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.