Movie Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes Blu-ray

Rise of the Planet of the Apes begins all the fuss over those damn dirty apes of Charlton Heston fame showing us just how those apes became intelligent enough to take over the world.

If you haven't seen any of the classic Planet of the Apes films from the 1960's and 70's or the remake from 2001 this movie will begin your journey. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the beginning of the apes rise to dominating our planet after humans die off.

In Rise of the Planet of the Apes a biotechnology company is developing a cure for Alzheimer's with Will Rodman played by James Franco as the lead researcher. His father Charles played by John Lithgow suffers from Alzheimer's and James works feverishly to develop a cure.

He uses chimps to test the formulas they come up with to see how much each experiment can raise the intelligence of the subject. In a fateful accident their main test subject kills a guard but only to protect her baby that she hid from the researchers.

A handler is ordered to destroy the test animals and he just cannot bring himself to kill the baby chimp so he gives it to Will to take home. Charles names the baby Caesar who develops intelligence just like his mother and goes beyond what she was shown to possess as far as intelligence.

Caesar begins to resent his status as pet when he is made to wear a collar and leash on trips to a nearby redwood forest but also asks Will where he came from. Will explains to him about the experiments but before he can do much about it an incident removes Caesar from Wills care and forces him to a primate shelter.

Will is desperate to find a cure for his father so he increases the effects of the drug and the company returns to test the drug on more apes. The drug raises the intelligence of all the test subjects but it is fatal to humans like a rampant disease, you can guess the ending.

Caesar leads the other apes to revolt and escape the pair of cruel guards but leaves the one guard who did not torment them to answer to police why the primates escaped. Will helps the apes escape to the forest where they can live in peace while the humans become the extinct species due to the drug's effects as a rampant virus.

While I had very few expectations for Rise of the Planet of the Apes I also knew how things would turn out, after all the apes take over the world. If you have seen the prior Apes films you know that apes wind up at the top of the pyramid and humans are lower down so the main plot of apes becoming intelligent is not surprising.

With this type of film it's not the destination that counts but how they get there and they did a great job at the trip but not an excellent one. Acting is very good and as seen in the making of features they really did a great job of taking Caesar from young primate with some intelligence to human intellect ready to dominate the world ape.

The film really does a great job with the apes being center stage at several times during the film which was done mostly through CGI animation. The effects are great but the thing I liked most was the general tone of the film and how serious they took the plot with respect to the series.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes does not put too much of a science fiction or even a sequel feel but more a look at what we should be worried about in our push to immortality through drugs. Proper testing like proper acting and good use of effects are both needed in this film and the plot just takes too much away from the actors and puts a little too much emphasis on the apes and effects.

The film went a bit awry with making us care much about the characters and really caring more about Caesar and his kind so the film fell a bit short on character development. Rise of the Planet of the Apes did a good job on effects and the Blu-ray release really highlights the better looking high definition movie.

Quality for Rise of the Planet of the Apes is excellent bordering on perfect with some well-done CGI effects that deserve mentioning. At times it is hard to tell if the primates used in filming are CGI based or the thing so the filming and effects started out great.

The Blu-ray transfer looks fantastic with almost no problems that are even worth mentioning even though the movie was shot in 35mm film and not digitally. Colors look awesome especially in the forest scenes and generally things like a long shot of fog on the Golden Gate Bridge appears totally without problems.

Audio is also very well done with the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track with very good surround sound and well done score that really adds to the films feel. Surround sound is excellent even though there are not a lot of high noise action scenes we do get a lot of side and rear speaker use in scenes were primates are running amuck.

Bonus content on the Blu-ray edition includes audio commentary, making of features and a good documentary on primates as well as the usual deleted scenes and sneak peeks. The making of features are the real treat here with some of the most advanced CGI and motion capture techniques to date used for the film being highlighted well.

Extra content is well worth a look and the real reason beyond the better quality to buy a Blu-ray disc with the great making of features that are included. Rise of the Planet of the Apes really makes the logical start to the series and is well worth an addition to any good science fiction or action film collection.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Website