That year’s Charlton Heston-starring “Planet of the Apes” (based on a novel by Pierre Boulle) posited a world where simians were in charge and people were in cages.
Adroitly blending the most modern technology with age-old story elements, it’s also an origin story that answers the question that’s been hanging in the air since 1968: How did it happen that apes rule? Smart, fun and thoroughly enjoyable, it’s a model summer diversion that entertains without insulting your intelligence. The best part is that, unlike so many "first in a planned series" installments, this one feels complete at the end, with the final image and end credits alluding to how the apes finally rise to inherit the earth.“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” does it right. Despite all of the fine performances, there are a few missteps (like when the greedy businessman assumes that the apes will offer him mercy) but that really doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment of the film. And since they're known to chew up scenery, special mention must be made of Brian Cox and Tom Felton, both of whom are fabulous as an ambivalent primate-shelter owner and his sneering, sadistic bully of a son (Harry Potter fans may feel compelled to yell "Draco Malfoy!" at the screen). The trio of main actors, with help from Oyelowo, who's perfectly smarmy as the profit-driven CEO, and Freida Pinto, who's a distractingly beautiful veterinarian, propels the film above the forgettable dross of raunchy comedies and formulaic remakes that fill theaters. This is owed completely to the three actors: Franco, Lithgow, and Serkis, who deserves an Academy Award for his mastery of nuanced motion-capture performances. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is equal parts family drama and sci-fi-lite action, and the poignant, complicated relationship between Will, his ailing-then-improved father, and their beloved Caesar is a bona fide tearjerker in a couple of scenes. The story is simple and, in this highly medicated culture, surprisingly easy to conceive: Medical experiments that alter animal development aren't a fantasy, they're reality. This is an entertaining, well-acted origin story. Although some of its plot elements are similar to the fourth Planet of the Apes film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, this reimagining doesn't feature time travel or the widespread domestication of apes. Faced with his own kind for the first time, Caesar climbs the social ladder and eventually leads a climactic bid for freedom. After Caesar defends his family and bites a neighbor, Will is forced to surrender him to a primate shelter. For eight years, Will gives his father smuggled doses of the drug, and they live with Caesar, who's now a precocious adolescent (and played, in a motion-capture performance, by Andy Serkis). Will's father ( John Lithgow), who suffers from Alzheimer's, is instantly taken with the baby chimp, and soon Will realizes that "Caesar" has a higher IQ because of his in-utero exposure to the miracle drug.
But when his ace lab chimp, who has shown extreme intelligence from the experimental drug, goes berserk during an important meeting, the company boss (David Oyelowo) orders all of the lab animals put down and demands that Will start researching again, but when a hidden newborn chimp is found, Will reluctantly takes him home. In RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Will ( James Franco) is a pharmaceutical scientist who's discovered a breakthrough drug that could cure Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.
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