Could the original creators of the Planet of the Apes ever thought that their wacky small film could turn into a seven-film franchise? The original idea of the Planet of the Apes started off as a concept for an episode of the Twilight Zone. Now, the films are well known within American culture, but have always been more of a joke than a legitimate franchise. After all, the film is about apes taking over our world... For decades, the Planet of the Apes franchise was known as a campy high-class B-film franchise that one would expect Roger Corman to make. This was the association that was going to be made with the franchise's latest entry, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and in an age when even the most overly acted tones are stripped down and laughed at like a leper, many may have suspected Rise of the Planet of the Apes to be an unintentional comedy as a result of a misdirection in tone. After finally seeing the film, I can confidently say that isn't the case, and that's it's as good, or even better, than the original Planet of the Apes film.

The story follows Will Rodman, played by James Franco, who is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. His company has kidnapped ape test subjects from their habitat, and have gained remarkable results from a particular ape. This ape, after sabotaging a meeting which results in the cancellation of the study, has a baby named Caesar, which Will decides to keep for himself instead of killing. Will, along with his ill father, raise the ape as if he was a part of the family, until an incident forces Caesar into what is essentially a monkey jail; where he struggles to fit in with the other primates. Caesar rises amongst his ape crowd, and eventually attempts to escapes to his original home.

I think the smartest execution the filmmakers pulled off was to simplify what the story was trying to achieve. The tacky trailers will have you believe this story will address how the Apes came to be the apes we all remembered from the first film, but the filmmakers chose a not-so expansive route. The story is more about Caesar getting back to his original home; the home that his mom would have wanted him to live in. As a result of focusing the story more on Caesar's first journey, instead of trying to fit in a story of world conquering, they are able to explore the more emotional side of the narrative, and add more emotional resonance within the scenes then they could have if it was non-stop action. The audience is also able to better follow the journey because it's simple and focused. Had the story been more expansive, I'm sure we would have been lost within the grandness of the narrative.

The first Planet of the Apes had an allegory that portrayed its era's economic state, an aspect that was lost in it's subsequent sequels and the horrid Tim Burton remake. It was nice to see this aspect return in Rise of the Planet of the Apes; the story could easily be an allegory for America's past with slavery. You can't help but think about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments when they are testing on the oppressed apes, not to mention the slave-like treatment of the apes themselves. The allegory creates a very thought-provoking theme that will help audiences connect with the apes even more than they would with the humans. This may be a negative, however, since the film features humans on too many occasions, and doesn't put too much effort into making us connect with them. If they had chose to focus more on the apes, then they could have gone further with the allegory, and engage audiences into their perspective even more, allowing us to feel the same emotions they are struggling with.

The main problem with the narrative comes from having two main characters. By the end of the film, you are confused as to who's story we were supposed to follow. In the beginning, it seemed like it was Will's story, and that we were going to follow him into his arc, but that never occurred. In the second half, it seems like it's Caesar's story, and he endures a more dynamic struggle than Will, as well as a climatic choice; but if he was the main character why wasn't this apparent from the very first scene? The film should have just bypassed most of the beginning and went straight into Caesar's birth. As a result of the story jumping from one character to the other, it creates this sense of an unconnected narrative, and the linear structure feels very disorganized. The disorganization distances the audience from reaching an emotional connection with the characters; whenever we finally start feeling for one character it changes its priority to the other character, and that emotion easily evaporates.

The key solution is simple: Get rid of Will. Will is not only an uninteresting character, but it's obvious in the later scenes that he was never suppose to have as much focus as the filmmakers gave him. If the film had toned down his presence to a supporting role, his character would have been much more effective. As he is now, he is merely a distraction, and he never really goes through any substantial development.

Will's bland persona, however, is partly the fault of James Franco, who was on acting auto-pilot. He barely showed any range of emotions, and didn't even attempt to try to give the character a sense of uniqueness. It's as if Franco didn't even know what was going on half of the time. When he wakes up to find his father dead, he doesn't even react to it. His character was suppose to be the human character that we would relate to, but Franco's lack of portraying any emotions creatively makes us feel more foreign to the character than we are with Caesar. It is one of Franco's most disappointing performances.

You know you're in trouble when the apes are acting better than you, even if the lead ape is played by the magnificent Andy Serkis. Serkis gave a very compelling performance as Caesar, capturing the character's frustrations and struggles. He has made Caesar one of the most memorable cinematic characters, up there with his other widely popular character, Gollum. This is a character that we were able to know every little detail about, including his intentions, emotions, and drive just from Serkis' amazing near-silent performance.

Out of the remaining cast members, John Lithgow was the only one to stand out. The fear of a world that he doesn't recognize anymore because of his illness is within all of Lithgow's memorable scenes, and he easily steals any scene he has with Franco. It makes you wish they would have just combined Will's character with his father, and just had Lithgow as our human lead. Everyone else gave performances that were mere place-holders. Frida Pinto gave a very ordinary performance. Her character felt tacked on, and she did nothing to stand-out. The same can be said about the film's villain, David Oyelowo. I was expecting more from Brian Cox, especially after his son dies. He wasn't bad, but he definitely didn't get a chance to showcase his character justifiably. Lastly, Tom Felton, from the Harry Potter franchise, was a surprising delight. His performance wasn't anything too refreshing, but it was a fun and necessary role that he played admirably. As Caesar's first villain, he caused much conflict for the main character, and the scene leading up to his confrontation with our hero is one of the highlights of the film.

Going into the film, I was always skeptical about the technology being used for the apes. While 20^th Century Fox has been boasting the photo-realistic aspects of the primates, the trailers reveal otherwise. However, after seeing the film, I must applaud the filmmakers behind the motion capturing. While the apes didn't look as realistic as one would hope, capturing their emotions was much more important, and if they had used real apes they would never had been able to make the audience connect as well as they did with motion capturing.

Even with all of it's narrative flaws, this is still one of the blockbuster treats of the summer. It does what many of the superhero films haven't been able to do, and offers more than just a fun time. It has an emotional story, that will engage you as well as make you connect with the apes. It may not be the best film of the summer, but it's definitely better than a lot of the films that have come out.

7.5/10