The latest installment of the Planet of the Apes franchise, the reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, has been hyped up for a good year now. With its August 5 release date approaching, 20th Century Fox has finally unveiled the first official trailer, which satiates our inner fandom.
Taking place in present day San Francisco, James Franco plays a young scientist out on a quest to find cure for Alzhemier’s by testing on apes. What he didn’t expect is that force-feeding too much intelligence juice can rapidly develop the brain cells of primates for them to revolt against humans. Soon, an army of apes rises up under the command of Caesar (played by Andy Serkis), and an all-out simian revolution embarks on the streets of Frisco. (Dear human slaves of the future, blame James Franco’s role as the cause of your demise.)
Without any specific money shot, we’re steadily drawn into the trailer as the interaction between the apes and humans increase. In fact, the pure existence of roaming apes on screen is a big spur of special effects galore, since unlike the previous films (we're looking at you, Tim Burton), the apes are all digitally created by WETA.
British filmmaker Rupert Wyatt directs a fine cast that includes, in addition to Franco and Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, and Brian Cox. With all of that factored in, our hopes currently rest on the upper half of the satisfaction matrix.
