It's pretty safe to say that every person fears change of one sort or another. Whether it's a shift in national sociopolitical mores, having to move with one's family to another state as a child, or even just switching to a different brand of peanut butter (it'll be a cold day in hell before I sacrifice my JIF in favor of that cheaper Peter Pan crap), we all reach a moment in one's life where we naturally resist against the traditional routine we're so used to and appreciative of.
The same can be said for technology, perhaps the largest arbiter of change today. After all, how many of us have yearned for the "good ol' days" of rotary phones, VHS, Super Nintendo, and that one version of Facebook two months ago before we got that stalkerish "ticker" dealie? And yet, a couple of years (or even months) down the road, we'll just get a new version of the toys and social media that we JUST warmed up to.
And then there's movies. It's amazing how much progress motion pictures have made in a good 120 years, from the dawn of the full-length feature, the emergence of a soundtrack, Technicolor, visual compositing, all the way to the computer-generated imagery we see in bulk today. And even that subset of movie magic has made serious leaps and bounds, from the wireframe visuals of Tron and frightening predators of Jurassic Park to the motion-capture performance wizardry of Lord of the Rings and Avatar.
And while some film purists may fear that said mo-cap technology will eventually make flesh-and-blood actors obsolete, some believe it's merely a high-tech incarnation of make-up and costuming, seeing as how, in the end, it's the kinetic and vocal performances that matter most. One such innovator of this form of performance is actor Andy Serkis, best known for his powerhouse roles as Gollum from the Rings trilogy, and as the title character in 2005's King Kong reboot. Gaining rave reviews for his ability (with help from the amazing digital artists creating his digital physical appearance) to give his characters a humanity and believability previously unseen in CGI characters before his, now he hits another home run in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a surprisingly well-done reboot of the venerable sci-fi franchise that very well could make you embrace this type of change.
At the pharmaceutical company Gen-Sys, geneticist Will Rodman (James Franco) has been attempting to develop a cure for Alzheimer's Disease in hopes of curing his ailing father Charles (John Lithgow). As such, the company tests his experimental serum on apes, including a female chimpanzee known as "Bright Eyes". One day, Bright Eyes inexplicably goes on a rampage, and is shot dead. Believing Will's serum to be the cause, Gen-Sys head honcho Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo) orders all the test chimps to be euthanized.
But Will discovers that Bright Eyes was actually trying to protect her unseen and recently born baby. Unwilling to put him down, Will secretly takes the baby chimp home and raises him in Will and Charles' home. The baby, named Caesar (performed by Andy Serkis), grows up to become exceptionally intelligent, which Will believes was inherited from Caesar's mother. As a few years pass, Caesar's intellect grows exponentially, and Will uses a revised serum to seemingly cure Charles of his disease. But the chimp must contend with not only Will starting a relationship with veterinarian Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto), but also his growing resentment that he's seemingly regarded as nothing more than a pet.
Matters get worse when Caesar defends Charles from an aggressive neighbor, and a court order places Caesar in an ape sanctuary run by John Landon (Brian Cox), and maintained by his cruel and abusive son Dodge (Tom Felton). Growing more intelligent and more resentful of his human counterparts, Caesar begins to not only expose his fellow primate inmates to the same intellect-increasing formula, but stage a revolt and break out of their prison.
Seeing as how it's becoming commonplace to "reboot" film franchises with a fresh new cast and crew-- some that work (Batman Begins, Star Trek), some that don't (A Nightmare on Elm Street)-- it was pretty much inevitable that someone (in this case, director Rupert Wyatt) would decide to resurrect the long-dead franchise that originated with the 1968 Charlton Heston sci-fi camp classic Planet of the Apes, which was followed by four sequels, and then a terrible Tim Burton remake in 2001 that amounted to cinematic necrophilia.
This time, the world is still run by humans, but it turns out that the reason all those damn, dirty apes became so darned clever was due to an experimental serum concocted by the slightly miscast James Franco, who decides to play daddy to a baby chimp that is proof of the serum's success. The first half of Rise is essentially a timeline of Franco bringing up Caesar from an infant to a full-grown adult, and the tone doesn't exactly suggest an action-packed thriller, but rather one-half family drama (represented by Franco and a good John Lithgow) and one-half spontaneous romance (with Freida Pinto in a wasted and pointless role that almost amounts to an extended cameo).
But when Caesar is thrown into a hostile animal sanctuary, things start picking up, when we get a prison break movie of Great Escape proportions, with Caesar slowly building up influence amongst his furry compatriots, until they finally break free of their confines and wreak havoc in San Francisco. The latter is a terrific smorgasbord of CGI action and thrills, with fully armed cops and soldiers facing off against an army of angry and really, really smart primates in a series of terrifically-executed setpieces.
Speaking of which, the visual effects are a marvel to behold. Even though every single ape in the film was digitally constructed by effects house WETA (the geniuses behind Lord of the Rings), the critters are incredibly detailed and realistic, especially in regards to Caesar, who's the real star of the show. The motion capture technology beautifully adapts Serkis' mesmerizing performance onto a fully developed and physically believable character, giving Caesar a startling sense of pathos and even humanity. Though it's a good possibility that WETA will be honored for their work come awards season, it's high time the Academy broke their taboo against nominating performance-capture work and give Serkis the recognition he's deserved ever since he played the cringing, "precious"-obsessed villain from those Middle-Earth films all those years ago.
After all, if a man wearing a motion capture suit and being dressed up as an ape can deliver a far more breathtaking performance than those of acclaimed actors like Franco, Lithgow, and Cox, then I'd say it's time for the Oscars to accept that change I mentioned earlier. Though the script is a little bumpy at times, and despite the flesh-and-blood cast not delivering the goods as well as they could, the mindblowing special effects and the astonishing turn by Serkis is more than enough to make Rise of the Planet of the Apes a positive sign of filmmaking's continuing evolution.
Letter Grade: "B"
No comments:
Post a Comment