I usually try to avoid opening weekend or even week for any movie, because the theaters are usually overcrowded and let’s be honest, I hate having to listen to Jake & Jill’s baby cry while they act like they cannot hear it and Sam Smith a few seats down with his phone ringing ever 15 mins like he is a damn rock stare or something. Seriously people! I know you can hear your baby making that noise…I didn’t pay $10 to listen to your baby for 3 hrs believe me, I really don’t love your kid as much as you do…I actually really dislike it! And dude, you are not that great…leave the theater to answer it or just put in on vibrate, news flash, I don’t care who is calling you, I don’t want to hear what you have to say and GUESS what the world so doesn’t revolve around you…give me my $10 back and tell me when you are not going to be at the theater!!!
Ok…so besides my rant about ignorant prats at the movie…now onto the actual movie!!!
The movie starts in the jungle. You see the apes, out gathering food, socializing, enjoying the sun as it cascades through the trees…suddenly a branch breaks. The apes stop as the birds flock overhead away from the sound. Suddenly men with nets and tranquilizers leap out from the bushes and begin to hunt down, capture and lock up these innocent creatures to ship them off to a lab in the US. As one female crys out from the small air hole, you see the rest of her pack (her husband) run after the truck, unable to save her. Your heart just breaks…these apes were hunted down and carted off like slaves…no rights…no respect…just the desire to make money off the suffering of another living creature.
We meet up with our female enslaved ape again in a genetics pharmaceutical lab for a company named Gen Sys (Genesis – funny right), where Will (James Franco) and Franklin (played by Tyler Labine) are testing a new drug known as ALZ 112. If proven ALZ 112 is predicted to allow the brain to grow new cells curing degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Schizophrenia and more on her. So far, the only side effect they can see is a green glow that appears around the eyes. She has now been named No. 9 (AKA “Bright Eyes). Will and Franklin are testing her on the Towers of Hanoi Puzzle. The puzzle test intellect and a perfect score is 15. In amazement, Franklin and Will watch on as No. 9 solves the puzzle in 20 moves. Will rushes off to speak with his CEO Jacobs (played by David Oyelowo), to inform him that 112 works and requests to meet with the board of directors to get permission to move forward with human trials.
Cautious at first, Jacobs agrees to the conference. The next day Will is presenting to the board, explaining the process and drug theory effects while waiting for Franklin to get No. 9 out of her cage. But No. 9 is not having it. She lashes out in anger at Franklin and goes insane on the lab techs. Leaping out of her cage she crashes through the doors and into the lobby. People scream and run in horror as No. 9 comes crashing through the glass into the conference room as a security guard shoots and kills her.
Jacobs, fearing that violence and rage is a side effect of the drug, deems it to high risk to continue testing and tells Franklin to get rid of (AKA murder) all the aps. Franklin tries to talk to Jacobs, but all Jacobs sees in green dollar signs.
Later that day while cleaning up all the cages, Franklin and will make a startling discovery. A baby ape laying in No. 9’s cage (prison). She had given birth and was only trying to protect her infant child when she lashed out at Franklin and the other techs. Unable to take the life of any more innocent creatures today, he tells Will to either kill the baby himself or take it home with him until he can make other arrangements. Will agrees (of course…I mean who could ever turn away from an innocent baby monkey like that. Baby person…maybe, but not an animal!)
Will arrives home, arms full of baby formula, dippers and more. He is greeted by a nurse who is leaving as he is coming in. Upstairs Wills father, Charles (played by John Lithgow) plays the piano badly. We realize that Charles suffers from Alzheimer’s, and is a potential person Will’s drug to save if only Will could get it approved before it is too late. He brings his father down, and introduces him to the baby ape, which his father promptly calls Caeser after his favorite book.
Right off the bat Caesar (done by Andy Serkis) shows early signs of intelligence such as feeding himself at only 2 days old. Will realizes that while in the womb, Caeser must have been dosed with the 112 and instead of his brain re-growing cells, it grew better cells, making Caeser adept to learning sign language and communicating on a whole other level. Will builds a giant room for Caeser in the attic, putting up gymnastic rings and sings so Caeser can jump about. But for Caeser’s own safetly, Will keeps him locked away inside the house, and Caeser is forced to only look through the small window in his room out onto the world that he will never know.
