I had seen this movie once before and I was surprised at how
much I enjoyed it. However, I wrote it off as just being in the right mood for
a silly movie about a drug that changed chimpanzees into super intelligent
beings. Still, for about two years, I’ve wanted to go back and revisit it to
see if it stands up. It does. In fact, I would put this as one of my top ten
favorite movies of the last ten years. Yes, the acting leaves a little to be
desired and the premise itself is somewhat ridiculous, but damn it if this isn’t
one of the most engaging movies I’ve ever seen. At the heart of story is Caesar,
a chimpanzee born to a mother with remarkable intelligence due to Alzheimer’s
drug testing. After a series of tragic events, James Franco, the scientist
behind the drug, is forced to take care of Caesar. Well as you might expect, as
Caesar grows increasingly intelligent, he becomes less and less a fan of being
locked in James Franco’s attic.
In order to love this movie, you have to really let go of
some of the absurdities. I found it a lot easier to do that because of the fact
that this is an origins movie. We already know where this all leads and I
couldn’t think of a better explanation than this one. Yeah, it’s a bit of a
revision to what we might have gathered from the original movies, but it’s
compelling as shit.
What I found most amazing about this movie is Caesar
himself. He’s a CGI monkey and he’s easily the best actor in this thing thanks
to Andy Serkis. I really enjoyed John Lithgow as James Franco’s Alzheimery dad,
but Caesar is clearly the best thing about this movie.
Still, I overrate this movie. I don’t know why I love it so
much, but I really do.
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