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I'm engaged in a love/hate relationship with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the 2011 prequel to all of the other Planet of the Apes films. When Rise of the Planet of the Apes gets things right, which is does very often, it's surprisingly heart-wrenching. But when it gets things wrong, it yanks the viewer right out of the film. Fortunately, the scale tips more in favor of things done right, and so this Apes succeeds where Tim Burton's failed.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes could give rise to a whole new string of Planet of the Apes films, and with CG advancements and performance capture technology now able to allow filmmakers to create realistic chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, the ability to bring the story of a planet ruled by apes to life is now fully within the grasp of talented special effects artists and directors. It's been nearly 40 years since the fifth and last of the first string of Planet of the Apes movies, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, was released in theaters, and those films absolutely - unlike other movies Hollywood insists on remaking - do not stand the test of time.

Still, when Rise of the Planet of the Apes was announced, it wasn't exactly met with cheers by moviegoers who've been burned far too often by studios simply out to cash in on a brand name. Even the fact the apes would not be actors in ape suits and make-up - or strictly CG creations - but instead would be created using actors in performance capture suits didn't immediately alleviate any concerns over the prospect of a new Apes film.

However, while Rise of the Planet of the Apes has its problems, the performance of Andy Serkis as the chimpanzee named Caesar who ultimately leads his fellow apes in a revolt against their oppressors is not one of them.

Serkis' performance as Caesar should put an end to any and all debates over the validity of the technology and the worthiness of actors in performance capture suits of earning recognition for their hard work. Serkis knows performance capture in a way no other actor does, and director Rupert Wyatt's decision to cast him as the main ape - a decision that was likely a no-brainer - was absolutely pivotal in making Rise of the Planet of the Apes rise above being simply a summer action blockbuster into, at times, an endearing and emotionally draining film. Caesar is the most sympathetic and fully realized character of the film, and that's due to Serkis' amazing performance.

In a nutshell, the story follows Oscar nominee James Franco (127 Hours) as a decent, dedicated San Francisco-based genetic scientist named Will Rodman. His father (John Lithgow) suffers from Alzheimer's and Will's research is focused on finding a cure for that debilitating disease. After five years of working on it, Will believes he's come up with a revolutionary new drug which will repair brain tissue and thus restore the cognitive thought process of Alzheimer's patients. Testing the drug out involves the use of chimps, and when one displays significant intellectual improvements, the company believes Will has created a miracle drug. However, when the chimp - nicknamed Bright Eyes due to the new green streaks which appear in her irises after the drug's been injected - is in the process of being prepared to be introduced to the company's financial backers, she goes...well...ape, lashing out at whoever gets in her way, breaking through glass, until ultimately a security guard is forced to shoot her.

Will's boss calls for the immediate cessation of the experiments and for all the remaining chimps to be euthanized. While going about that heartbreaking task, the animal's chief handler at the drug company, Robert (Tyler Labine), discovers Bright Eyes was not in fact acting out of rage but was simply trying to protect her new baby which she'd hidden under a bench in her cage. Robert's had enough of putting chimps to sleep and leaves the baby in Will's care to either euthanize or take home.

Will chooses to take Caesar home, at first believing this is a temporary situation. But as he and his father bond with the baby chimp, Caesar shows signs of extraordinary intelligence - and has those same green streaks in this eyes as did his now-deceased mother. In the years that follow, Will teaches Caesar how to communicate through sign language, and with each passing year, Caesar's level of intelligence dramatically increases. But after a disturbing episode involving one of Will's neighbors, Caesar's forced out of the only home he's ever known and into an ape sanctuary run by cruel humans (Brian Cox and Tom Felton) and populated by apes who recognize his difference and mistreat him because of it. However, Caesar's not down for the count long as he uses his astonishing brain power to devise a plan to unite his fellow apes in a revolt against their human captors.

The Bottom Line:

A few plot holes needed to have been filled in in order for Rise of the Planet of the Apes to have been truly impressive. Storylines are started but not carried through on, and some crucial questions are left answered. Why didn't the researchers and scientists know Caesar's mother, Bright Eyes, was pregnant? Wouldn't that have been discovered in one of the tests they ran to get a baseline on the chimpanzee? Why does the executive in charge of the research facility flip-flop on his decision to continue experimentation on chimps after so vehemently arguing against the possibility of Rodman's drug being a viable asset to the company? And there's enough of a hint of a relationship between Caesar and the female chimpanzee, Cornelia, to give the appearance a storyline was chopped out, and because that hint is there, it feels like an incomplete storyline left to dangle. Also, there are completely superfluous characters wedged into the plot, including James Franco's onscreen love interest, Freida Pinto. Pinto's fine, but there's really no need for the character other than to throw a little romance into the mix.

However, those grievances are minor compared to where I believe Rise of the Planet of the Apes lets us down the most. The close ups and one-on-ones with the film's apes are outstanding and it's possible to forget you're watching anything other than a real live chimpanzee perform in this film - that's how seamless and authentic the effects look. But when the apes are further away or moving in a pack, the effects aren't quite as good as you'd want/expect them to be. In those scenes, the fact these are not apes but instead CG creations creeps in and sort of jerks you out of the film. Which is really quite a shame given just how brilliantly Serkis' performance works as Caesar and how perfect the apes look when viewed in tighter shots.

When I've spoken to people about Rise of the Planet of the Apes who haven't yet seen the film, universally they've expressed their low expectations for the quality of the movie and the story it's telling. Even the trailers, which have been relatively entertaining, haven't fully conveyed what Rise of the Planet of the Apes is all about. They've stressed the action and the apes revolting, but this is truly a character-driven film in which more time is devoted to allowing the audience to understand and bond with Caesar than it is in showing apes fighting against men. 20th Century Fox may find selling the film via trailers and clips as an action piece is the best way to pull in summer audiences, but they miss the boat by not distinguishing this film from the pack of summer action movies. The story, which as I pointed out above does have a few shortcomings, takes its time to build, something the majority of big-budget summer releases fail to do.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes isn't one of the best action films of the year because of the sketchy long-distance shots of the apes. But it is a bold, fresh take on a franchise that actually benefits from having a face-lift done on it 40+ years after audiences first explored its make believe world. Rise is a cautionary tale that's fed to us without any dilution. We know the moral of the story writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver set out to tell, and they don't sugarcoat that message in order to make it go down any easier (a very smart move on their part). Audiences might not go bananas over the film, but it's a solid revamp of a classic franchise.

GRADE: B-

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was directed by Rupert Wyatt and is rated PG-13 for intense and frightening sequences of action and violence.

Theatrical Release: August 5, 2011

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