Rebooted Planet of the Apes Series - Film Analysis Essay

Introduction

Planet of apes series consists of complex sociological themes which run through the science-fiction film that is about three astronauts living on a futuristic universe whereby apes rules whereas human beings are the slaves. The apes surpass the humans' level of intelligence, and they create an environment where the humans become their servants. This paper provides a review of the three films contained in the rebooted Planet of the Apes' series: Rise of the planet of the apes, the dawn of the planet of the apes, and war of the planet of the apes.

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The Rise of the Planet of Apes

The rise of the Planet of Apes is a film produced in 2011, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and directed by Rupert Wyatt. Since the producing of the movie, it has garnered several nominations and won multiple awards that include Oscar as being awarded the video having the best visual effects. The film is all about science fiction which adopts the theory of evolution which is from a distinct spectrum having the turns and twists which make the movie to become intermittently entertaining.

James Franco, Dr. William Rodman, a worker at Gen-Sys is seen as the scientist who has been given the responsibility of developing a cure that would heal the Alzheimer's disease that Charles, his father was suffering from. The scientist comes up with a virus that he has a strong belief that it would eventually cure the Alzheimer's disease. The new medicine which the scientist develops gets tested and tried by using chimpanzees. The outcome noted on the chimpanzees upon being subjected to the new drug is that the drug results into mutating the genetic makeup of the chimpanzee that has been injected by the new drug. Due to the genetic mutation that has been triggered by the drug on the chimpanzees, they attain a level of intelligence that is similar to that of human beings. However, one of the chimpanzees that have been tried using the new drug escapes into the wild while the rests of the chimpanzees are killed which is an order that is given by Steve Jacobs who is the boss of Dr. William. The chimp handler, Robert Franklin, carries out the rule regarding the killing of the chimpanzees involved in the trial tests of the new drug but he is not able to kill a baby chimpanzee which its mother's rampage had been confused to the side effects caused by the drug. Robert then handles the baby chimpanzee to Dr. William who then carries it home.

The baby chimpanzee is given a name Caesar which is a name given after the famous Julius Caesar. Caesar grows up very fast because of the genes inherited from his mother and the high intelligence. As a result of having high knowledge, Caesar starts asking Dr. William questions concerning his identity. Dr. William responds to the questions asked by Caesar by explaining to him about his background, and he notices that he is different from the human family that he is staying with.

Charles' condition starts to enhance after obtaining the dose of the new drug that was developed by his son. He soon relapses into his normal dementia, and as he is driving, he damages the car of his neighbor, David Hewlett. Hewlett confronts Charles demanding for compensation, but Caesar comes in and helps him by attacking Hewlett through prompting his capture as well as making subsequent placement in the primate shelter. Brian Cox, Tom Felton, and other apes start treating Caesar in a cruel manner, and this makes Caesar escape his cell while using Buck's assistance, a gorilla, to assist him in gaining back the lost respect from other apes through intimidation.

Dr. William continues with his research for finding a cure for his sick father. He keeps using chimpanzees whose intelligence has increased immensely in running his tests. This is confirmed true when Franklin gets exposed into it when he dies as a result of the virus injected into his body. Dr. William then requests Jacob that he needed to end the testing experiment of the new virus by using chimpanzees after he discovers the harmfulness of the drug. However, Jacob does not agree with the request from Dr. William of ending the testing experiment.

Caesar exposes other apes into a gaseous type of virus to successfully mastermind his escape from the testing facility. At the time Caesar escapes, Dodge gets killed in an accident which is electrocuted by Caesar. Other apes then help their counterparts from the Gen-Sys experiment including those who were inside the San Francisco Zoo. There is a battle which takes place on the Golden Gate Bridge that is between the police and the apes upon which Jacob's workers and some policemen get killed after Buck plays as the hero through the act of saving Caesar and manages to find their way to Redwood forest (Wyatt et al. 22).

Dr. William starts following the apes at the Redwood forest with the aim of trying to convince Caesar to come back. Dr. William gets astonished when he finds out that Caesar can talk to him just the way the human being would do. Caesar tells Dr. William that he had found his home now and he eaves Dr. William joining his new found family. In the next scene, the virus pandemic is seen to have already hit spread significantly across the globe.

