Ed's Review Dot Com

Chernin Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

James Franco, Tom Felton, Brian Cox, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Tyler Labine, David Hewlett, Leah Gibson

In a prequel to the original 1968 classic sci-fi movie Planet of the Apes with Charleton Heston, a scientist, Will Rodman (James Franco) is working on a virus that allows the brain to heal itself to possibly cure itself. He is very close to the experiment on Chimps because his father is cursed with Alzheimer’s. But the serum also makes the Chimps smarter, and when the tests fail, he brings a baby chimp home to care for. Things quickly get out of hand, and eventually all hell breaks loose when Caesar (Andy Serkis) takes offense to being used as test subjects and stages a revolt.

This is one of the finest movies I’ve seen this whole year. I viewed this on opening day at the 12:01 AM showing at Downtown Disney, and the theater is so excellent. The sound system was spectacular and I was on the edge of my seat for the entire two hours. So many ties to the original film that are easy to spot and all the loose ends about what happened prior to the first film have been answered. They did a tremendous job wrapping it up for us. The original just had so many unanswered questions about what happened to the humans and how the apes developed the super intelligence. There are many outright answers here as well as some strong hints of what happened.

I truly enjoyed this film. It has stunning CGI, terrific action shots and battles, but so much heart that you’ll probably shed a tear or two. Caesar becomes a real person as he goes through his transformation, and the emotion is very well done. Dodge Landon (Tom Felton) is a perfect villain and like Draco Malfoy is a pain in the rump. John Lithgow plays Wills father and is excellent in this role as well. There are few plot holes and the look of this film makes it perfect for the big screen. Don’t wait for this one on DVD. Get out there, hopefully with a few friends, and enjoy this one. Come early as the trailers before seem to indicate that this fall/winter is going to be an AWESOME time for movie watchers. This one was certainly worth the lost sleep, and I still think this is the best movie I’ve seen is quite a while.

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