Film Diary 2011: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (From The Argus)

Film Diary 2011: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2:17pm Monday 15th August 2011 in Blogs By Owain Paciuszko - Seat 13

First things first, this is a definite chimprovement over Tim Burton's rubbish 2001 remake/reimagining of the 1968 original. It seems to have had a lot of critics going ape over it, heralding it as the best film of the summer silly season, which may be the case, but let's not go too bananas.

It is undoubtedly refreshing to have a big release - especially one burdened with branding such as this - that does actually take its time to develop its characters, carefully tell a story, have scenes that are well edited and serve a narrative purpose, that all builds towards a three act structure that isn't too much of a teaser trailer for much-desired (by the studio at least) sequels.

But RotPotA (as it shall be known) doesn't achieve those things because it is an incredibly brilliant film, it just seems that way because most of the other blockbuster films released have forgotten how to do those most basic of things.

However, at the same time, RotPotA is exactly the film you expect to me practically beat for beat, if someone were to tell you the broadest summary of the movie's concept and then asked you to write the screenplay yourself you would almost undoubtedly write this exact film almost word perfectly. In that respect the advertising doesn't really help, as it's more than content to sell the entire picture on the movie's one major set-piece, which comes from the finale.

Nevertheless, the film is a compelling and thrilling watch and this comes to down to a few key things, namely Rupert Wyatt's confident direction and pacing (this is his second feature after his great debut The Escapist), and, more importantly, Andy Serkis' portrayl of the incendiary ape Caesar. Serkis is brilliant in the role, playing out Caesar's growing disillusionment and rising intelligence skillfully, and winning the audience's sympathy over any of the thinly drawn human characters.

It's a worrying state of affairs when a legion of computer generated monkeys have more charisma than their flesh and blood human counterparts, and whilst that victory is largely down to the brilliant performance capture work spear-headed by Andy Serkis, it only further illuminates the film's seeming disinterest in one half of its narrative.

Which is a shame, because there was potentiality for a truly touching father/son relationship between James Franco's driven scientist and his father, a music teacher suffering from dementia, played by John Lithgow. There are some fine scenes here and there between the two, but Franco at times feels detached from proceedings, not particularly aided by the inclusion of Freida Pinto as a love interest serving little purpose other than to occasionally offer an ethical soundbite. Meanwhile there's the grotty sanctuary where Caesar winds up, run by Brian Cox (growly but inconsequential), he's tortured by Tom Felton's keeper, who is a cardboard cut-out that gets to deliver one of the film's most familiar lines in an achingly self-aware tone. The film, for the most part, manages to keep the rest of its in-jokes relatively low key.

RotPotA is a fine film, a bold choice for 20th Century Fox, despite its franchise familiarity, in so much as it's a very grounded psycho-drama with a few flutters of well orchestrated thrills here and there. The most intriguing part of the whole picture will be whether Serkis' performance, which is undoubtedly brilliant, could find itself being recognised by any of the more 'serious' awards bodies come next year? And if not then they really have to make some pretty good excuses for nominating Johnny Depp's Captain Jack.

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