(Movie Review) Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Origin movies. They can be tricky. You can completely flub one, like they did with Green Lantern, or you can hit the nail square on the head, like with the original Superman movie or Captain America. Either way, it is a hard thing to do. To take a story that someone already knows and say "but this is how it all started" and make it flow effortlessly, as if it were always there but just not yet seen by the rest of the world. George "the butcher" Lucas will tell anyone that keeping a consistent theme from a series of films in the 70's to releasing their origins over 30 years later is a very difficult task to complete. But the people from Rise of the Planet of the Apes made it seem effortless and for that they get my respect.

Plot: At the story's heart is Caesar (Andy Serkis), a chimpanzee who gains human-like intelligence and emotions from an experimental drug. Raised like a child by the drug's creator, Will Rodman (James Franco) and a primatologist Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto), Caesar ultimately finds himself taken from the humans he loves and imprisoned in an ape sanctuary in San Bruno. Seeking justice for his fellow inmates, Caesar gives the fellow apes the same drug that he inherited. He then assembles a simian army and escapes the sanctuary - putting man and ape on a collision course that could change the planet forever. from IMDB.com

Thoughts: The movie is a solid origin story and I enjoyed it. It's when movies like this come out that you want to go release all of the animals from the local zoo. While this movie does not completely share the same tone as those from the 70's, you can get a pretty clear picture of why the world turned out the way that it did and that, at the root of it all, we were to blame for the future enslavement of all mankind. Karma is a hell of a thing. Check it out.