Rise of the Planet of the Apes [ Movie Review ] ★★★★

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes is Worth Going Apes For"

The Pitch

The first thing that got my attention was the long and mouthful title. It contains two sets of the phrase "of the"  and that just didn't flow right for a movie title. Even though it wasn't the ideal title, it did somewhat accomplish the job of informing people that it's a prequel to the classic movie The Planet of the Apes.

Upon more research on this movie, it turned out to be a reboot too. Director Rupert Wyatt had said that they are trying to achieve what Batman Begins did for The Dark Knight franchise. Since both movies are not so well titled, there might be a chance that Rise of the Planet of the Apes will turned out to be as good as Batman Begins.

The trailer looked promising too. The CGI apes that Weta Digital and Andy Serkis created through motion-capture performances looked impressive. James Franco look set to add another intriguing entry into his diversified resume by providing the human perspective to the origin of the ape's worldwide domination.

Strangely, for someone who was never interested in the Planet of the Apes franchise and it's concept, this prequel reboot is buzzing for me. First and foremost, I would like to see how will this movie link to the old franchise and how are they going to bridge it. I am also intrigued by how human brutality towards animals in the name of science would be worked into the movie. Last but not least, can a bunch of apes really win the war against humans?


The Plot

Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist who is about to find a cure for Alzheimer. Tests on chimpanzee had been progressing well and needed approval to move the project onto human trials. After a horrible mishap during a presentation for the investor, Will's project was deemed as a failure and was subsequently canceled. Will's animal wrangler gave him the offspring of one of the test subjects and was force to bring it home while they looked for an animal sanctuary.

Will's dad, Charles (John Lithgow) an Alzheimer patient became fond of the young chimpanzee quickly and decided to name it Caesar (Andy Serkis). As times passes, Will noticed that Caesar had been genetically modifies and adapts very well with human-like intelligence. Unfortunately, Caesar incurred unwanted attention when he attempt to "rescue" Charles from a nasty neighbor's "attack". The authority ordered Caesar to be locked up in a primate shelter.

In the shelter, Caesar learned about human cruelty towards animals and started to resent the treatment to it's species. The issue was exacerbated by the fact that Will's attempt to rescue Caesar had been hampered by the government's red tapes. Caesar decided to take matters to it's own hands and form a revolution for the apes.

The Perspective - Rise of the Planet of the Apes Movie Review

To summarize, it's a pretty good prequel story. Director Rupert Wyatt made a wise decision of not covering too much and used his characters well to drive the story. The conflicts between human and apes were well crafted, creating a subtle tragedy on the best intention. It was gripping to see how Caesar's bond with humans would slowly evolve into a rebellion. It's the kind of scenario that you would sympathize both sides and but understood their rationale in their involvement with the eventual clash.


It's nice to see that instead of rushing, they took the time to build the foundation for the bridge between this movie and the rest of the franchise. The filmmakers were also pretty innovative in crafting the reason why a bunch of monkey could conquer the whole world and mankind. The beauty of their innovation would be that they could include another movie before reaching the events in Planet of the Apes or just jump straight there. And of course the news on a space shuttle mission to mars were a nice nods to those who are aware of what happened in Planet of the Apes.

   The story won't resonate without a good performance from the actors. James Franco, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto and Andy Serkis delivered the compassionate side of human and animal interaction. Brian Cox, Tom Felton and David Oyelowo showed the nastiness of mankind without going overboard. It's a well balanced storyline with capable cast supporting it.

WETA Digital's special effects for Rise of the Planet of the Apes needed to commended here. It was so good that sometimes, it easy to forget that Caesar and other apes are pure computer generated images. It's not the highlight of the movie but it definitely aided in telling the story.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one rare summer blockbuster movie that thoroughly entertains, intrigue and satisfy. It packs as much intellects and emotions as one possibly could in a commercial summer blockbuster that's main function would be to entertain. In a way, it matches Batman Begins and Star Trek (2009) in terms of creating the excitement for potential sequels that might come after this reboot prequel. Highly Recommended!

Coda

Don't leave the theater immediately once the credits start rolling. There a scene inserted in between the credits. It covers what happened to Will's poor neighbor and how a "minor" character would affect things to come. You will be glad that you stayed for this scene if you enjoyed the movie.

Source Code [ Movie Review ]

The Pitch

Think Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap and you get the rough idea for Source Code.

One military captain leaping into the memory of a teacher who died earlier in the morning when a bomb went off on his train. The catch here would be that he got only 8 minutes of the dead teacher final moments to figure out where's the bomb and who's the bomber. If he can't achieve that, he would get to do it again and relive that 8 minutes again.

Quite an intriguing premise for Source Code. How is he going to solve this case within those 8 minutes and will he be able to save the folks in the train even though they are already dead (as the trailer suggested)? It would be interesting to how much they are willing to bend their own sci-fi rules for that.

Director Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) was one of the key factor for interest in this movie. He had a superb debut with Moon, a movie with budget constrain but yet innovative and engaging at the same time. His debut made him a director to be reckon with and the trailer for Source Code looks like he is going to deliver another intriguing solid follow up.

The Plot

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is bewildered to find himself waking up on a train bound for Chicago when the last thing he remembered was that he was on a mission in Afghanistan. A lady named Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) sitting across to him seemed to know him and was talking to him. Colter tried to get a grip on what's happening and he found out that his reflection had changed to another person. His identification card in his wallet belongs to a man named Sean Fentress.

