La planète des singes : Les origines

To sum it up, a very powerful film falling just short of being a masterpiece. However, the only flaw in the film is that the film could have been just a bit longer! I am really hoping for a director's cut because there should have been a few more character development scenes between father and son, boyfriend and girlfriend, and even Ape and Human. I felt the movie was paced a bit too quickly but nevertheless, still contains very fleshed out characters driven by excellent performances throughout, from Lithgow, to Franco, to Cox and especially by Andy Serkis.

Cesar is by far the best animated character in the history of cinema. His facial expressions tell it all! You feel his rage, his fear, and his child like innocence through his wonderfully animated eyes. Not only is the C.G.I. good, but the character is written very well in general. You will go through all of those emotions yourself as you witness his journey. All I can say is that I now know why I try to walk my dog without a leash as much as possible. This movie just confirmed it for me! Through the film, you will understand what Cesar is feeling and why. The invisible character of the film is humanity itself, and at times, feels like a study of human nature.

Plot wise, it is very well told. I thought there was nothing cheesy about the script, although not as intelligent as the original, but not dumb either. There is some science fiction in the film, and other than the experimental drug, there was some other surprising Science fiction plot elements in it too which might lead into the sequel; if there is one of course, and I think there will be.

For the skeptics who think the film would be cheesy seeing all the apes battle armed policemen then think again. I too, was a bit skeptical at first, wondering how the apes would defeat an entire police force, but when you watch the film your doubts would dissipate. Just remember the physical ability of apes and how powerful the apes are, and how much more powerful they would be if they had brains! The action was very good, but as good as it was, I'd trade it in for more plot development. There were a bit too many plot jumps in the last 30 minutes, but all in all, it was directed very, very well. Coupled with a good score, mellow at times, but highly dramatic which heightens the tension. Speaking of tension, there is a lot of it in this film. If you're an animal lover like I am, then be warned; You will be in tears 30 seconds into the opening scene.

I also wanted to mention the original film even though it's tough to compare the two. This is an origins story that actually makes the original better. The original was more about the plot than the characters and they each stand apart and alone with their own merits and flaws. It was nice to see a few homages to the old classic, and don't be surprised if you see a character from the original as well. I highly doubt this film will disappoint the fans of the original and TV series! It will have you climbing trees!

When Rise of the Planet of the Apes was announced, expectations were not high. As a prequel to an awful remake of a movie that wasn't exactly an all time classic, its pedigree was sketchy to say the least. Thus came as a shock to nearly everyone when it became one of the biggest summer hits of the. Rise wasn't just watchable, or even pretty good; it's one of the best "B" movies of recent, entertaining and surprisingly human.

The series of events that will one day cause a time displaced astronaut to gaze despairingly upon the ruins of the Statue of Liberty begins not surprisingly with science. Medicine to be exact. Young researcher Will Rodman, played by James Franco is on the cusp of developing a drug that can cure Alzheimer's, his father's included. It just so happens that this drug not only repairs damage to the brain, but makes the subject smarter, as shown in trials with chimpanzees. Due to unexpected complications these trials don't exactly work out in the end, and the test subjects are put down. But one of them had a child, Caesar Raised like a son by Rodman, Caesar shows remarkable intelligence beyond even his mother, learning hundreds of words in sign language, understanding human speech, even scoring higher on intelligence tests than human children of the same age. There seems no limit to how much he can learn, or to what the drug that gave him his intelligence can do for humans. But this isn't an inspiring story of medical breakthroughs. A tragic misunderstanding and Caesar's own animal nature result in him being separated from his family, a prisoner among his own kind. He is not happy with his new situation, and he has a plan to change it.

The plot is hardly more complicated than I've described it, and is somewhat over reliant on coincidence and bad human decisions. Thankfully Rise is not driven by its plot, but by its central character. Caesar is quite simply a miracle of special effects. In only a decade CGI and motion capture technology has advanced to a degree that makes Lord of the Ring's Gollum seem almost listless by comparison. Caesar looks so real he could pass for a live chimpanzee if he didn't do things that no real chimp could ever be trained to do. Although he only speaks a few words late in the film, his facial expressions and gestures say more than enough.

Early on you can tell that Caesar is not only a thinking being, but a feeling one as well. Like a human he feels love, anger, desire, and fear. He understands the concept of family, and based on one overly sappy scene he seems to have a fair understanding of human mating rituals. When he finds himself caged in a primate sanctuary, he understands just enough of the situation to feel betrayed. And we can't help but feel sympathy for him. As he establishes his leadership over the other primates and plans his uprising, part of us roots for him, even though we know what it will eventually mean for humankind.

