Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Movie Review
Rating: 4/5
Watch it at least once!
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a prequel movie to the famous Planet of the Apes. It’s actually a pretty decent science fiction psuedo action movie. The entire story starts out a bit slowly, but gradually around midway it gets substantially better with Cesar the main ape having to start become the leader of the apes. It’s gradual and interesting development of Cesar from just pet ape to full grown adult.
The characters in the story were typical characters, the sympathetic hulk man gorilla, the wise looking Orangutan (a nod to the original I believe).
The only thing that was annoying was FAR too much foreshadowing that was too obvious, not even simple red herring foreshadow, just blinding obvious nods to previous films and future developments in the movie. You can garner a bit from the trailer, but there is so much you can figure out just on your own. The limitations of the bad guys as one dimensional and not very interesting was also a weakness, but the strength of this movie does not rely on its petty villans but it’s strong hero.
* Spoilers *
The movie itself though has a few weakness, the amazing disease and it’s consequences are a bit annoying. I believe the writers were trying to set up a franchise and thus gave lots of hints and tidbits toward foreshadowing and other tips toward other films as well. And it’s been confirmed that there will be at least on sequel. The movie ends on a bit of a cliffhanger (in the sense that the story can continue a LOT in future developments but the basic premise is there). I think the director basically said, this is MY Batman Begins. The start of my franchise and trilogy for Cesar the Ape instead of Batman.
Everything ties in a bit TOO neatly, like the fact that he is allowed to do human testing and that he has vials of the work in his home even though he knows it’s a virus with strong abilities to infect humans. That was a bit of a uhh wait really? Also the entire premise of a virus that somehow damages and kills humans but makes apes just super smart is a bit strange. This is one of those, everything just kind of fits together a bit too eloquently there, I actually wish they had not mentioned anything about the virus or any type of mention of how humanity ends in the first film and mentioned or further developed it in future films. But it gives them leeway and more power to do what they want and START the film where they want, they don’t need to figure out mankind’s end in the sequels since mankind’s end is already setup, though it’s a fairly weak end.