Movie Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Hollywood has imagined yet another way to destroy a helicopter – a 600 pound, suicidal gorilla leaping from the Golden Gate Bridge, landing on the helicopter, causing it to crash into the bridge and be completely destroyed it. This completely unrealistic yet amazing scene defines “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

The movie combines impressive CGI, a riveting plotline, and a good dose of action to create one of the best movies of the summer. As long as viewers can accept the idea that apes can be as smart as if not smarter than humans, it is an amazing movie.
It all starts with the testing of a new drug on chimpanzees. One named Caesar gets taken home by a scientist who he lives with for five years before being transferred to a primate center. Caesar, due to the drug testing, has the same level of intelligence as humans. At the primate center, he is able to use his brilliance to organize the monkeys and escape from the compound.

He eventually leads them on a wild rampage across the Golden Gate Bridge, where several hundred primates have to fight with nothing but their intelligence and bare hands against humans who are trying to kill them with assault rifles and a helicopter mounted machine gun.

Most of this action is towards the end of the movie; the plot takes a lot of building but keeps the audience engaged until the massive battle at the end.

The director does an impressive job with the action scenes, making the majority of them believable as long as the audience accepts a few key premises as mentioned above. First, the apes are as smart as humans are. Second, a gorilla can take out a helicopter. If viewers accept this, then the action is perfectly believable.

These adrenaline packed scenes are made all the more realistic by the incredible CGI. When watching this movie, viewers can believe that those crazy apes running all over actually exist. While the CGI is not nearly as good as “Avatar,” it is perfectly acceptable for this movie. In fact, it is completely necessary because it helps to make this unrealistic movie a little more believable.

The engaging plotline and intense action scenes, along with the impressive CGI makes this one of the best movies of the summer and a must-see. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” earns 4 out of 5 crazed monkeys.



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