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Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an inventive origins story that presents an intelligent, plausible explanation for the transformation of the earth into a planet that will soon be overrun by the “damn dirty apes” that were chasing Charlton Heston in the 1968 Planet of the Apes. Directed by Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) and written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (The Relic), while it has its moments of silliness, the central premise of a genetic scientist (played by James Franco) whose desperate need to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease leads him into the realm of “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” is well developed. For those expecting the “apes go wild” scenes that dominate the coming attractions for the film, patience is required.


Will Rodman (James Franco) is the dedicated generic engineer who has a personal stake in his Alzheimer’s research, since his father (John Lithgow) suffers from the disease. He uses chimpanzees as his test subjects and thinks he has made a major breakthrough, which delights his drug company boss (David Oyelowo).


However, a disastrous setback leaves him without his prize test subject, Bright Eyes. It turns out that Bright Eyes went crazy because she was pregnant and her child, Caesar (eyes and body movement by Andy Serkis), who will become the next link in Will’s genetic research. Will takes him home and raises him like a child, which leads to stupid decisions based on both the love of a parent and a surrogate simian child.


When Caesar gets loose and attacks a neighbor, he is sent to the ape version of the cuckoo’s nest, complete with an ape-hating handler played by Harry Potter’s graduating teen villain, Tom Felton. It is here that Caesar develops street smarts and his plan for a prison break that pays direct tribute to the visual style of the 2004 sci-fi film I, Robot. Perhaps the connection is so strong because the runaway robots from that film moved like simians.


The movie gets a bit off the rails when it suggests that the cure Will is working on is so effective, it will make the apes much smarter instantly. That is when Rise of the Planet of the Apes breaks from plausible reality and dives into “expedient for the plot to move forward” territory.


The old adage that an actor should be wary of acting with animals might go double when it comes to an animal that is actually being played by a human thanks to the modern technology of motion capture imagery. Serkis, who has cornered the market as the top dog in the field thanks to his work as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, also has a simian character in his motion capture resume, Kong, in the 2005 remake of King Kong. His Caesar is a fascinating character, a chimpanzee that has been given a genetic super boost and climbs to the top of the food chain, bringing his other simian pals with him. Caesar is always sympathetic, especially when he is organizing the revolt of exploited apes in a delightfully designed and executed showdown on the Golden Gate Bridge.


With Caesar as the star attraction, the human characters are the second bananas. Despite his recent Academy Award nomination, Franco’s performance comes off as rather dull while all the action takes place around him. He is almost in a fog, and perhaps that was intentional, since he is so focused in bringing his dad’s brain back to life he isn’t fully aware of the havoc he is causing. Frieda Pinto’s veterinarian girlfriend is painfully underwritten even for a standard girlfriend role, and the villains (Brian Cox and Felton as the cruel primate jailers; Oyelowo’s money obsessed drug company executive) are mere stand-ins for the human race’s cruelty towards our simian brethren.


Director Wyatt and the screenwriters deserve credit for taking a story that could go sideways fast and keeping it mostly on track and designed with a pace that allows the action to unfold in a more deliberate style than most summer blockbusters.


Rise of the Planet of the Apes is more intelligent than you might expect.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes  ***
Directed by Rupert Wyatt; rated PG-13


To read more about movies and other 
topics covered by movie critic Lori Hoffman visit the ‘Atlantic City Central’ blog at 
http://blog.acweekly.com/