This Sci-Fi Prequel Revived a 40-Year-Old Franchise With a Genius Twist

The term “prequel” can have negative connotations, as telling the origin story of a specific character, event, or franchise is rarely all that compelling. There’s a dramatic barrier that all prequels face because they are setting up events that the audience is already aware of, which inherently lessens the stakes. With that being said, truly great prequels can help to offer a different perspective on the films that preceeded them, and the best ones can completely reframe how the original is viewed. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of the best prequels ever made for that very reason: it took viewers back to the moment when the dystopian future of the original Planet of the Apes was created, and revealed that it was mankind who was to blame. If the original Planet of the Apes sparked fear of the advanced race of intelligent chimpanzees, then Rupert Wyatt’s terrific prequel was responsible for making them more sympathetic.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is set centuries before the events of the first five films, and stars James Franco as the pharmaceutical chemist Will Rodman, who is working on an advanced medication that will allow the brain to repair itself. Will is motivated to find “The Cure” because of his father, Charles (John Lithgow), who has Alzheimer’s, but is told by his superiors that the experiment is too dangerous after an ape who was given the viral-based drug is killed. After Will discovers that this ape had a child, who he names Caesar (Andy Serkis), he decides to raise it, discovering that the intelligence boost was passed from mother to son. Serkis’ performance was the key to the success of the Planet of the Apes reboot, as it offered the most advanced feat in motion capture technology that the industry had ever seen.

‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Was a Necessary Prequel

Image via 20th Century Fox

One of the reasons that the original Planet of the Apes was such a cultural phenomenon was that those films didn’t treat the apes as remorseless villains; instead, they showed an advanced society with infrastructure, history, and conflicting free thinkers. The makeup effects used at the time were considered groundbreaking because they allowed real actors to emote in their performances, but that approach didn’t hold up in the 21st century; the 2001 remake showed just how badly the story could go if the apes themselves looked too silly.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes succeeds because it avoids any kind of silliness. It takes place in a recognizable version of reality and presents a logical reason as to why apes might be gifted with superior intellect. The film draws from real findings about animal testing and abuse, which only makes Caesar’s plight more compelling.

Serkis gives a remarkable performance, which is key, because Caesar is essentially the main character in the film, and the one who is faced with the most serious emotional challenges. While Caesar has a tremendous amount of compassion for Will and his “adopted” family, he learns that he only has a human parent because his mother was killed by the same government that experimented on him. Although it might have been easy to turn Caesar into a tragic villain who seeks revenge for the ways that the other apes have been treated, Rise of the Planet of the Apes crafts a sad eventuality where he spreads the drug to the other captive animals, ensuring that they can develop the same self-awareness that he did. It’s a timeless story about what happens when a marginalized population is given the authority to defend itself, as there will always be a totalitarian force determined to suppress it. The most heartbreaking discovery that Caesar has in the film is that Will is a good man, but that he is an anomaly among the human race; the ape revolution might result in damage to humanity, but their wounds are self-inflicted, the result of their callous cruelty towards anything deemed to be a “secondary being.”

‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Was a Breakthrough in Performance Technology

The technology used to ensure that Caesar resembled a realistic ape was remarkable, but Serkis gives a multi-faceted performance that shows the character’s maturation, as he develops advanced thinking skills and learns from both scientists like Will and the more aggressive guards that entrap him. Despite the fact that Planet of the Apes is known as one of the greatest science fiction franchises of all-time, none of the films really fall into the “action” category; Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a character-based drama that only breaks into spectacle at the very end, when the tensions on both sides can no longer be constrained. While it was a risky move to take such a dark approach to a summer blockbuster, the more grounded political aesthetic within the subsequent Planet of the Apes films would not feel as earned if Rise of the Planet of the Apes had not established the precedent.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is among the most influential blockbusters of the 2010s because it laid the groundwork for an exceptional saga. The next two films in the series, both directed by Matt Reeves, are even more mature and somber, showing Caesar progressing into a true leader who tries to maintain the fragile peace between apes and mankind. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes made use of the technology that was created in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, showing that there was potential for the franchise to tell more stories beyond Caesar. Although it was a satisfying and fulfilling prequel for long-term fans of Planet of the Apes, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was also a great way for the franchise to get a new generation of viewers hooked.