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.Written by
20th Century Fox
The name of the chimpanzee "Wolfie" was revealed by director Rupert Wyatt in the commentary track of the Blu-ray. He was named after Wolfie Smith, the urban-guerrilla hero of British comedy series Citizen Smith (1977), who was, in turn, named after Irish revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone (who used the pseudonym "Citizen Smith"). See more »
Goofs
There is a news item on TV about a spacecraft entering the atmosphere of Mars. However it only takes about 7 minutes to reach the surface of Mars once entering the atmosphere, and since the signals would take about 20 minutes to reach the Earth, by the time that information about entering the atmosphere had reached Earth the craft would have already been on the surface for over 10 minutes. Therefore instead of reporting the craft had just reached the atmosphere of Mars, it would make more sense to be reporting on the entire landing sequence. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Robert Franklin:
[administering chimp intelligence test]
Okay, okay. Here you go. And let's go again.
[gives Bright Eyes treat and clocks timer]
Will Rodman:
Which one's this? Number nine?
Robert Franklin:
Yeah, this is number nine. Bright Eyes, we call her. Are you watching this? This is unbelievable.
[Bright Eyes does the tower fast]
Robert Franklin:
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Bright Eyes:
[grabs treat and eats it]
Will Rodman:
How many moves was that?
Robert Franklin:
20.
[...] See more »
Crazy Credits
The end credits appear over a map, showing the virus spreading around the world. See more »
...but it didn't do it for me. I'm a huge fan of the series (excluding the Tim Burton disaster, of course) but this didn't have nearly the depth nor the intelligence I was expecting. Like most I was initially skeptical at the idea of attempting to reboot the franchise -- but as positive reviews kept flowing in regarding this "smart" script and Avatar-like CGI, I began to get excited again. With the surprisingly high box office numbers and positive feedback from most who saw it, I got more excited.
I finally ponied up last night to check it out.
The good news: The CGI apes stuff works pretty well. Serkis does his usual great job (although I thought his King Kong was better). Action sequences and set pieces are all good.
The bad news: There's no Rod Serling-style, Twilight Zone-ish, philosophical themes or moral messages here. It isn't "smart" compared to the original films. This one is more like POTA for Dummies. It relies on a trite storyline that's been beaten to death (Don't play God; Don't mess with Nature -- yada, yada, yada) with nothing more interesting or thought-provoking. The original series was not afraid to hit you in the gut and make you think. Those movies were much heavier in every way; while this plays much more like a straight action film. Entertaining from that aspect -- along with Caesar himself, but not much else. So, I don't know where all this "smart" talk came from. If this passes for smart then our standards have dropped.
Next is the acting. I don't blame the actors b/c it didn't seem that they had much to work with. Franco, Pinto, Felton, Cox and the rest are all one-note characters with little depth. All the humans are cardboard clichés in this film. I know Caesar is the protagonist -- but to have the other actors be so uninteresting is a real drawback. And this -- along with the trite story -- reminds me a bit of Avatar. A by-the-numbers retelling of Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves -- where all the characters are one-dimensional. Visually stunning, yes -- but with shallow characterizations. In Avatar, military guy = bad, corporate exec = bad; in ROTPOTA, drug company exec = bad, neighbor = bad, chimp worker = bad. There's not much else to say about them since we're not presented with their context.
No one wanted to like this more than me. I was hoping the flavor of the original series had been brought back -- but I'm afraid if we can't resurrect Rod Serling or enlist a writer of his caliber, we'll never see it again.
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...but it didn't do it for me. I'm a huge fan of the series (excluding the Tim Burton disaster, of course) but this didn't have nearly the depth nor the intelligence I was expecting. Like most I was initially skeptical at the idea of attempting to reboot the franchise -- but as positive reviews kept flowing in regarding this "smart" script and Avatar-like CGI, I began to get excited again. With the surprisingly high box office numbers and positive feedback from most who saw it, I got more excited.
I finally ponied up last night to check it out.
The good news: The CGI apes stuff works pretty well. Serkis does his usual great job (although I thought his King Kong was better). Action sequences and set pieces are all good.
The bad news: There's no Rod Serling-style, Twilight Zone-ish, philosophical themes or moral messages here. It isn't "smart" compared to the original films. This one is more like POTA for Dummies. It relies on a trite storyline that's been beaten to death (Don't play God; Don't mess with Nature -- yada, yada, yada) with nothing more interesting or thought-provoking. The original series was not afraid to hit you in the gut and make you think. Those movies were much heavier in every way; while this plays much more like a straight action film. Entertaining from that aspect -- along with Caesar himself, but not much else. So, I don't know where all this "smart" talk came from. If this passes for smart then our standards have dropped.
Next is the acting. I don't blame the actors b/c it didn't seem that they had much to work with. Franco, Pinto, Felton, Cox and the rest are all one-note characters with little depth. All the humans are cardboard clichés in this film. I know Caesar is the protagonist -- but to have the other actors be so uninteresting is a real drawback. And this -- along with the trite story -- reminds me a bit of Avatar. A by-the-numbers retelling of Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves -- where all the characters are one-dimensional. Visually stunning, yes -- but with shallow characterizations. In Avatar, military guy = bad, corporate exec = bad; in ROTPOTA, drug company exec = bad, neighbor = bad, chimp worker = bad. There's not much else to say about them since we're not presented with their context.
No one wanted to like this more than me. I was hoping the flavor of the original series had been brought back -- but I'm afraid if we can't resurrect Rod Serling or enlist a writer of his caliber, we'll never see it again.