Plot: Scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) develops a brain drug that makes chimps smart, and also helps Alzheimer's patents like his Dad (John Lithgow.) After a lab accident, Will ends up with a baby chimp named Caesar, who is un-naturally smart. When Caesar is grown, he gets in a fight and brought to a primate shelter. The shelter was not counting on a genius inmate, and soon everything is upside down.
James Franco delivers his lines believably, and tries to be a sensible bridge between all the crazy people and animals. Tom Felton plays a twisted animal keeper perhaps too convincingly.
The monkeys are cast as an oppressed minority until the end when they become more like little King Kongs. Helping them get fair and humane treatment just leads to disaster, which is not a happy message for today's oppressed minorities, and opposite from the message of the original films. Perhaps the film makers think this is an enlighten age without those problems.
This movie is more like Frankenstein or Jurassic Park with a message of not messing with Mother Nature. The real villain is the evil drug company rushing the genetic engineering. Being pro-genetic engineering myself, I think this is scaring the public from necessary and helpful bio-engineered crops and animals.
This movie is more like Frankenstein or Jurassic Park with a message of not messing with Mother Nature. The real villain is the evil drug company rushing the genetic engineering. Being pro-genetic engineering myself, I think this is scaring the public from necessary and helpful bio-engineered crops and animals.