The first half is admittedly slow for an action movie, but when the action starts it really gets going. The sight of Caesar and his followers rampaging through downtown San Francisco makes for a wonderfully entertaining spectacle, which only gets better as the humans start fighting back. Much of what takes place is naturally ludicrous if you stop to think about it. Even with human level intelligence there's no way a hundred apes could overcome a major city police department, but their battle is so fast paced and cleverly staged that we're willing to suspend disbelief. If the ewoks could defeat the Empire then why can't Caesar's cohort make monkeys of the cops? Rise of the Planet of the Apes is by no means perfect. As mentioned the plot is standard B movie fare, and calamity could have been avoided if a few people hadn't taken unnecessary risks or just not been complete jerks. The human characters also aren't as well developed as their simian co-stars. Franco's boss in particular comes off as one dimensional and the film's attempt to make him something of an antagonist never really works.

That said, Rise is well paced and more emotionally engaging than any Planet of the Apes movie has a right to be. Coming on the heels of Avatar it also further showcases what the latest in FX tech can contribute to storytelling when used properly. And it delivers all the excitement a summer blockbuster should. Even if you were never a fan of the originals, this one is worth checking out on DVD or streaming.

To begin on a tangent before evaluating the film, before summer 2011, I had not seen a decent prequel film. Prequels to films are often made when there is either a rich back story behind the originals or the producers are wanting a little more money from a particular franchise (see the Star Wars prequels). The problem they present is that film- makers have to construct their work, with the knowledge that the audience knows how it ends. One of the greatest things about seeing a film for the first time is the surprise and anticipation, to removing that can detract a lot from the overall impact of the film. But this summer I have had the pleasure of seeing X-men First Class, and now Rise of the Planet of the Apes - two excellent prequels to series that I didn't care for previously.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (RPA from now on, I can't bear typing it) is not only a triumph in CG animation, but as a stellar science fiction film, that remembers that films are infinitely more engaging when the audience actually cares for the characters on screen. Too often do I see films with a high premise that forget to flesh out their characters, leaving us to run around in mindless, weightless explosions with nobodies who we know less than 3 things about (cough, Transformers 3). Yes, RPA is about super intelligent apes that ransack cities and take on armed forces with little more than what surrounds them, but before we get to that there is an enormous amount of development from the main protagonist; Caesar. Although the advertisement trumpets James Franco, John Lithgow etc, the real star here is Andy Serkis, along with millions of dollars worth of CG animation to create the most expressive animated creatures on film. Even with Avatar, using real humans, pales in comparison to the amount of detail going into every single one of these apes; there is not one second in the film where you cannot understand one of the primates intentions - you could practically vocalise them yourself with the refined eye movement, body language that clearly separates Caesar from his more primitive relatives. Needless to say, Caesar's performance is flawless; after all this is the man who brought Gollum to life, but he captures the screen with an entirely wordless performance, which to me is the greatest part of the film. I felt for Caesar more than any other character in this film, and he did it without saying a word. Eat that Michael Bay. I was almost in tears at one point during one of Caesar's more emotional scenes for Christ Sake - although a chimp, the heightened intelligence really gives him just enough human characteristic to be above the uncanny valley while still behaving like an animal.

The humans in the film were what I considered weakest in this film; not any of the performances were bad, but a little more development in some minor characters and some tweak in the writing here and there would have made this a perfect 10. Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) felt a bit off to me; he was cruel but almost in a cartoon way, though I suspect that's more to do with ill writing than any personal issues. The main cast are good, though at it's current length, I think more development with James Franco's character wouldn't have gone amiss, but then again, this might have thrown off the pacing.

Another thing I love about this film is that while taking a sharp diversion from its roots in terms of gradual characterisation, it does a superb job of delivering what everyone inevitably came for. A massive Chimpocalypse. A simian uprising that sees the downtrodden apes taking up arms against humanity, and in three words: it's f - ing cool. Made all the more exciting by the anticipation and the feel for these characters, the marvellous point about Caesar's character is that we sympathise with him, we understand why he leads an ape army AND WE SUPPORT HIM. A super intelligent ape is rallying a chimp attack force to free themselves from their confines, cause mayhem, disrupt order and ultimately rule humanity AND WE WANT THEM TO. And for that I applaud.

I love a film that makes us look inwards at ourselves and question our own moral codes and attitudes to events in life (this one clearly representing a case of animal cruelty) that make us conclude that WE are indeed the bad guys, and we need to change. Living in a small, rural middle-class society (like myself) or a well-developed area often makes mainstream audiences forget about those less fortunate than themselves, and what it drives them to, or in this case, what having too much drives us to, and it's refreshing to see something that reminds us of how much of a plague we are to the rest of the planet.

