RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES combines fantastic storytelling with the next leap in Visual Effects for an emotional and action-packed motion picture experience unlike any other.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes serves as both a perfect prequel to the events of the long-running franchise as we know it, and a great "reboot" of its ideas and aesthetics for a 21st century audience. Where Tim Burton's updating of the franchise with his ill-received Planet of the Apes fumbled just about every aspect a whole decade ago, Rupert Wyatt's film does everything that it should do and more.
The film focuses on the origins of the eponymous apes rising up and taking over the earth. We follow scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) who is experimenting on primates to try and find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. By accident one genetically-enhanced ape, named Caesar, becomes far more intelligent than is normal and eventually end up the figurehead for the titular Rise.
While the film can comfortably boast of having all the huge action sequences (one in particular near the end) and jaw-dropping special effects that you could want from a summer blockbuster, it also has a lot of heart, soul and genuine drama to back it up and provide weight to it all. Whether it be Will trying desperately to help his suffering father, played brilliantly by John Lithgow, or his growing relationship with Caesar, this is as much a drama as it is an action spectacle.
What makes the film so special, however, is Andy Serkis' astonishing performance as Caesar the ape. He has already shown with his performances as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and as the mighty King Kong in Peter Jackson's identically titled 2005 epic, but he takes "human like" to a whole new level. In fact, his performance is so emotive and believable that he ends up being a lot more human than the actual humans in the film! It might not be the norm but it will be a travesty if Serkis doesn't get nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his performance.
What's also amazing about the film is just how much it takes its time before it finally delivers the massive spectacle you might expect. That's exactly one of the reasons it works as well as it does, and one of the key reasons the fairly lengthy set-piece at the end is so effective; it doesn't rush things and gives us a lot of reasons to care for these characters, human or otherwise.
Exciting, emotional, genuinely heartfelt and with as much brain as it has brawn, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the prequel you always wanted for a franchise that maybe have, in some eyes, grown tired. Injecting a fresh 21st century feel while still very much respecting the source material, it's a triumph on pretty much all fronts.
The Triple-play Blu-ray of the film is well worth spending the extra few pounds on. Aside from the superior picture and sound quality it also features a plethora of excellent extra featurettes including "The Genius of Andy Serkis," which looks at what makes him so good at performing via motion-capture; "Composing the Score with Patrick Doyle," a fascinating look at the Scottish composer's often unique methods of making film music; and "Breaking Motion Capture Boundaries," which is a must-see for those particularly interested in the technicalities of how the special effects were achieved. Overall a fantastic Blu-ray release for a fantastic film.
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Big budget sci-fi action based on the original film series of the late 1960s and early 1970s. James Franco stars as Will Rodman, a genetic engineer working in present-day San Francisco who is performing scientific tests on apes in his attempt to find a cure for Alzheimer's. His first test subject is Caesar (Andy Serkis), the prototype of a new breed of apes with human-like intelligence. But when Caesar breaks free, a revolution is triggered and an epic war for supremacy breaks out between humankind and the primates of the world.
Please note this is a region B Blu-ray and will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Set in present day San Francisco Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is a reality-based cautionary tale a science fictionscience fact blend where man&39;s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy
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