It's a jungle out there

Everyone says you can't beat the classics, and that's true. Others would go as far as to say that some originals are untouchable, and that's even more true. But once in a blue moon, we'll get a reputable remake, reboot or any other form of continuation to a familiar story that we've come to love. After Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes left a cinematic bad taste in moviegoers, there were many reasons to be iffy about the reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Rest assured, director Rupert Wyatt's film remembers and respects the original from which it stemmed, and doesn't try to outdo it. It renews our fascination with the "what if" scenario that shows what would happen if apes stepped over humans as Earth's dominating species.

Will Rodman (James Franco) is a San Francisco scientist who has dedicated his job to developing a cure for Alzheimer's disease. After testing a possible cure on a mother chimp, Will sees that it repaired brain cells and increased intelligence, and prepares to present it to the rest of his colleagues. After she is shot down for causing an episode of mayhem in the labs, Will decides to take her baby home, and names him Caesar. Seeing that the mother's aptitude has passed on to her son, Will and his father (John Lithgow), who is suffering from Alzheimer's, begin to nurture Caesar's rapid growth of intelligence. Following Caesar's attack on an aggressive neighbor, he is sent to live in a primate facility. Because of much mistreatment there, he and the other apes soon begin to form a plan for an escape and an eventual take-over on the unsuspecting city, and the world.

James Franco lends himself well to this familiar, but nonetheless engaging, "boy and his dog" story, except this involves a chimp. Despite this film being mostly about the apes, it still smoothly handles the complications that Franco's character experiences as he juggles with trying to cure his father's disease and taking care of his new chimp friend. Franco's interactions with Caesar are genuine to the point where it's remarkable that the primate is only motion captured, and not real. The father-son relationship between Franco and Lithgow isn't used that much, but the emotions are still present when we see them together.

As good as the main actors are, the real stars of the show are the rebelling apes. Andy Serkis, the most reliable motion capture actor working today, who's best known for his roles as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Kong in King Kong, turns in another digital and energetic performance. Weta, which is the same team that provided the stunning special effects for 2009's Avatar, provide visuals that look so striking that you tend to forget that these are actors portraying the primates, with the effects not added until later. The special effects are used to move the story forward. They give the monkeys personalities and emotions, and are a contributing factor to the growth of Caesar's character as he goes from the "new kid" in the primate facility to the alpha ape. Thankfully, the filmmakers didn't need the use of 3D for us to appreciate the full beauty of what these effects could accomplish. A few of the best visual effects shots are of a maturing Caesar swinging and climbing across a forest of redwood trees.

The screenplay honors the original Planet of the Apes, while at the same time setting itself up to take the story in a new direction. It's an exemplary case of a reboot done right. The majority of the film is centered on Will and Caesar, in addition to Caesar being locked away and planning his escape; so by the time the primates get loose, we've seen enough of what they have been through and are able to find a reason to root for them as they head out on their conquest. The streets of San Francisco soon become their stomping grounds; and the Golden Gate Bridge turns into their jungle gym and a place where the apes make their climactic final stand against their human oppressors. There are messages of ethical animal treatment in the film that are understated in such a way so the story doesn't beat the viewer over the head with them, but can still be valued. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is said to be the start of a new film series, with this installment ending on a cliffhanger. If the sequels can make the story of the friction between humans and the new ape uprising as surprisingly good as this one did, I'm all in for some more monkey business.

Final grade: B+