And that indecisive ape would be Caesar, as performance-captured by Andy Serkis, in this brand new shot from “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.” Caesar appears to be having a hard time deciding whether he wants his beverage to taste great, or to be less filling. He could just ask a human but – oh, crap, no he totally can’t because that would just be another attempt for the human to undermine him and his kind. Less filling, you flesh-hogging two-legged miscreants!
Caesar, as you may know from your “Planet Of The Apes” textbooks, is the simian who registers higher brainpower as a result of human experimentation. Being that there are no real civil rights issues in modern society that the filmmakers would have the balls to graft to the subtext (never mind the ALWAYS troublesome idea of apes being a metaphor for social upheaval by the downtrodden), we’re guessing that the focus will be more on Crazy Scientist James Franco Pushing Science Way Too Far©, perhaps with a throwaway line like, “We’re taking science where it’s never been before!”
We’re also guessing that, aside from some brief lip service to Caesar actually being a capable, commendable leader, the film will settle for him and his minions being thoughtlessly malevolent and dangerous. Which is to say, it’s likely maybe a page or two survives from Scott Frank‘s original script before he was fired from the director’s chair. Revisions, revisions. “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” drags its knuckles into theaters August 5th. [MovieWeb]