I thought we escaped the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. Rupert Wyatt. Starring James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto.

Above-average action movie chronicling our species' inevitable destruction at the hands of superintelligent apes.

A pharmaceutical scientist (James Franco) accidentally creates a genius chimpanzee in his attempts to develop a cure for Alzheimer's, a disease that afflicts his father (John Lithgow). Unable to fit into human society, the chimp (played by Andy Serkis with a lot of help from 3D animators) begins to harbor thoughts of breaking free.

I don't think it's ever crossed anyone's mind that Planet of the Apes needed a prequel. The back-story is pretty straightforward: we humans had a nice little planet for ourselves, and then we blew it up, we maniacs - damn us all to hell!

Oddly, the new film rewrites the one solid fact we did know about the story's origins. No longer did we blow up the planet; instead, Dr. James Franco apparently decided to engineer a virus that makes apes super-smart and makes humans die.

"Maniacs" no longer seems like the right description. "Idiots" fits better.

There is a lot of very dumb behavior in this movie by both the heroes and villains that must be overlooked for optimal enjoyment. No, James, one successful demonstration of improvement by one chimpanzee probably isn't a good basis for moving onto human trials for your Alzheimer's cure. No, one attack by an escaped monkey isn't a good reason to scrap the whole program. No, it probably isn't wise to modify your gene therapy virus into something airborne and highly contagious, especially if you're planning to neglect basic safety precautions in the lab. But as long as you're nice to your monkeys, James, I guess you're alright.

There are also a few spoonfuls of the obligatory anti-science rhetoric, but overall it seems rather half-hearted in this film. Franco's character's girlfriend (Freida Pinto) likes to make vague statements about how "some things aren't meant to be changed," but never makes it clear what she's talking about. If it's deadly superviruses, she may have a point.

However much fun they are to mock, intellectual flaws in this sort of movie can mostly be forgiven. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an entertaining adventure with depth and sensitivity beyond the average summer action film.

It also has a top-quality cast that lets us all blissfully forget any fling the series may have had with Mark Wahlberg. Andy Serkis's lead ape deserves primary mention here; his computer-generated body and face are convincing only about half the time, but there is no question that the full range of human emotion comes through. The character's facial expressions are exaggerated to a point that would be grotesque on a human actor, but here, like in the old silent films, they suit the medium.

Objectively, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is almost certainly the best entry in this series' 40-year history, mostly by virtue of not being incredibly cheesy. Its lasting cultural impact, however, will be measured in days rather than decades.

Rated PG-13 for depictions of science.
3.5 out of 5