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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Rise Of the Planet Of The Apes



3 pipes out of 4

James Franco is one of the most inconsistent actors in Hollywood. He goes from making Pineapple express where he plays a stoner, to an Oscar nominated role in 127 hours. Then he returns to being a stoner in Your Highness. His ability to choose the right roles is mediocre at best but he chose another good one in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. He has shown us that he can act by playing famous hiker Aron Ralston who has to cut off his own arm in 127 hours and he finally uses his acting skills as Will Rodman, a doctor trying to cure Alzheimer’s in order to help his father. Not much was expected out of this movie because of Franco being cast in it but he again shocks us all with his beautiful acting and the inspiring role of Andy Serkis who plays Cesar, the primary ape. I am calling it right now, we may have the first Oscar nominated actor to play an animal. Rodman’s work finally seems to pay off with an ape named Bright Eyes who seems to be showing incredible promise until an accident causes the program to be shut down.  As it so happens, Bright Eyes had a son and Franco takes him home in order to save him from euthanasia. Due to the formula that was it Bright Eyes, it was passed down to the chimp who Franco names Cesar (Andy Serkis). As the movie progresses Cesar falls in love with his family but begins to question why he is inferior to humans. After an incident with the neighbor Cesar is forced to live in a primate sanctuary with an abusive caretaker Malfoy, oh wait, that was his last movie, Tom Felton. This is where there are some problems with the plot of Rise, it has it set up so that you are rooting for Cesar to take over the planet. This then contradicts the original where you root for Charlton Heston overtaking the apes. Similar to X-Men First Class Planet of the Apes leaves the ending open enough to make another movie or have this be the only one. 

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