Set in modern day San Francisco, Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist conducting genetic experiments on chimpanzees in the hope of a cure for Alzheimer's.
Rodman, has a personal interest in the these tests as his father – who lives with him, is in the early stages of the disease.
When one of the Chimps escapes and goes on the rampage in the test centre, Rodman's boss orders all the chimps to be put down, therefore aborting the experiment.
However, he is unaware that the chimp they were experimenting on had given birth before being killed and hid it's young in her cage away from the human eye.
Rodman is convinced by a fellow professor to take the chimp home as it would likely meet the same fate as the rest of the chimps.
It soon becomes clear that the chimp (Caesar) has inherited his mother's intelligence and over the years becomes like a child to Rodman and his father, even learning how to communicate with his adult friends through sign language. He resides with them in their spacious house but is not permitted to leave.
Seeing how bad his father's increasing dementia is becoming, Rodman decides to test the sample on him. The initial response is good but sometime later his system rebels against it and the dementia returns.
During one of the father's lapses, he wanders out of the house and has an altercation with an angry neighbour.
Caesar witnesses this from his window, escapes from the house and violently attacks the neighbour. This results in him being sent to a primate facility, which is not as pc as initially perceived by Will and his new girlfriend Caroline (Freida Pinto).
This is were all the action begins as Caesar is unhappy being locked up like a pet and Will is upset having to hand him over to the authorities, but promises to fight for his release.
Caesar begins to rebel and after some brawls with fellow apes it becomes clear that he is not to be messed with and quickly forms some alliances.
A thorn in his side is the evil guard played by Harry Potter's Tom Felton. He can see Caesar practically reading his mind and watching his every move, therefore makes his life hell in the facility, taunting and teasing him relentlessly.
The longer the human thinking Caesar remains in the facility, the more pro-Ape and less pro-Human he becomes. Meanwhile Rodman is working on an improved version of the drug but again it seems to only make the humans worse and the apes stronger and wiser. There is also the risk of a global epidemic if a human is unnecessarily exposed to the drug.
It is inevitable that sooner or later there will be a rebellion by the apes and they will escape from their confinement. When this happens, there are obvious areas they wanna hit but Caesar's concern is freeing all apes form any form of captivity and makes it clear to the other apes that humans should not be harmed whilst doing so. This is easier said than done!
The first half of this movie is as heartfelt a movie as you will ever see and will make you question lots of things, mainly mankind's attitude toward animals and their continuing use of them in their search for cures to human illnesses.
This will no doubt create many talking points for the viewer and arguments in the car home or in the pub later.
Also, those who are overly religious should beware, as Darwin's evolution theory has never been more highlighted. The apes emote the same as humans, look like humans and communicate like humans.
The second half of the movie is non-stop action and the final scene on the Golden Gate Bridge is awesome. Acting credits go to the wonderful John Lithgoe as Will's father, Franco is fine and Frieda Pinto looks pretty!
However, the movie belongs to Caesar and his fellow apes. The special effects and sounds effects team have done something incredible here and not only is their work fantastic to witness, it's also quite unnerving and scary at times.
It's difficult to negatively critique a film that offers the whole package but the ending does let it down as it offers very little closure. This however, is the only drawback to an otherwise cracking movie.
Score: 9/10