Right off the bat Caesar (done by Andy Serkis) shows early signs of intelligence such as feeding himself at only 2 days old. Will realizes that while in the womb, Caeser must have been dosed with the 112 and instead of his brain re-growing cells, it grew better cells, making Caeser adept to learning sign language and communicating on a whole other level. Will builds a giant room for Caeser in the attic, putting up gymnastic rings and sings so Caeser can jump about. But for Caeser’s own safetly, Will keeps him locked away inside the house, and Caeser is forced to only look through the small window in his room out onto the world that he will never know.
Seeing what 112 did for Ceaser, Will decides to try it, illegally of course, on his father. Late one night he sneaks into his father’s room and injects him. Overnight, Wills father has recovered 110% and laugh around the house continues as normal. Yet every day Caeser spends hours looking out at the children playing on the street, watching the wind blow through the trees and listening to the birds in the sky. Unable to take it anymore, Caesar sneaks out of the house into the neighbor’s yard to play with the other kids. The little girl sees Caeser come into the yard and screams out, her father rushes out and corners Caeser with a baseball pat. Will hears the noise and arrives just in time to save Caeser from the evil man who was willing to beat him to death, just because he didn’t understand and just because Caeser was different.
While fending off the attach from the mad man with the bat, Caesar got hurt, a huge gash in his leg. Will takes him to the zoo undercover in baby cloths and a baby carriage. No one notices except the apes, who all got extremely quiet and stared at the carriage when Caeser and Will went by. This is where we meet the most 2 dimensional pointless character in the movie, Caroline (played by Freida Pinto), a vet at the zoo who stitches Caeser up and flirts with Will.
**Side Note*** To be honest, I have no idea why they wrote in this character and how she didn’t get cut out of the entire movie, because she really doesn’t do anything for it. She was truly only needed for that one scene. Maybe she was screwing the director or something, because she really didn’t bring ANYTHING to the movie..just a complete waste of a character.
To tame Caesar’s urge, Will (and Caroline) take him over to the Giant Redwood Forest to play. Which of course Caesar loves…
**Side Note** For anyone that hasn’t seen the Redwoods…they are amazing. I remember we drove right through one when we were there!**
Time passes, Somehow this pointless Character moved in with Will (you realize this by seeing her in a robe or some lame crap like that, she could have just spend the night…you honestly don’t know) and his Father, who by the way has started to no longer respond to the 112. Will realizes that his father is becoming immune to the drug. Realizing his mistake, he rushes into work to speak with Jacobs about this.
Jacobs of course is sick of Wills nonsense and obsession with this failed drug and refuses to listen to him, until Will divulges that he tested the drug on his father and it worked, repaired his father and made him smarter. Seeing dollar signs fly Jacobs automatically tells Will to start again with the 112, fix it and get it working. He immediately reopens the animal testing lab bringing Franklin and everyone back to work…to improve the 112.
Back out the house, Charles has fallen back into his Alzheimer’s state, finding the front door ajar, he wonders outside to find a running car…his neighbors car. Getting behind the wheel to drive he hits the car in front of him and behind him. The neighbor (AKA…the mad man) rush out of his house screaming (surprise there right) at Charles who is at a complete lose as to what is going on. But we know this mad man already, he doesn’t listen to anyone and doesn’t care about anyone so obviously the mad man doesen’t realize that Charles is unwell in the head. The mad man starts to push his finger into Charles’ chest. Caesar seeing this direct attach on his family does what anyone would do. He attacks the mad man, beating him repeatedly until Charles tells Caeser no.
OF COURSE animal control shows up.
**Side Note**WTF people. The damn animal was just trying to protect his family, honestly…the freaking mad man should be the one being pulled away from his family and locked up. He assaulted an older man! But no…animals have no rights, which is crap!! If you damn child bit another child does “Child Control” show up and drag them off to be put down. NO (maybe we should have a child control..but then again, I hate children so I am a little bias on that). Animals are like small children and if not trained correctly they don’t know better…LIKE A CHILD! I hate ignorant people who just don’t seem to get that!
