Up until
last year I had only ever seen the original Planet
of the Apes, and I had seen that years ago. The pre-eminent thing I’d heard
of the Apes series had been how the
budget had been slashed and slashed and slashed for the subsequent sequels. As
such, I didn’t really expect much from it. Then, last year, my partner and I
sat and watched the entire series of films (on VHS no less!). I was actually
astounded at how good they (mostly) were, and how they all strove to say
something about our society as humans then and now. It iss a bonkers series, no
doubt about it – the second film ends with the entire planet blowing up after a
nuclear warhead is set off by a bunch of religious nutters who worship it
(hmmm...) – but there is some serious intelligent thought behind it all. Planet of the Apes is a stone-cold
cinematic classic and my favourite of the sequels is easily Conquest of the Planet of the Apes – where
the slave apes, led by the hyper-intelligent Caesar, throw off the shackles of
slavery and revolt against their human masters. There is some barmy sci-fi in
there, but the film is really aiming to say something and seems to carry a real
anger inside it.
The news
that Fox were, once again, aiming to restart the Apes franchise filled me with more than a little trepidation. But
then I began to hear great things about the script and how they were using Conquest as a jumping off point (rather
than throwing out the baby, bathwater and logic as Tim Burton did). The end
result; with a fairly great cast, astonishing performance capture from WETA and
honest intelligence, is really very, very good.
The film
begins in the jungle, as a family of chimpanzees are hunted and captured. I
think it’s important to note here that no real apes or people in ape costumes
were used for the entirety of the film. Every single ape is a performance
captured digital creature and they look astonishing. Though some of the other
visual effects come across a little hokey, the money has been spent in the
right place with the apes. These captured apes are brought to San Francisco
where they are used for medical drug trials – in this case, a possible cure for
Alzheimer’s developed by brilliant bio-chemist James Franco. One female ape,
“Bright Eyes”, shows particular promise with the drug not only working but
enhancing her cognitive functions too. However, she rampages through the
facility and Franco’s experiment is shut down. It is only afterwards they
discover Bright Eyes was only trying to protect her child – a child Franco
takes home. Franco and his father, once a pianist now deteriorating with
Alzheimer’s himself (Jon Lithgow), name the baby ape Caesar and Franco raises him
as his own son. Caesar grows into an intelligent, active young ape confused
about his place in the world.
It is only
when the adult Caesar, in the act of protecting Lithgow, attacks a neighbour
and is placed in an animal shelter that the film really gets going. The shelter
is run as more of a prison by Bryan Cox and his evil twerp of a son, Draco
Malfoy. It is here that the majority of Caesar’s arc takes place, as he
experiences firsthand the cruelty and callousness of humans towards apes – as
he feels abandoned by Franco and as he witnesses fellow apes being carted off
to the biotech lab where Franco works. Caesar first takes control of the apes,
and then plans the breakout and ensuing revolution.
Director
Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist, this being
only his second feature film) keeps the pace up and helps to really make Caesar
the star. There’s a reason I haven’t named any of the human characters –
because I can’t remember their names and they barely matter anyway. To a studio
flick aimed at restarting a franchise, Wyatt brings a number of deft,
intelligent touches – the leaves falling as the apes move through the trees and
the cutting across large swathes of time. There are some holes in the story
(and considering the number of hands the script went through, it’s not a big
surprise) but they only become apparent afterwards, if you really think about
them. For the rest of the film, you are fully engaged in this smart story of a
young revolutionary who helps raise his people up against their callous and
fearful oppressors. He just happens to be an ape.
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