Big Screen Blurb: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The first time I saw Jaws 2 was during Joe Stickels' birthday party. I was in the sixth grade and a wee lad of eleven. Jaws 2 was the Late, Late Movie that played while we were busy shooting Joe's homemade rubber band guns, playing cards and making a general nuisance of ourselves during a festive all-nighter. What stood out about that movie, which played background to our fun, was that Joe was very actively rooting for the shark.

Yeah--I thought that was odd, too. Especially considering that the shark in the flick was assigned a rather villianous personality...quite unjustly, I might add in retrospect. Joe's point was simple: In reality, sharks seem innately programmed to swim, eat and crap. They don't know who or what they are eating. They just know that hunger pangs strike and food is in front of them. No vengence. No mal-intent. Finding out that this is malicious would be like me finding out that the Cheetos that I've been chomping on for years has made me instant kin to Darth Vader. Yikes! The very thought makes me cringe with guilt over the poor lil orange puffs.

At any rate, I say all of that to say this: I pulled a Joe Stickels Friday night and was very actively rooting for the apes in each of the 112 minutes in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. However, the difference between the two movies is simple: in Rise you're supposed to root for Ceaser, et al.; not so much for the shark--sorry Joe, but your point was well-taken nevertheless.

Ceaser (Andy Serkis) is the product of evolutionary genetic manipulation. Thanks, that is, to one Dr. Will Rodman (James Franco). He's hard at work for GenSys, a company in search of its next billion dollar drug. Will, however, has an alterior motive: his dad (John Lithgow). Dr. Will is less concerned about dollar signs and more concerned about finding a cure for Alzheimer's, which he does...kinda. The testing helped Ceasar's cognitive function and even saw the cute little guy move in with Dr. Will and dad. There we watch as dad heals and Ceaser becomes part of the family. Through a series of unfortunate events, the latter is forced out of Will's home and confined to the equivalent of an asylum for apes. From there, we watch as humans cruelly opress the apes, including Ceaser. That is, until he puts his smarts to use and turns the tables. Yadayadayada Ceaser rallies his species to an uprising of unheralded proportions and the first of what promises to be at least a trilogy is officially launched.

It's good. I'll go with 3.0 Stars. Honestly, at times, this was tough for me to watch. I'm an animal guy. Rip off a human's head in a flick, I'm like, "Ooookay...whatever." Hurt an animal in a movie, I'm like, "It's ON BITCH!" With that said, it wasn't tough to root for the apes. After all, we were supposed to, right? We get to know and love Ceaser from his birth in the clinic...to his discovery of life in such a humanastic way that we should all be that in-tune to the world around us...and finally, to his leadership role of his species. Bottom line: we love Ceaser and come to despise the greed-driven folks of GenSys. They're not all bad, mind you. Dr. Will is great and well played by Franco. His cast mates glow as well. Litgow is great and Serkis, although limited in his dialogue, is great as Ceaser. Further, the story is well told by director Rupert Wyatt; and, it's one that makes you think. It's a classic and a conversation starter for certain.

It's worth a watch. Maybe a rental. Maybe a Big screen view. It really depends on your interest in the subject matter. I put off checking this one out for awhile, but I'm glad I saw it. It helped me realize that I'm always going to stand up for, and root for, the opressed. That holds true whether it's a shark from years ago (...yeah, you convinced me Joe) or Ceaser, and the primates, from last weekend.

True...OUT!