Welcome to the Planet of the Apes

It’s unfashionable to review movies a week after they come out – a week before it comes out is more esteemed.

But I’ve been thinking about “Rise of Planet of the Apes” since I saw it last Friday at the, and while it wasn’t a terrific movie, it was pretty good – and gave rise to some reflection afterward.

Reflection doesn’t take place in a vacuum – vide today’s news on MSNBC.com about Charla Nash, a woman whose face was torn off several years ago by a “domesticated” 8-year old chimpanzee. A similar chimp-raised-as-human story is the subject of a documentary on the docket for the Summerfield Theater, Project Nim.

Most of us know the story of the original “Planet of the Apes” – astronaut Charlton Heston crashlands on a planet where talking, fighting, militant great apes rule it over a cowering, gentle populace of hounded humans. Only a curious female chimp scientist, played by Kim Hunter in the 1968 original, seems to recognize that in the upstart shirtless Heston there’s evidence of, remarkably, intelligence. Is it possible that all humans are smart, too? Or as sexy as this one? (See preview on IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3430940953/)

Let’s start there. This time the stranger-in-a-strange land role is played by Andy Serkis, whom you probably know best as Gollum in the “Lord of the Ring” series. Or, perhaps more relevantly, the title role in “King Kong.” He’s got the moves down, telegraphing emotions, thought process and complexly motivated  behavior through little more than mime (and special effects). He's in the Charlton Heston role essentially because he recognizes that he's surrounded by a controlling, dominant species that he's not all that different from. Is he smarter than they are? We'll find out.

In this version, the chimpanzee Caesar is raised at home by research scientist Will Rodman (where do they come up with these names?) who is developing a cure for Alzheimer’s. Rodman (James Franco) ends up with the chimpanzee when it’s only a few days old, absconding with it from the research lab where his experiments on primates go badly awry (first action sequence at five minutes in, promising more to follow) and all the animals have to be “put down.” (Love that phrase, “put down.”) He raises the chimp in a virtual vacuum of chimpanzee behavior knowledge until he meets an attractive primatologist at the San Francisco Zoo (Frieda Pinto, where do they come up with these names?).

Pinto was introduced to film audiences as Latika in “Slumdog Millionnaire,” and here as there she’s appealing and sympathetic and gorgeous but not much of an actress. It’s becoming increasingly clear, too, that James Franco is going to have to do something to distinguish his career other than cut off his arm. But the role of his father, whose Alzheimer’s is motivating Rodman’s research, is given great depth and sympathy by James Lithgow. In fact it’s Lithgow who steals the film from the world’s most intelligent chimpanzee, no small feat until you consider the competition.

Without going into too much plot detail, the chimp Caesar proves to be a revolutionary creature in more ways than one, learning not only how to swing from kitchen chandeliers in athletic pursuit of cookies but how to dress himself, ride in the passenger seat, manage dating behavior for his dull custodian, and figure out gear technology without losing his genetic ability to climb trees like nobody’s business. A trip to Muir Woods in Marin County, over a Golden Gate Bridge swathed in fog, reintroduces Caesar to his animal nature in a way that recurs later in the movie.

All in all "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" can be a lot of fun, and the occasional absurdity is usually glossed over by action until it’s over. After all, who doesn’t want to see the underdog – or underchimp – overcome? Surprisingly the film doesn’t focus itself on the ethical issue of experimentation on animals – chimpanzees and homo sapiens are genetically so similar that can serve as laboratory surrogates in most experiments. But when they rise up in active and armed revolt against their captors it’s a gratifying yet ambiguous moment. We want them to succeed, sure, but does there have to be so much carnage?

That brings up an interesting point right there. In the height of the armed conflict between ape and human, on the aforementioned Golden Gate Bridge, the apes time and again refuse to kill their human adversaries, as if doing so were “morally wrong.” The humans show no such compunction, blasting away with rockets and machine guns as only we humans can do. So, what, apes are better than we are now?

Still, I wish there were occasional wit to match the action – why, for instance, does no one ever exclaim, “Hey, this is like ‘Planet of the Apes'!” The original movie made an international hit out of author Pierre Boule’s sci-fi novel, eventually spawning four sequels and a television series, as well as a big-screen remake by Tim Burton only ten years ago. (Check out the video: “In a world where freedom is history… brutality is law… and the powerful rule by fear” at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3481272601/.) It might be said the world we live has incorporated awareness of “the planet of the apes” as a modern metaphor, and to make a movie about apes today without at least a wink and a nod in that direction is disingenuous, if not weakly unimaginative.

Finally, the conclusion: if the revolutionary apes make it to their destination, Muir Woods, there is not a chance in hell they’d survive out there. Redwood forests are virtual deserts compared to the tropical rain forests where primates evolved, and can naturally live: great apes are largely herbivores and frugivores, though capable of meat-eating and even (very occasionally) cannibalism. But there is no “redwood fruit,” there aren’t even redwood leaves if you think about it, there probably aren’t enough squirrels in the forest to sustain a population of primates, and a diet of fiddle-head ferns and mushrooms is bit spare even for a Rastafarian.

Anyway,  back to the uneasy relationship between humans and apes, both in film and science. In one of the articles on the recovery of Charla Nash, Animal Planet personality  Jeff Corwin said that even though chimpanzees are highly evolved, they are still wild animals.

I came home from “Rise of Planet of the Apes.” to watch a Giants game. Pitcher Ramon Ramirez hit Shane Victorino in the ribs with a pitch. Catcher Eli Whiteside got between a bat-wielding Victorino and his pitcher, and guys in black hats and jackets and guys in orange hats and jackets mixed it up on the field like, well, like animals.

Urban youth is rioting in London for no apparent reason other than being urban youth. Rockets rain down on peasants in Afghanistan hills. Governments crack down on “terrorists in the street” – in other words, their own citizens.

This is the planet of the apes. Or hadn’t you noticed? Have a banana.