It's a mad house!

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a frightening film that begins with tension before tragedy unfolds as a result of hopeless human behavior.  It works effectively as a cautionary tale not about the unethical methods of medical testing but about human beings' inability to understand the dangerous implications of them.  When the most perceptive line of dialogue comes from the meanie who runs the animal sactuary, what does that say for everyone else?

In most features that deal with testing on apes ("Project X" springs to mind), the human players always seem to be disconnected from the potential consequences of what they are doing.  Chimpanzees may be humankinds' closest biological sibling, but the inherent differences are undeniable.  Apes have a biological switch that after infancy brings about a series of animalistic and untamable behaviors.  Nobody in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" seems to know this.  James Franco plays Will Rodman, who is attempting to harness a 'revolutionary' new drug as a cure for his father's (John Lithgow) Alzheimer's Disease by testing it on apes.  Indeed, the drug seems to cause the brain to rebuild its own cells and actually boosts the intelligence of the apes; Will unwisely assumes this effect will work the same for his father and that focus causes him to make careless decisions based off of little evidence. 
Will notices the effects of the drug have passed from a pregnant mother ape to her offspring.  After losing funding because of a disastrous board presentation that leads to the mother ape's death, Will brings the infant ape home where we get a montage of 'Caesar' growing up around the house.  This sequence is astonishing and shows us the remarkable capability of WETA Digital combined with another impressive performance by Andy Serkis.  The details of the ape may be digital, but each expression and physical movement is a performance.  Andy Serkis is perhaps the world's greatest rarely-seen talent.  Caesar is the main character and central antagonist, but I use that term loosely, because poor Caesar just doesn't want to feel like a house pet anymore.  One of Will's biggest mistakes is that he wants to continue testing a drug intended for humans on an ape; and then is not prepared to treat the ape as an equal when it exhibits signs of advanced human intelligence.

Of course the problem is, while Caesar's higher intellect rapidly increases, all of his instinctual and volatile behaviors remain.  In a shattering scene, Charles (John Lithgow) attepts to drive a neighbor's car and when the neighbor explodes in violent anger, Caesar responds in kind by springing furiously from the house and savagely attacking the man.  Monkey see, monkey do, I guess.  At this point when the audience realizes that Caesar should perhaps be put down, everyone in the film continues to be hopeful.  Will is certain the drug works, and clearly it does, but at what cost?  Caesar is put into an animal sanctuary run by a sneering man named John Landon (Brian Cox).  At one point when Will attempts to pay him off to take Caesar home, Landon wisely informs him "they're not like people ya know."

Rupert Wyatt directs the first two acts with a startling perception of the human desire for unattainable miracles.  There isn't a lot of thought in the science, but that's not the point anyway.  The point is to show the almost thoughtless means drug companies will employ to corner the market on whatever the 'revolutionary' new drug of the week is. And isn't there always one?  Surprisingly, there is not a great deal of development for the human characters.  Franco's character is the most developed of all, but his motivations remain narrow and misguided.  His girlfriend Caroline (Freida Pinto) is virtually wasted except to come on in a couple scenes to try and exposit some logic to him, but the audience is way ahead of her by then.  In a lesser movie, these shortcomings might stand out more, but my guess here is that the lack of development is intentional since the movie is more concerned with the apes' perception of human behavior than it is with human perception of ape behavior.

The remarkable performances here are uniformly the digital apes by WETA.  If real apes were employed, I do not know, but I'd be hard pressed to sort them out anyway.  Caesar is so well-developed by the third act that when he presents a surprising new ability, you'd swear he had it the whole time.  By the time he springs from his prison at the sanctuary, it has emotional resonance for the audience; you've been wanting him to get out and it really means something.  It's not a spoiler to reveal that Caesar recruits all of his new friends to start an uprising and escape the city; that part was in the trailer.  The surprising part is the purpose behind it and it may not be exactly what you think.  The prolonged attack on the Golden Gate bridge will stand as a digital action scene to be reckoned with, and that is after seeing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II."  The apes swing gracefully and with fury above and below the bridge and the militaristic tactic is impressive.  Rupert Wyatt knows this is why the audience came and he delivers a tremendous climax.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is clearly meant as a reboot and a fresh start to a new franchise.  That's okay.  There are many nods here to the original and in one scene, a less than savory character even watches it on television.  There is a sequence that plays over the end credits that provides a grim foreshadowing of the fate of the humans for the sequels, and it further sells the frightening risks of improperly tested drugs.  I left the theatre feeling entertained, impressed and even a bit uneasy.  For a movie that comes at the end of a long summer of blockbusters, that is an accomplishment.  This is one of the most effective features of the year; and for anyone who has ever wanted a chimpanzee for a pet, I hope this changes their mind. 

