Passing thoughts on Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Spoilers. Look away.

As usual Hollywood cannot present how scientists actually do their work. But Rise is a much better film than I expected. For a start, the social dominance behaviours of primates was well presented, along with submission behaviours, threat stares, reciprocal altruism and a host of documented behaviours. And that was just the humans…

Seriously, one of the major things about this film that I liked was that the three keepers of the chimp (and orang and gorilla; more on this in a minute) facility behaved exactly like the chimps. Moreover, the only moral actor in that facility was the lead chimp Caesar, who several times prevented innocent humans from being killed by other primates.

The gene therapy aspect was well done, and even dealt with the adaptability of the immune response to viral infections. The final sequence over the credits is also a reminder of how epidemiology works (which reminds me, I am looking forward to Contagion).

The moral aspect of this film was uppermost, and the science was put in its service, understandably. But apart from the incompetent scientists (I have seen science done this bad in medical research, but not often) and the stereotypical Big Pharma suits (really? We need this sort of moral dichotomy? Things are much more interesting when the characters are conflicted or complex), overall it was a damned good movie.

And what is even more impressive is that it retrospectively made sense of the appalling Planet of the Apes. Generally if you make a film it should stand alone as a narrative, but there were so many McGuffins in that film that this one was necessary. What is so good about this one is that it does stand on its own. I give it a B+.