While the classic sci-fi film Planet of the Apes showed us what would happen if apes ran the world, the prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes shows us how these animals got hold of the world in the first place. Directed by Rupert Wyatt, whose first film The Escapist, about a man who breaks out of prison to see his dying daughter, won Best Achievement in Production at the 2008 British Independent Film Awards. This film continues with the theme of escaping—but this time it’s apes fleeing from the clutches of humans. When scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) bestows a human-like intelligence on his pet ape Caesar (Andy Serkis) through a medical experiment, Caesar soon finds his treatment by humans to be unbearable. When Caesar is forcibly taken away from Rodman after attacking a neighbor, he plots an escape and launches an attack on the human race. The CGI effects—created by Weta Digital, the team behind Avatar and a contributor to Peter Jackson’s King Kong—are dazzling, and the apes look as real as if the theater were a zoo. Serkis, who also worked with Jackson in King Kong and played Gollum in Lord of the Rings, brings a depth to the psychological changes that Caesar goes through as he morphs from captive to captor. It’s also worth mentioning that Wyatt’s next film is slated to be an adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

DETAILS

What: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Where: UME, Wanda, Megabox

When: Friday, Oct. 28