How the West was Abducted

I reckon there isn't much guesswork involved when you want to know what you're getting into with a movie called "Cowboys and Aliens."  For a title that doesn't conceal any secrets, it had better contain at least those two things, and hopefully a great deal more to make the film better than the premise.  Well, cowboys and aliens are certainly here, and even some Indians for good measure.  That all seems like it would be good ingredients for a conceptual playground of clever set-ups and ideas.  Yet, while it absolutely delivers the product on the label, "Cowboys and Aliens" is a relatively benign summer movie experience that falls short of what it possibly could have been.  

Jon Favreau is no stranger to the sci-fi genre.  While his "Zathura" was unseen by me, "Iron Man" and its sequel had plenty high-tech wizardry along with well-developed characters and an energy that gave a nod and a wink to the audience.  Strange then, that the aliens here are the least interesting element of what seemed like a fun blend of two iconic genres.  Maybe I was expecting something a bit closer in tone to "Wild, Wild West;" not that that is a good movie, but when you have cowboys going up against intergalactic visitors, it feels like a miscalculation to take it so seriously.  Especially when the aliens aren't all that menacing, it's hard for the audience to ever feel a real sense of danger.  A more light-hearted approach might have been an easier way to convey a story this absurd.

The plot involves a good deal of tried and true western cliches.  A mysterious stranger named Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert wearing what appears to be an alien handcuff.  He dispatches the grisly old geezers who wander upon him and steals the necessaries to ride into the nearest town.  Here he will encounter  civil unrest, a drunken bafoon (Paul Dano) shooting up the town, a kindly Preacher (Clancy Brown), a mysterious dame (Olivia Wilde) who knows more than she lets on, and a seemingly corrupt baron of some sort named Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford).  Yes, Dolarhyde.  There is even a town 'Doc' played by Sam Rockwell in the movie's best performance.  It certainly feels as though a great deal of the drawing power for the film was the casting; its just a shame to see Harrison Ford in yet another crusty old curmudgeon role. Perhaps the studios around Hollywood can't find much to do with him.  It's almost like watching your favorite grandparent forced into playing bingo at a low-rent nursing home.  

Everyone else does a fine job of bringing to life a surprising authenticity of the old west.  Indeed, the straight-faced western portion of "Cowboys and Aliens" is engaging in a way that indicates Jon Favreau may have been more interested in the characters and setting.  It's when the aliens fly into town that the movie rapidly descends into an uninspired mess of cliches.  The story raises many questions in the opening act.  Where did Lonergan come from?  What is that thing on his wrist?  Just who is the mysterious dame Ella?  What do the aliens want exactly?  The questions are a great deal more interesting than the answers.  Each revelation has a near laughable origin, or barely even receives an explanation.  For instance, when we finally find out who Ella is, rather than expand on what is probably an intriguing past, the script provides her with a throwaway explanation about being a visitor.  Well duh.

As for the aliens, they've flown perhaps millions of miles to earth to act like simple miners.  One might wonder what they need a precious metal for when they have the technology to travel through galaxies, but never mind.  "Cowboys and Aliens" is far more interested in providing spectacle than story.  It all looks quite good, mind you, but it provides nothing that audiences don't frequently already see.  The action climax is a well-choreographed set piece with cowboys and indians hollering, slinging arrows, throwing fists and shooting a great deal; just not at each other.  I don't know if the screenwriters (there are five) were trying to play it safe by teaming up the cowboys and indians or if they were trying to express a metaphor by featuring alien enemies, but whatever the intention, it is lost among the plot contrivances and tired cliches.

"Cowboys and Aliens" probably looked promising on paper, and you can't blame Jon Favreau for trying to bring stylistic flare to the marriage of two common genres.  Yet, while Daniel Craig brings gravitas to the cowboy role and there is a respect to the western elements that is nostalgic, too many undeveloped characters and plot points can't save the movie from being instantly forgettable.  I'd be curious to see some version of this movie that has its guns loaded.    Perhaps Jon Favreau should be allowed a re-shoot that cuts out those pesky aliens and has Harrison Ford playing the role of the Preacher or Doc.  Come to think of it, if there was a two hour sequence of James Bond and Indiana Jones staring each other down in a sun-bathed dusty town, that would be worth the price of admission alone.  But I wouldn't want to lose a bet on who wins the draw.