I was mildly surprised by the overwhelmingly positive critical and popular response to this film, which was entertaining enough but hardly earth-shaking.  A great deal has been made of the CGI animation/motion-capture technology which allowed Andy Serkis to “play” chief chimp Caesar: honestly, after a while you don’t even think about the fact that Caesar is not only not a real chimpanzee or a man in a suit, but essentially doesn’t even exist.  Like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (the film which really brought CGI to my attention), the illusion of reality is extremely effective, and allows things to happen on-screen which would have been impossible to depict in a movie even a decade before.

            All of the attention and publicity photos of Serkis in his mo-cap suit just drew attention to the trickery and tended to spoil the film a bit for me (and also bring to mind the episode of “The Simpsons” in which Homer invests his family’s savings in motion-capture technology stock, with dire results—if only he’d waited a decade!).  If I’m immersed in a story, do I care how the effects were achieved? (No)  Honestly, I still think there’s a tangible difference in CGI and “practical” effects which is—even if only subconsciously—apparent to movie audiences.  A CGI explosion isn’t the same as a real explosion, a CGI chimp isn’t the same as a real chimp (or a guy in a chimp suit). But it’s not a big deal here, the CGI is acceptable.

            Technical wizardry aside, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is predictable and familiar, with a lot of loose ends in its plot and characterisations, but moves along briskly (my goodness, it’s well under 2 hours, what were they thinking?).  There are a few nods to the original Planet of the Apes film (including a paraphrase of Charlton Heston’s famous “damned dirty ape” line), and presumably this is intended to be the story of how the whole “apes dominating Earth” thing started, but it could actually stand on its own without the prequel/sequel/reboot tags.

            Good scientist James Franco invents a brain-healing drug for a money-grubbing company but a slight mishap with a berserk test ape puts a crimp in the venture capital pipeline.  Franco takes possession of Caesar, a baby chimp who’s inherited human-level intelligence from his late mum (the aforementioned berserk ape); he also injects his Alzheimer’s-afflicted dad with the drug, clearing up that problem in a tidy fashion (temporarily).  Caesar grows up and one day goes ape (with good reason).  He’s sent to a private primate prison, but easily outwits the sinister guards (including Tom Felton, who has already slipped from Harry Potter to “third henchman from the left” roles, it seems), doses his fellow simians with the smartening potion, and before you can sing “I hate every ape I see, from chimpan-a to chimpan-zee,” suddenly it’s Apes-A-Poppin’ in the Bay Area! 

            Luckily for the rampaging apes, it appears the San Francisco police have never been issued ammunition for their firearms; instead, they send in half a dozen mounted officers with batons to halt the furry mob. (Yeah, that’ll work) Shockingly, this doesn’t solve the ape-infestation problem and havoc is wreaked with a vengeance (fortunately, only bad people—and some semi-bad ones—are killed, though the property damage bill will certainly be astronomical)—moral of the story, never get between hundreds of mad monkeys and the forest for which they are a-hankerin’.

            The action-packed finale is fine (although the lack of fatalities among apes and humans is somewhat hard to swallow), but the middle section of Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the most engrossing: basically The Great Escape (but with apes), it dispenses with the services of James Franco and focuses on Caesar.  He’s not only taken from his comfortable, human-centric home and placed among “beasts,” but he’s abused by them and by the brutal keepers in the primate “sanctuary” (irony!).  Gradually, his drug-induced superior intelligence and his (presumably) human-learned moral sense make him leader of the pack.  Unable to function in the human world—in fact, he turns down a chance to leave the facility with Franco, choosing to remain with his new comrades (better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven, apparently)—Caesar parts the metaphorical Red Sea and leads his (ape) people to the promised land (the redwood forest on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge).

            Rise of the Planet of the Apes is fine, slick and satisfying summer entertainment; just don’t confuse the effective use of a technological trick with greatness.