The Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Coming August 5, 2011 (US)

Director - Rupert Wyatt
Main Characters
Will Rodman - James Franco
Caroline - Freida Pinto
Caesar - Andy Serkis

After seeing the 2001 version of Planet of the Apes, I've wondered, for 10 long years I've wondered if there would be a sequel. When I heard about Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I thought my questions had been answered, only to find that Rise is not a sequel at all.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes will follow the mythology of the original story, adding some updates. There will be adjustments to fix weaknesses in the original 1970s series. Besides that, the fact that we have come so far in our knowledge of apes, and grown leaps and bounds in the area of special effects, even since the 2001 version, Rise promises to be the best of what we already know of the Planet of the Apes movies, and better.

James Franco plays Will Rodman, a man who is experimenting with genetic engineering in hopes of finding a cure to Alzheimer's. These experiments obviously lead to extraordinary intelligence in the apes, causing an all out war for supremacy.

The passionate, but misguided guy trying to do something great is not a new role for Franco. In fact, for me, it strongly resembles his role in Spiderman 2. Although previously, I had considered Franco to be a decent actor, if falling short of great, performances in the past year have made me wonder if maybe I wasn't giving quite as much credit as he truly deserved. With an Oscar nod last year for his role in 127 Hours I guess maybe I'll have to adjust my view of him. I only hope his performance in Rise will live up to my altered expectations.

Freida Pinto, best known for Slumdog Millionaire plays Caroline, possibly Rodman's love interest in the movie? The trailer doesn't reveal a lot about this character, but it seems pretty obvious to me that she tries to act as some kind of moral compass for Rodman, as she sees the possibility that things could go way out of control.

Andy Serkis, undoubtedly best known for his role as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as the upcoming production of The Hobbit will be playing Caesar the ape who changes the course of history, for humankind and his kind alike. After playing a character like Gollum, I'm pretty sure being believable as an ape will be absolutely no problem for Serkis. Of course, there's also the fact that he is credited with the role of Kong in the 2005 remake of King Kong. This role however will surely be more difficult than his previous foray into the actions of an ape, due to the fact that there is supposed to be a lot more intelligence behind the character of Caesar than that of Kong.

Finally, the special effects. WETA, the special effects house responsible for Avatar is handling the effects for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. (Am I the only one finding the full name of this movie annoying to type, think and say?) Even in the 2001 version, the special effects left quite a bit to be desired, but if the trailers are any indication, this won't be a problem this time around. It'll be nice to be able to really get into the story with out the distraction of awareness of how fake the apes look.