I vaguely had heard about this movie but did not seek out any info on it, thinking it would be a weak rehash/remake of the old movies. From what the movie showed I guess this is a prequel, since there are callbacks and references to the original PoTA. I did not see the updated version starring Mark Wahlberg and I can't believe it has been ten years since that version came out!
In this version, James Franco plays a bio researcher, Will. He is developing what he hopes is a cure or treatment for Alzheimers, which his father (John Lithgow) suffers from. Will experiments on a female chimp, named Bright Eyes,
and finds she has serious mental improvement. But an incident happens that forces the research head to end the testing and "destroy" all the chimps. But, Will finds a baby chimp, Bright Eyes' baby, and takes it home, where he eventually teaches it sign language and it grows up among humans. Caesar, the chimp (acted out by Andy Serkis), has this advanced intelligence since Bright Eyes was pregnant during testing, so through her body he gained the benefits of the treatment she had.
An altercation causes Caeser to be taken by animal control to a primate habitat, where he is imprisoned with other primates. This is his first experience with his own kind, and at first he is confused as to his identity. The film shows how Caesar comes to finally identify with being a primate and calling his fellow apes to arms/breaking from human control. Freida Pinto costars as the girlfriend, Tom Felton as an unsympathetic worker at the primate facility.
The CGI in Apes was pretty good, still a little spotty but overall much better than I've seen in many other films. I thought Caesar moved and looked a little TOO human, which partially could be explained by his living among humans only. There was stuff at the end where he was making humanlike gestures that were understood by the other apes/chimps that was not logical.
Having the film deal more with the animals and less with the humans made it a more interesting story, as well as an entirely new story that still fit logically into the PoTA universe, rather than a straight remake. Ideas such as animal cruetly, social uprisings, oppression are depicted for the apes in realistic ways that make you sympathize with them and root for them. The human characters in contrast were not strongly developed. They were necessary to explain how Caesar and the other apes ended up intelligent and angry but needed more fleshing out. I doubt these characters will return in any sequels, as it looks like the film ends with action that would explain the events of the originally PoTA even further so I imagine a sequel is on the way.
If you are in the mood for a popcorn film, this is probably one of the better ones out right now.
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