"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is to the original 1968 "Planet" what "Batman Begins" was to the original Batman series: a fresh start with strong links to the previous mythology. (As for the 2001 Tim Burton remake, that would fall into the "let's forget that ever happened" bracket.)
James Franco plays scientist Will Rodman, who is researching a cure for Alzheimer's. He stumbles upon a chemical concoction that produces wildly successful results, giving his ape test subject, Caesar, the capacity for human thought. Some things go awry, some super-smart apes go on a rampage and take over the planet, etc etc.
Performance-capture master Andy Serkis, of Gollum and King Kong fame, is once again raising the bar, inhabiting a unique CGI creation and introducing us personally to the elements of the story in the following five clips.
1. Andy Serkis introduces this clip of Tom Felton, who's gone from taunting Harry Potter to taunting apes. That's called "upward mobility."
2. Monkey mayhem is the order of the day as Caesar leads an uprising that'll make the L.A. riots look like a St. Patrick's Day Parade.
3. There are positive and negative aspects to making apes super-cognitive. (Check out a funny nod to the iconic "Statue of Liberty" ending of the original "Planet of the Apes.")
4. Caesar escapes from his cage and lets his other primate friends have a whiff of the wacky tobbacky he's been smokin'.
5. Will (James Franco) and Caroline (Freida Pinto) say goodbye to their buddy Caesar, but that is one chimp that doesn't want to play on the monkey bars.
