Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011) Dir: Rupert Wyatt
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I can remember watching this a few years ago and absolutely loving it, along with the first of the sequels. With a new film in the franchise arriving later this year, I felt that now wad the perfect time to revisit Rupert Wyatt's 2011 science fiction action film.
The first thing to say is that, by 2011 standards, the CGI is phenomenal. The motion capture work was pretty damn good, all things considered. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but I thought that a lot of the work done was marvellous.
There are some absolutely great shots throughout the film that make for some very memorable visuals. I do think that the best was definitely yet to come for the trilogy, as far as cinematography wad concerned, however, this film can be considered a very solid start.
There are so many great individual scenes that help to tell the thrilling story of Caesar the chimpanzee. However, there are also a few scenes that felt really poor, and stopped this from being a certified, modern classic. That said, I still loved the majority of the narrative, and I think there was some very good writing going on.
Andy Serkis has, for pretty much my entire life, been one of my favourite actors - if not the favourite. A huge reason why has been his exemplary motion capture work - his most famous being, of course, Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings.
However, his other big motion capture performances came in the role of Caesar in this franchise. I cannot stress enough how incredible his work was in this film. His body language was magnificent. How Serkis has not won a major motion picture award for his acting in this role is beyond me.
James Franco fills the role of the human protagonist. I enjoyed a lot of his performance, but, it must be said, he has this irritating habit of doing really artifical looking facial expressions. That nitpick aside, he does give a pretty solid account of himself, maybe one of his better dramatic performances.
Freida Pinto and John Lithgow definitely gave the best supporting performances of the film. I was especially impressed by the work of Lithgow, who gave a rather sincere portrayal of a man with dementia - which is not easy. I wish Pinto had more to do, because, while I enjoyed her performance, she did not get to show enough personality.
This felt like Tom Felton's big opportunity to break away from his Harry Potter days, but unfortunately he fell well short of his potential. His performance was typified by a pretty weak American accent and a distinct lack of charisma.
There were some serviceable performances from the trio of Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and David Hewlett, although, I think that they were each victims of the poor writing I referred to, as their characters were all mediocre antagonists.
Overall, this film does have its faults, mainly in some of the writing, but for the most part, it's a really great film, and the start of a brilliant franchise. I didn't love the film quite as much as I did when I was younger, but I still enjoyed watching this a hell of a lot. I'm definitely excited to rewatch the next one soon.
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