Overall, I would say a strong 9/10, perhaps not quite reaching the highs that First Class did, but by God, was it more consistent - definitely watch this one, and stay after the credits.

There was a lot of hype going into this film. I was very excited to finally see another Planet of the Apes film. I am a big fan of the original and had fun with the sequels and even after Tim Burton's remake I was still excited for this film and I got to say this is the best Planet of the Apes picture since the original.

This story is an origin story about how the Apes began to rise to power and about a man who is bent on curing Alzheimer's and raising an ape who has been past on the genes of the cure from his mother and what the effects this has on this one ape named Caesar.

The very surprising thing about this film is how story based and character based it really is. From the trailers it looked like just another cure gone wrong and a lot of violence happens but I was truly surprised by this film's story and how well told it was. I do think it needed to be just a tad longer in the beginning showing a little more of Caesar's childhood but it's a small fault and can be overlooked. But it is something truly wonderful to see how truly well fleshed out these characters are in this film especially for a "summer blockbuster." All character motivations are known throughout the film. James Franco's character named Will Rodman really wants to make this cure so he can cure his father. So a lot of us can really connect with him and in seeing he is making this cure for the best intentions. And his boss is the classic wants the cure for money type of character. But the best most drawn out character is the character of Caesar. The chimpanzee that becomes increased in intelligence is the true star of the film. He cannot talk and he is a computer made image and yet you really understand him, love him, and feel for him. Caesar is played by motion capture actor Andy Serkis (his second film as an ape, the other one being King Kong (2005)) brings so much to the table. He breathes so much personality into this ape and it's just truly something to wow at and the writers are very wise to really shift the story over from Will to Caesar as Caesar gets sent into an Ape refuge. While there he gets smarter and learns of the true nature of how apes are treated inside there and decides to take action.

I think it was very smart on the filmmakers to shift the apes from makeup to cgi. I wasn't thrilled when I first heard they would make the apes in the computer but after viewing the film I've realized this was the only way to go really. It would look incredibly cheesy if they tried to do what they did in this film with makeup. The motion capture is some of the best to date and the apes look very real. None of the makeups did as good as job as the motion capture did at creating real ape behavior and also by not making them talk I think was a smart move. I don't think making them be able to speak would make it very realistic which seems to be more of the way the film tries to go with rather than a fantasy.

The action is all mostly at the end of the film which is mostly seen in the trailers. While granted there is a little bit here and a little bit there it's all really at the end. It all is very entertaining and the apes do fight like real apes. There are moments where the filmmakers truly capture an ape aggression and what they are truly capable of. Not a lot of people know just how strong and fierce they can be and the film does a good job of showing that.

But something I don't think is mention a lot is that there a nice magical quality to it. The scene in the redwoods is a very magical scene and I really liked it and never liked how it isn't mentioned.

The acting is all very good and is a driving point of the film. James Franco is great, so are John Lithgow and Brian Cox. Also Tom Felton and David Oyelowo are good. Freida Pinto is good and all but I wish her character was given a better purpose and is one of the few faults with this film.

The Music I thought was very good too. It had a very magical yet dark and exciting feel. Composer Patrick Doyle really gives out his best score in years. It will by no means become be considered a masterpiece it just is an above the average movie score and is a score that I would buy when the soundtrack was released on CD.

The Directing by Rupert Wyatt is very good too. He handles the story written with such care. His choices in camera movements and how to properly handle the story is makes him a great choice. Also he uses cgi to better the project and only really uses it when he needs too which is something I always respected in a director these days.

The writers Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa have crafted a great story and pay so much tribute to the original films. There are so many nice nods to the original which Planet of the Apes fans will enjoy. They also really know how write convincing dialogue and leaves the door open for a sequel but it could be just an make you think type of ending.

The Bottom line is this is a very good story driven film that includes great special effects and matches the original and is the second best film of 2011

Final Score 9/10

There are so many things right about this movie, the little things that are wrong are easily forgiven. Some slight plot holes, but the film and characters make up for it. The chemistry between Franco and Pinto is weak, however Franco plays his part. Lithgow is always a great asset to any production, and does a great job here.

Albeit you know the chimps are CGI, their eyes look amazing, with depth and personality, and along with their body language and facial animations, you really do forget they are CGI. The music is powerful and tense, and I loved the way it builds up through out the movie. Starting with light orchestra at the beginning, while starting to feel very tribal without overdoing it towards the end.

There are moments that are truly gratifying, and Caeser really steals the show with his evolution through out the movie. The journey Caeser takes really connects and you feel his plight. With moments of thought, heart and action, Rise really hits the mark for the audience it's aiming for.

Excellent entertainment all round!