Rise of the Planet of the Apes

When I saw Planet of the Apes back in 2001 I was like "hmmm, that was pretty cool" but I wasn't a huge fan of the series.  When Rise of the Planet of the Apes was announced I was excited to see how they would put this prequel together, and more specifically, how it would end.

The story of Rise of the Planet of the Apes starts off with apes that have been captured to do clinical trials on for drug development.  Seems like a pretty typical practice, though I'm not sure about using apes.  From there the story follows one of the drug company's employees, James Franco, home.  Franco befriends one of the apes and basically raises him as his child.  The story, while very touching at some points, seems a bit ridiculous, but go with it.  The story develops well and even through some unbelievable scenarios, which is expected from this movie, it tells a very nice story.

The cast is made up of James Franco as the lead character.  John Lithgow plays his father, Freida Pinto plays his girlfriend, and Andy Serkis (Gollum from Lord of the Rings) plays the lead ape Caesar.  Brian Cox and Tom Felton also play key roles in the film.  Franco is great as usual but the rest is just mediocre.  It doesn't hurt the film but they aren't very impressive.

The scenes are majestic.  From the sprawling city to the gorgeous redwood forest of northern California.  The soundtrack is equally impressive.  The CG for the most part was also very good, even though they must have used quite a bit for some of the scenes.  I also particularly liked how they tied the ending into the other films.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is really a pretty good movie.  If you enjoyed others in the series I think you will fully appreciate this one.  If you haven't seen any of the others you should see the 2001 flick with Mark Wahlberg after this one.  It's not great but worth the ride.