The film received positive reviews and turned out to be a surprise hit at the box-office.
In the film, James Franco plays the role of Will Rodman, a scientist experimenting on chimpanzees to find a cure for brain ailments such as Alzheimer’s. The drug is given to a chimpanzee named Bright Eyes and it notably begins to increase her intelligence substantially. However, something goes haywire and the project is completely tossed away.
Soon after, the film is swallowed whole by Caesar’s journey, which is a lot better than the one belonging to Will Rodman.
I can’t help but feel like James Franco has a performance that can be best described as uninspired. There is a lot of things that to work with, but it seems like its going through the motions more than anything. I’ll call it passable, but it definitely can’t be called the leading man.
Caesar is captured very well. The character is able to convey a lot of emotions without saying anything. The body-language as well as the way that it is projected through the computer-generated imagery definitely helps propel this film onward. Caesar doesn’t have to say anything because he is so exceedingly entertaining by himself. The character is well-executed and I really became invested in his character.
I liked the story a lot. The things involving Caesar, that is, everything else involving the human-characters felt a little iffy. Those aspects tended to be hit-or-miss, but ultimately, I felt like they failed to excel in those parts.
I feel like I really appreciated the character. It was one of those rare moments in a film where I was bothered by the end … because it ended.
I felt like I was really experiencing something with the character that I didn’t want to end.
I cared about the character. I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him.
The film also keeps it slow, like a slow-burning, at least until the end, and surprisingly, it actually works to the movie’s benefit.
I found myself becoming really invested in the idea of him, the premise, and I didn’t want it to end. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to end, at least not yet, because the sequel comes out next week.
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