Movie Review with Apes!

Lately the film industry has produced numerous remakes and sequels. Good movie ideas are at a premium because so much has already been done. Sometimes it is too hard to come up with a brand new, unique idea and it is much easier to take a movie that has already been made and put a new spin to it, thus we have movies such as this summer's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." Let's show how apes took over, what a great idea! I could take the Roger Ebert approach and say the movie sucks ass for many reasons, even though he didn't actually shit on Rise of the Planet of the Apes that much, but here's what I think.

I kind of like this attitude

I wasn't really sure what to expect from "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" when it hit theaters. I am not a fan of the Planet of the Apes, I never saw the original with Carlton Heston and I don't remember much of anything of the newer installment that came out some years ago. However, I am aware of the famous "Get your hands off me, you damn dirty ape!" line, and yes, it was placed in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," uttered by the guy who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films (hooray for fun facts!). Anyways, I found myself captivated by the opening sequences in the film. James Franco's character, Will Rodman, works for a company trying to find a cure for Alzheimers' disease. The drug, ALZ 112 is being tested on apes and there's a problem where one of the apes goes ape shit (haha!) and then the company orders to have all the apes put down and start working again on the formula. Will (Franco) takes a baby ape home with him, the only ape escaping termination at the hands of the Man. Will raises the ape and names it Caeser. Caeser is a very clever ape because the smarts gained by his mother from the ALZ 112 were passed down to him at birth.

Caeser is NOT home

I found the aforementioned part of the movie very intriguing and attention grabbing. I enjoyed the conflict of the imperfect formula, the struggle with the Man, and the growth of a unique ape in Caeser. In my estimation the movie went downhill when Caeser was admitted into some home for apes. I think Will put him there in an attempt to give Caeser more space to live and grow rather than be confined to his attic. So Caeser gets admitted to this ape home and he, along with the other apes, are treated extremely poorly by the staff, including Draco Malfoy. I guess Draco only plays dicks in movies, that's one way to make a living. Caeser wants to go home, he isn't allowed to, he gets pissed off, finds a way to escape from the ape home, goes back to Will's and steals some of the prototype Alzheimer's formula from the refrigerator (I don't know what it's doing there either), and exposes his fellow maltreated apes to the formula, and they devise a plan to break out. In the process of breaking out they beat the turd out of one of the employees!

I thought I was going to find nothing but milk!

What happens next is what I have the largest issue with in the movie. Caeser and his cronies escape and proceed to break out the apes in the zoo and Will's place of employment, which apparently has tons of apes. I think the amount of apes that are broken out is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy tooooooooooooo large. They would definitely have THAT many apes in San Francisco! I also don't understand how all those apes would have the mental capacity to comprehend what is going on and be able to help Caeser and his fight for ape freedom. The movie was ruined with a big bang Hollywood ending. Mass ape exodus! The apes take down a helicopter and kill a black dude! At least I'm rather certain they killed him, he fell with the helicopter into the ocean and we all know he can't swim, right?

The little bastard looks so innocent

The movie is without a doubt set up for a sequel. I must say that I am curious to see where they go with this. I wonder if they'll have the apes take over planet earth or hijack a spaceship or something and go start their world on a different planet! The movie ends with Caeser and his cronies climbing to the top of the trees in forest nearest the Golden Gate bridge. I don't know why they climbed up there, I think it would have been funny if Caeser got to the top only to be shot and killed by a sniper! Game over, Caeser! I really think technology poses a greater threat to mankind (like Skynet in "The Terminator") than apes.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is an entertaining film and is worth a watch. As I said before, the beginning is very good, I very much enjoyed the development of the situation, but the climax and finale were nothing special. Although, I do believe that many people will enjoy the way the movie ends because it is a Hollywood finish and that's what people like to see: large numbers of apes running rampant through San Francisco proving unstoppable by authority with firepower and helicopters. I give "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" a solid 7.2936 out of 10.001.