Here is the surprise of the summer: an origin story of Planet of the Apes that, for the most part, makes me genuinely excited for the follow-up. I was a little shocked walking out of the theater. I couldn't believe they were going to remake Mark Wahlberg and Tim Burton's classic!
All joking aside, though, Rise comes as such a shock because it does what I felt like Avatar should have done: it makes us care for computer-generated characters. It's a little ironic that it was James Franco that drew me to Rise, but Andy Serkis' master work as Caesar, his "adopted" ape, that kept me stuck in my seat. In every moment, he's completely believable and easy to sympathize with.
Rise doesn't shine everywhere. It can be a little heavy-handed at times. Franco's dialing it in, which is still pretty decent, but Pinto's character is really poorly written and it shows. She's really got nothing to do but stand there and spit out cliches. Tom Felton (the guy who played Malfoy) is basically doing the same thing he did in the Potter series, Brian Cox somehow manages to be totally forgettable and John Lithgow, who plays Franco's aging father, teeters between good and bad from scene to scene.
But who are we kidding? You're here for the apes and I'm happy to report that they look phenomenal. The team behind Avatar has managed to really outdo themselves: every nuance, every hint of jealousy, anger, fear "¦ all are conveyed with the subtlety and detail of a real actor. It's weird, but about halfway though the movie, I thought to myself, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that ape was a pretty good actor." Quite frankly, I'd be excused for thinking that: the special effects are really that convincing.
It's more like Shawshank Redemption of the Apes ("¦ The Great Ape-scape?) than anything else, so don't be surprised if it takes a long time for that gorilla to cause mayhem and destruction. The really great surprise is this: I'm dying to see the second one "¦ whether Franco's in it or not.
