Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Skeptical. That's the word I used to describe my ambitions of this film. The fourth in a franchise stemming back to the late 1960's, this version was going to tell us exactly how the apes came to power. The only reasons I watched this is because of James Franco, and the fact that everyone has been touting over it, which I had to see with my own eyes what all the fuss was about. The fuss was literally about "Awesomeness", in my opinion. Within 25 minutes this film will have it's hooks in you, or maybe just it's opposable thumbs, if you will. The film is an origin story following Caesar, who we all know was the first Evolved ape from the other films. He was the primate's god in a sense. The founding Father of their power and now we learn how that happened. Like everything bad that has happened in film, it all starts with a "Cure". Scientists really do screw up more than fix. A "Cure" for cancer created the Nightwalkers in I Am Legend, and a "Cure" usually always has ramifications beyond the creator's realm of forethought. The cure in this film is for Alzheimer's. It creates extreme brain function and allows damaged cells to heal themselves. It is tested on apes and one of those monkeys passed the trials onto her newborn. It will always be embedded in Caesar's DNA and he will never cease to learn. We watch as he learns and a big part of that knowledge stems from his Father, in a sense, Will (Franco). Will created the drug and he now has a hairy son. He teaches Caesar as much as he can, but Caesar is getting to smart for his own good, and he makes a costly mistake when trying to protect his own. This is really fun to watch and the CG is not bad at all. It is always scary when dealing with a film that uses CG in every scene, but this is good enough, it is not distracting from the film. It also boasts one of the very best visuals I have ever seen and it involves gun fire and a Gorilla jumping at a helicopter. Enjoy that scene and the little details that are present in the slow motion capture of it all. Smart and perfectly orchestrated by the writer's, Director, and Cast. I know several of you are probably thinking the same way I did, but I am a believer in this new film and it ended perfectly. PS. Damn Dirty Apes does make it into the dialogue at one point. This version is head and shoulders better than the Marky Mark version and I liked that version as well. Just good movie making.

NBM rates Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Phenomenal