised with almost every aspect of the film. Being a fan of Planet of the Apes since the very first movie, I had expectations for this film to be just as good. What I was met with was a surprise that wasn’t expected.
The movie isn’t simply a "sit down and enjoy" movie as most summer films, but rather a movie that makes you think. Testing of drugs on animals, is it right or wrong? Is it okay to do these tests if it means saving millions of human lives? Are we prepared for the potential consequences of these tests? You find yourself asking these moral questions amongst others as the story unfolds.
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