Poor Caesar is taken away to a primate (so called) sanctuary (they have those in LA?). Poor Caesar is now left alone in a prison with wild apes. Although he is an ape…he is different…half ape/half human, and the apes can since this about him. Stepping out into the court yard from his cell, Caesar is confronted by the Alpha male (Lucky) who proceeds to beat him and rip his shirt off, seeing the commotion, the evil sick pathological caretaker shots both Lucky and Caesar with a tranquilizer. Once back in the cages, Caesar challenges the caretaker, but the sick freak just turns a firehose on him (very much like the whites did to the black during the civil movement….anyone else noticing the similarities yet??).
Alone, wet and cold…different but the same, Caesar feels like giving up completely until a circus orangutan across from him signs to him…asking if he is ok. You see a light for Caesar at the end of the tunnel.
**If you want to watch the movie…and NOT know the ending, now would be the time to stop reading!!**
Will back at Gen Sys is working hard to come up with a new more effective version of the 112…the 113. After weeks of preparation, they are ready to expose the first ape. They strap this crazy looking ape down (you can see that this ape was used to being tested on…use to the system and had the scars to show how long he had been doing it…like a well-trained slave) and begin to expose him to 113 via gas method. During the procedure, the ape begins to have a seizure and during the struggle, Franklin was accidentally exposed to the gas.
Feeling that the drug is ready for human testing (rushing again…) Will takes it home to treat his father, but Charles refuses and dies that night in Wills arms.
As Charles dies…Caesar is tormented even more by the pathological “caretaker” (we should just say pathological guard). The Guard brings some girls and his mate to the “prison” to show off his inmates, but his mate gets a little too close to Caesar and before getting tasered by the guard he manages to pull a pocket knife from the guys pocket. Alone again in his cage, Caesar fashions a make shift lock pick out of it and unlocks his cage, giving him free roam at night. He goes out of his way to befriend an aggressive gorilla that is keep separate from the rest of the apes and never let out of his cage…now Caesar has some serious back up behind him….allowing him to become the new Alpha male!
Over time, Caesar watches his minions…and realizes though discussions with the orangutan, that he must find a way to get the apes to rise up together as a group to get their freedom. He allows the old alpha male to give each of the apes a cookie that Caesar had stolen from the pathological guard and slowly the group begins to solidify as a whole.
**Side Note** If you haven’t realized the similarities and the depth behind this movie by this point in time, just give up thinking and watch the pretty colours.
Back at Gen Sys, Will is beginning to feel the pressure of the greedy and powerful men in control push down on him for results and human testing. Now with his own personal issues resolved through the death of his father, Will no longer feels the need to push the testing ahead of schedule…but greed drives Jacobs and he demands more,…human testing. Realizing that he has no say, Will quits and heads to the prison to bribe back Caesar (yes bribe). The owner takes the money, but Caesar…having found his new home and calling refuses to go with the man that abandoned him here in the first place.
Meanwhile…Franklin is beginning to feel the effects if the 113…sneezing blood.
Late that night, Caesar realizes that he needs one more thing to help the apes go to the next level as a group. He goes out into the night and back to his old, beloved home…but not to reconnect, but to steal the 113, that Will had planned to use on his father. Back in the prison…Caesar distributes the gas to the sleeping apes.
The next day…the prison guard’s watch in awe and dismay as Caesar leads the apes in teaching them sign language. Finally together as a unified group…it is time to move forward. That night at lockdown, Caesar refuses to go to his cage. The prison guard goes out and fights Caesar. The guard says “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” Caesar shocks the guard, the apes and the entire theater by responding “NO!” Releasing the other apes, the guard turns to Caesar with the taser, but Caesar turns the fire hose on him (irony) electrocuting the man.
The apes have taken over the prison…locked the other (not a main character really) guard into one of the cells and are going…well…ape shit and leave the confinements of the prison. Heading out into the streets of San Francisco to free other imprisoned apes (at the zoo and at Gen Sys).
