Luke here, talking about a movie which struck a chord I was unaware was playable on this lil ol heart of mine.
(warning, spoilers in the comments section)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes has a lot of baggage to it, as is probably evident from the title alone. Not only are you setting yourself up to disappoint fans of the original Planet of the Apes, but the six or seven fans of the Tim Burton remake (zing! just kidding folks). But in all honesty, this series has become an integral part of American society, the original standing as a glimmering example of not only how to make a sci-fi movie, but how to make a movie at all. So to expand or extrapolate on that puts everyone in a really awkward position. This movie does a great deal of things both right and wrong, and should stand on its own as an example of, if anything, the good and bad things about counting on a franchise/name recognition to sell tickets. I will not make the argument that we should put more money into fresh and new ideas and stop with adaptations/sequels/prequel/reboots/etc., because if that were the case we wouldn't even have the original Planet of the Apes, which was an adaptation of a book written in 1963. Remakes can get out of hand, but if an artistic and creative team put their hearts and minds together, they can come up with a beautiful, fun, engaging movie, such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
The easy stuff first: It was beautiful. The CGI apes looked real enough that they could have built the bridge over the uncanny valley themselves. The human acting, at times, left a lot to be desired, but the characterization of Caesar, the main Ape (body captured by Andy Serkis) through body language and facial expressions alone made up for that forty fold. The plot kept me going and was engaging throughout, with the slow parts infrequent and short. If you're looking for that autumnal summer blockbuster, RotPotA is your movie. Now on to the rough stuff...
I need to talk about the major differences between the original Planet of the Apes and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. If you've seen the trailer, or even a print add for the movie, you know the premise. If not, there is only one spoiler I'm going to give away, and the next few paragraphs are dependant on me mentioning it. It'll be the first sentence, after that, no more spoilers. If you want to stay as fresh and clean as possible (meaning you've stayed away from all trailers, posters, ads, and personal musings as to what might occur in this movie), I've marked the end of the part where I don't need to mention the spoiler.
***SPOILER***
Humans mess with science, test their product on an ape, and the ape gains un-ape-like levels of intelligence, and it all hits the fan when society can't seem to understand.
The main thing that I took away from this movie was how drastically it's message differed from the original's. In both RotPotA and the original there were messages about classism, racism, tolerance/acceptance, but there are two places the two movies couldn't be further apart. The first of the two is in the creation of the super intelligent apes. In the original PotA, it appears that the apes came about via evolution. That when man stopped being the ruling species on the planet, the apes rose up, and after nearly two millenniums of being left to their own devices, their minds and bodies formed a shape more apt for ruling the planet (yes, an egocentric idea, but I'm not here to discuss which shape is better at ruling the planet, ape or human or blue whale). In RotPotA, it's because of science, because of creation. Man created a drug for their own reasons, selfish or not, tested it on what they perceived to be a lower, less valuable creature, and because of their actions, the creature became smarter. Here's where the second differences comes in.
The second difference is in the warning. Each movie has an inherent warning ingrained deep within it. The reason the apes were left to their own devices in the original Planet of the Apes was because "we blew it up." We nuked each other all to hell, neutering our minds and almost entirely destroying our species. PotA shows us the end result of the nuclear arms race, and stands a bleak and terrifying warning. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it's man's meddling in science that causes the end of man kind. I won't mention them, but for reasons beyond just the creation of a more intelligent species of apes, it's man's hand that is to blame for the end. It is a warning not to play with God, not to meddle where man should not tread.
With these two differences there is a pattern, and the patter is this: The original Planet of the Apes leans toward the theory of evolution, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes leans towards the theory of creationism. These leanings are not inherently bad, but because of RotPotA's leanings, it seems evident that it either fouled up, or wanted nothing to do with, the spirit of the original Planet of the Apes.
***SPOILER END***
At first I felt minorly betrayed by the movie, but after calming down, I settled on the idea that this is not a prequel, it is a reboot. I could see it conceivably being a prequel to Burton's movie, but it seems like most people just want to forget that happened (I dunno, I remember liking it, but I haven't seen it since I saw it in theaters, so who knows). I was also calmed by the fact that I genuinely had a good time watching this movie.
I could go on and on about this movie, and that's awesome. There are so many themes evident throughout it that are just ripe to be delved into, namely that of fatherhood and how humans deal with their offspring coming into their own, but I've gone on long enough, so lets wrap this up.
I feel as though there are rules to adapting something into a movie. Some people may argue that the first rule ought to be to please the fans, because they're the ones that will go out and see it and judge it, and you don't want to let them down. That's a bunch of malarkey. The fans are going to go see it anyway, or they won't see it because they feel like it'll never get it right, so you can basically rule out caring about pleasing the fans. The first rule in adapting something into a movie is to Make a Good Movie. That's it. Oddly enough, that's the first rule of every movie. And chances are, if you make a good movie, even the fans will say "well it wasn't as good as the (insert original work), but it was a pretty good movie."
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a good movie, and an interesting adaptation of the original idea. But because of how separate from the original message I find this movie to be, I feel like I would have enjoyed it more had I been completely oblivious to the previous movies and all the baggage that came with it. The inevitable shout-outs/references/homages to the original movie, while occasionally cute, and one time absolutely flooring, quickly became annoying. Even though I was able to pick out the obvious references, I'm sure there were ten times as many as I noticed, which kind of cheapens the story that this team was trying to tell. RotPotA was a strong enough story to stand on its own, much like Caesar himself. When there are so many call backs to another movie, one that not everyone who goes out and sees RotPotA has seen, then you're not only losing people because they don't understand the source material, but then the movie you're making becomes like a boys club. Humanity itself being a bit of a boys club, with topic of the rise of another sentient race, it would maybe be prudent to shy away from ostracization. We all know where that ends up...
Side Note: I never would have thought that I had as much invested in the Planet of the Apes series as I apparently do. The movies were a staple in my household, by which I mean they were considered important movies in cinematic history, but that we only really talked about them during the Christmas of the Apes, a PotA marathon that ran on TBS or something every Christmas (and even then we didn't really watch them, we just had the on). You also have to understand that my parents are undercover film buffs, holding movie's importance high, but never really talking about movies, to the point that I didn't really realize how buff-ish they were until I was about 23 and talking with my mom about the Sound of Music, and how awesome it is, when my mom started saying some fairly poignant things. How awesome is that? Anyway, I've only seen the first two on TV, snippets of the 3rd on TV, the remake in theaters, and now this one. Looks like I've got some catching up to do.