Before he could try to figure out more, a bomb went off and destroys everything.

He reawaken in a chamber where a lady officer talks to him through a small monitor. Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) informed him that he is inside the Source Code. A program that allows him to take over the last eight minutes of someone's life. There's been a terrorist attack on a train heading to Chicago that morning and he been tasked to find out where's the bomb and who's the bomber before the terrorist attacks Chicago again with a larger more destructive bomb.

Before he could question more about the mission and why couldn't he remember anything between his last mission from Afghanistan to his current mission, he was send back to the train. He managed to find the bomb but before he could do anything to locate the bomber, the bomb went off and send him back to the chamber.

As he went back and forth the chamber and the train "simulation", he learned more about the Source Code from the creator Dr Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright). He been told that no matter how he try to change the past, it would not have effect in this future. The only way he could help the future would be to learn from the past and provide the information to stop the impending second terrorist attack. Unsure and frustrated about not remembering how he got assigned to this project, Captain Colter started to feel that Captain Goodwin and Dr Rutledge are hiding something from him.

Limitless [ Movie Review ] ★★★1/2

The Pitch

Just imagine a drug that could maximize the usage of your brainpower. Pushing the limits of the brain's capabilities. Doing things that one is usually incapable of or too unfocused for. Limitless is about one man's journey when he was able to unexpectedly to fully max his brain out.

For the role of the protagonist role, there's Bradley Cooper who had recently gained popularity with The Hangover. Hollywood veteran Robert De Niro will be supporting as a successful businessman who recognize the unusual abilities that the protagonist exhibits. Should be fun to see how these two square off in Limitless.

The Plot

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a writer struggling with writer blocks. It got so bad that he couldn't even write a single word for his first book. His girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) is breaking up with him and his life seems to be going nowhere.

He bumped into Vernon Grant, his ex wife's brother and he offered Eddie a solution to his current problem. NZT-48, A drug that could solved his problem. Initially skeptic about it, Edward decided to give the pill a try and pretty soon, he was discovering the wonders that the pill could provide.

Impressed with the drug, Eddie went back to Vernon for more of it. But before he could get to the drugs, he finds Vernon dead. Frantically, Eddie searched all over the house for the special drug and came across a stash of NZT, a phone book and cash.

With the drugs at his disposal, he finished his book quickly and radically changed his image. He soon realized that with his new found capabilities, he could be doing so much more. He decided to dabble in the stocks market and became very successful in that field. His unusual decisions with the stocks soon gained the attention of a powerful businessman Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro). His life seemed to be on the fast track to wealth and happiness when he started having blackouts.

He soon realized that there are consequences of relying too much on the drugs. He could have killed someone during his blackout. The business partnership with Carl Van Loon hangs in a delicate balance. He also found out that there are other people who are aware of this special drugs and would do anything to get their hands on to it. All these and Eddie trying to win back the affection of his ex girlfriend.

The Perspective

The problem with making a movie about someone becoming super smart would be that the filmmaker need to keep up in pace with what people's perspective of what being smart is. In a way, you can't please them all with the decisions made to depict the unusual situation in Limitless.

There will be complains that if Eddie became smart, he wouldn't forget a simple and crucial matter that haunts him for the rest of the movie. Personally, I felt that if there's a drug that could help enhance the brain capacity, the drug user (Eddie) should have work on issues that occurred to him later sooner. But during a discussion with friends, a point was made about how not everyone would have make the same choices as me. In a way, Eddie might not be as financially motivated as I was. Thinking in this manner and allowing the character to take you on a trip based on his journey, one would be able to enjoy this movie more.

The journey itself was quite a breezy and intriguing one. As we "slowly" explore the life of a man who can use more of his brain capabilities, we are treated to various interesting snippets of how life could be if we become more focus and utilize our brains better. It also showed how over dependance on drugs could be just as bad as real life.

The various threats that Eddie faced once he had the super drugs kept the viewer on the edge. It often make me wonder what would I do if I am in Eddie shoes. The ideology might be different but it was fun and interesting to see what the movie churned out.

Bradley Cooper's performance was another reason why Limitless was able to sell it's improbable premise. His endearing screen charisma made it easy to root for him, even when he was basically taking drugs to get ahead. His performance was good enough to convince the "miracle" power of NZT-48.

Robert DeNiro on the other hand had limited screen time. There's nothing impressive about his character and he is basically there to lend his presence to his character so that Carl Van Loon would have the screen cred  that viewers could quickly accept that Carl Van Loon is a powerful businessman that yuppies are dying to work with him.

Last but not least, how do you close a movie that basically about substance abuse. There were a major argument discussion on what the ending meant and how it ended. My friend thought it was a copped out and I thought it was a great closure to the movie. My friend felt that the theme with the dependency on drugs might give censorship ratings problems to this movie and Limitless basically sidetrack it with a fast forward "blackout". To a certain degree, I agreed that the drugs usage might become a problem if the protagonist was shown to be winning with drugs. But I thought it was a smart way to avoid the potential censorship issues while not shying away from the substance abuse of this movie. Not only that, it managed to advance the premise to another level which I felt was what the theme of this movie all about.

Limitless might not be for everyone but for someone who is seeking something new and different, this movie would come highly recommended. Although personally, I didn't like how the pace of the story moved so "slowly" for someone who is high on intelligent drugs but those minor issues could easily be overlooked. I got a feeling that this movie would work even better on repeated viewing and /or commentaries / extras. Till then, Limitless is getting ★★★1/2 from me.