The apes have taken over the prison…locked the other (not a main character really) guard into one of the cells and are going…well…ape shit and leave the confinements of the prison. Heading out into the streets of San Francisco to free other imprisoned apes (at the zoo and at Gen Sys).
The next morning, feeling guilty over Caesar, Will attempts to call the prison, but no one answers. He (and that random chick) drives out there. He discovers a empty container of 113 and realizes what has happened.
Our infamous Franklin appears again, sick and looking like death goes to Wills house, looking for help, but Will is gone. Instead he runs into the mad man next door who is heading off to work…in his pilots uniform. Confronting Franklin, the mad man gets sneezed on…spraying blood all over him. Franklin rushes home…where he dies…alone.
Our infamous Franklin appears again, sick and looking like death goes to Wills house, looking for help, but Will is gone. Instead he runs into the mad man next door who is heading off to work…in his pilots uniform. Confronting Franklin, the mad man gets sneezed on…spraying blood all over him. Franklin rushes home…where he dies…alone.
Jacobs gets a call on his way into work. He discovers that Franklin is dead and concludes that it was the exposure to 113 that did it. Walking into Gen Sys, he stops in mid sentence as he looks up and sees the liberated apes standing above him looking down.
The war is on!
At the zoo the apes break off pieces of the cage, which are shaped like spears.
**Side Note** Somehow every time you see this ape army the numbers are doubling…there really can’t be THAT many monkeys in San Francisco, but what do I know.
**Side Note** Somehow every time you see this ape army the numbers are doubling…there really can’t be THAT many monkeys in San Francisco, but what do I know.
Ceaser begins to lead all the monkeys towards the Redwood Forest. The humans, not knowing what is going on, begin to fight back with Animal control, guns, and violence (like the human race always does). But for every ape the humans kill, Caesar prevents the monkeys from killing the humans…making him better than them!
A dark fog rolls into the city making it near impossible to see on the bridge. The humans think they have the monkeys cornered…each side of the bridge are police, but monkeys have more than one way to go. Up to the wires and down under the bridge the monkeys move in on the unaware humans.
Jacobs more concerned about recovering his assets then anything arrives in a helicopter and begins to kill the monkeys. Spotting Caesar, he demands for the men in the airplane to take him out! Realizing what is going to happen, the lonely gorilla leap off the bridge onto the helicopter, bringing it crashing down on the bridge…killing himself in the process. The only one left alive is a wounded…begging for life…Jacobs, but feeling no compassion for him, Caesar lets the Test Lab Patron (the first to be tested with 113) kill him.
Finally freed from the barricade, the monkeys make it to the woods, free at last. Will, still blind to what is truly going on, he rushes after Caesar into the woods to bring him home. Caesar hugs Will and says very clearly….”Caesar IS Home!”
**Side Note**this brought tears to my eyes!!
Back in the city, the mad man neighbor is rushing to his flight…and as he walks into the international airport his noes begins to bleed…the infection has begun.
We see the Rise of the Plane of the Apes begin.
I have seen a number of movies in the past few months, but this must be the best one I have seen in a while. It had a depth to it that many movies I have seen didn’t have. Even though a few of the characters (mainly that chick) had no true role…the MAIN characters were amazing…Caesar was amazing. Andy Serkis should win an award for bringing this character to life. He did the Gollum before…and that was good, but this was WOW! Is there an Oscar category for this, because there should be and he should win it! The whole theater at the end was cheering for the monkeys to make it…to survive…to have the chance to enjoy their freedom.
The movie played on so many different levels, but the one thing I related to more than anything was the concept of slavery and the civil rights movement. Caesar was half and half…like me J
I was really depressed that they messed it up with that chick, such a drag on the movie. It would have been amazing without her…maybe even better. She provided nothing to the story line except for a semi attractive girl for the main character to flirt with. They really should have just left it at that. That was the only thing that really disappointed me in that whole movie, which really suxs, because that didn’t need to happen, she didn’t need to be there. Her character left me with a bad taste in my mouth…can I get the DVD version without her in it?!
But overall this is a movie I will go see again (even at $10 a pop) and I will buy when it comes out. It not only a must see but it is a must own.
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