Rupert successfully manages in maintaining of a story that is both evocative and engaging which stirs deep the viewers' thoughts by imagining how the world would look like when for sure all apes did undergo an evolution to acquire the human degree of intelligence without leaving out the entertainment part of the film.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

In the movie Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we are introduced to Caesar, who is the central character from the first film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. For one to understand Caesar in a better way, one must have background information concerning the first film. Caesar is an ape that was born having a more intellectual level that is similar to that of human beings than the standards apes. His mother was being used as a test chimpanzee for finding a cure to the Alzheimer's disease. Caesar has the ability of writing and reading and speaking English language.

The film represents the nurture side of Caesar. Caesar is believed to have seen the love and beauty which human beings can demonstrate to other individuals as well as to the apes. Soon, Caesar noticed that not all the human beings are caring and friendly as his previous owner. According to Reeves (32), Caesar is determined in creating of a rebellion by the apes and begins with establishing a colony composed of the apes when in the Red Wood Forest. At this time, Caesar starts letting the nature side begin controlling him. He starts by giving in to the desire which he had for living with his type of family and becoming a part of something that he was never having at the past. At the beginning of the film, we see that everything is well inside the ape colony. Caesar is represented as being the one that is in charge of the colony, and he flourishes it as all apes are determined towards protecting one another.

It is until one day when a son of Caesar finds out some humans were living in the forest. At this point, Caesar starts showing human hospitality to the humans even if other apes did not want to show any form of hospitality to human beings. Kaba, one of the most trusted Caesar's friends, decides going behind Caesar's back through framing the humans as being terrible for they brought trouble within the apes' colony. Koba even attempts to shoot Caesar with an attempt of killing him and so that he could have the opportunity of becoming a leader of the apes' colony.

However, as Caesar lies down after been shot, he finds assistance from human beings although he never thought of them as being helpful to the ape colony. While he is getting injured to recover his health, he starts realizing the ways those people who are the one closest to someone are the one who hurt someone the most. He will understand that human being and the apes are entirely different from each other. Caesar starts realizing that human beings are filled with a lot of grace, love, and compassion whereas the apes are filled with anger, selfishness, and jealousy. Caesar starts regretting his decision that he made several years ago of joining the apes' colony instead of choosing to live with the humans. It is at this point whereby Caesar start looking deep into himself and understand that he reacts and feels to situations in a way that is different from other apes.

The entire character plot represents an example of a struggle that exists between the natures versus nurture. Caesar is seen as fighting the nature that is in him by being an ape as well as the nurture that is inside him as being raised by the humans. Caesar attempts figuring out is the nature that he possessed was the one supposed to be the one guiding his life or if it is the manner in which he was raised by the human beings being the one that was supposed to guide him. Caesar comes into a conclusion that his way of upbringing and nurture should be the one that is controlling his life.

Caesar goes home to watch the film of his old owner which reminds him that not all the apes had the great experience that he had while he stayed with the human beings like he had obtained. This film clearly illustrates the way nurture is regarded as being far better than nature. The movie also shows how the nature of human beings may be weak compared to the nature of apes. During the film, there is a particular scene whereby the human beings are gathered around a central place having a fire discussing how the apes' colony do not require electricity, heat and other necessities that the human beings have grown being attached to. This means that the human beings are trying to speculate the notion that they are more superior across the globe although it is not regarding having the great force that is in nature and by being more robust and stronger.

Concerning the nurturing aspect, human beings are presented as more caring and loving towards each other as well as for everything that surrounds the world. The other example of this that has been represented in the film is when the apes are determined to fight human beings in the quest to prove their superiority, but several human beings do not want fighting as they instead chose to live in unity while supporting each other regarding attaining their needs. The lessons learned from this film is about how one gets used has a significant contribution towards determining who a person is.

War of the Planet of the Apes

War of the planet of the ape is a film that has unapologetically upheld the theme of war. The movie opens up having soldiers in the lush forests having helmets on their heads marching towards the direction of the enemy using platoon style. At this time, no one has an idea about where Caesar is as well as the plans that he had even if we fast learn that his main focus is survival. In this film, Caesar is represented as being worried much about seeking peace among the apes' colony and human beings. Caesar and the rest of the apes' colony are forced into the deadly conflict that consists of an army comprised of human beings. The human beings army is led by Woody Harrelson who is seen as a ruthless colonel (Sragow 72).

After the apes' colony have suffered substantial losses, Caesar starts battling with his dark instincts which compels him to start his mythic quest meant to provide for avenging of his kind. While in the middle of the battle, the colonel and Caesar are brought face to face. The two leaders from the battling sides get pitted against each other in the epic war that would determine the fate of every species being represented in the war as well as the war would determine the planet's future.

Conclusion

To conclude, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes film provides a stor...