Rupert Wyatt
L'alba del pianeta delle scimmie

Seen in the cinema half an hour ago, this film is neither praiseworthy nor shameful. I certainly expected much worse. I'm talking about "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a prequel/reboot of the saga inspired by the novel "Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle.

The first film, with the famous final twist that I won't reveal to avoid spoiling it for the uninitiated, was a harsh and dystopian vision of humanity's future. As everyone knows, if a film does well, why not make another 4? Why not even make a remake directed by Burton? (incidentally the worst film of his career). And why not make yet another one in 2011? Money. But unfortunately, the funds invested in the saga (from the '60s to today) are rather meager. Indeed, the apes in this film are fake. And I'm not talking about the faux costumed ones from the first series but a digital fake, sterile.

Andy Serkis (Gollum), who had already performed in ape form in Jackson's King Kong, gives his best behind the motion capture effects, but the few funds invested for this prequel are evident, just as they were in the first film of the saga, where a masterful Charlton Heston managed to make certain scenic errors and omissions in the film lighter. In this film, Charlton Heston is absent; the protagonist is Will/James Franco (Spiderman), a scientist who, together with a team of researchers, is trying to discover a cure for Alzheimer's, from which his father also suffers. But things will go wrong, as the female chimpanzee (incidentally pregnant) used as a test subject for the injections becomes aggressive, spreading panic at the scientific facility. She will be killed by the center's security, but her son will remain alive, be entrusted to Will, and be named by his father Caesar (a nod to the first saga). Some months later, it will be discovered that the effect of the Alzheimer's vaccine, injected into the mother but passed on to the newborn, will cause an increase in the intelligence and aggressiveness of the apes but will not solve the Alzheimer's problem in humans, and in the long run, it will kill them. Meanwhile, the apes, all having become intelligent for a narrative ploy I won't tell you about now, take over humans, thus justifying the birth of the planet of the apes and the revenge of the ape on man, a return to the primitive.

Director Rupert Wyatt, who until a few days ago didn't even have a Wikipedia page, delivers a pleasant film that completely deviates from the others. A mix between Jurassic Park and Resident Evil, the horror touch dedicated to this prequel proves excellent and gripping, and even some choices in terms of camera angles are not bad, but the whole, although good, leaves one somewhat puzzled about the success of the operation, which throws the entire first series a bit out the window.