The 2012 summer movie season is well upon us with Hollywood blockbusters being shoved down our throats faster than a fat guy inhaling crab legs at an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet.
Looking back at last summer's movie buffet, the best movie of the crap paraded out was surprisingly, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was a surprise considering how much it had working against it:
1) It's a remake and a reboot (which are almost exclusively craptactular)
2) It relies heavily on CGI
3) Its main human star is James Franco
But it takes all those items that should have been detriments and turns them into positives. Yes, it's a reboot, but the story focuses on in-depth character development (of a genetically-mutated ape, no less) and ties into the original series with subtle allusions that never detract from the movie's story or pound us over the head screaming, "THIS IS A PLANET OF THE APES MOVIE!"
All the apes are CGI, which would usually be an instant boner-killer for me, but this is the kind of movie that couldn't be made without CGI. Humans in costumes would look silly and there's no way you could get actual apes to express the kinds of complex emotions and intelligent thought that Caesar is capable of. Plus this is one of those rare occasions where puppets are not the best way to go. The CGI certainly doesn't look perfect (it never does) but the story is good enough that you get lost in it and don't care, which is how it should be.
Yes, James Franco does star in the movie, but he's certainly not the movie's main character. In fact, Franco, mercifully, appears in the latter half of the film only sparingly (he's awful in this by the way). No, top billing goes to Andy Serkis, who portrays (through motion-capture tech) Caesar, the revolutionary monkey, and, in doing so, makes this the first live-action film to focus on a CGI main character. Caesar is more sympathetic and interesting than any human character in any film I saw last year. How Serkis does not have an Oscar is beyond me. He should have one for playing Gollum and he should have at least been nominated here as well.
It's the writing that really makes this the best movie of last summer. The rise of the apes parallels the rise of the slaves in the south and you want them to be victorious over the humans. You feel bad for them and the humans come across as real assholes. The movie does an excellent job of explaining how apes can defeat humans who are armed with guns and set in motion the events that will eventually lead to apes becoming the dominant species on the planet.
The only flaw is the ending in which James Franco does not die, thus making it possible for him to reappear in the unavoidable sequel. Damn you, stinking dirty James Franco! Damn you!
Why It's Awesome: This movie stands as proof that CGI does not a good movie make (Did you hear that George Lucas?). The basis of film has always been and will always be storytelling and filmmakers need to accept that fact that CGI is meant to enhance a story, not replace it.
Best Quote:
Dodge Landon: (channeling Charlton Heston) Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!
I might have been the only person that didn’t watch this movie last summer; I just had no desire to. Even when it was coming out on DVD I still had no desire to watch it, of course I grew up watching the old Planet of the Apes movies, and well we all know how the effects were in those. So last weekend I was hunting through the Cinemax page on Dish Online and decided to watch the movie since I had the time on my hands. I agree James Franco should have died in the movie to save us from James Franco. The movie though minus Franco is a good movie, it would have been better if we would have had James Franco gets infected by the virus and dies things. I was telling a coworker at Dish that I finally saw the movie, and she goes on and on about how good he was in that movie. I am wondering if she watched the same movie.
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