What if there was a research drug in the laboratory right now that had a good chance of curing Alzheimer’s but it needed more testing on animals before it could be released for human trials? And what if that same neurogenesis drug made its research subjects smarter? That’s the premise of the exciting and surprisingly thoughtful Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Will Rodman (James Franco) is the lead genetic researcher working on the miracle drug for Gen Sys Corporation, but he has a driving motivation of his own: his father (John Lithgow) is rapidly descending into dementia.
One of the challenges of creating a prequel is that you have an end point but typically don’t have a starting point. In this case the starting point was present day America and the end was what Taylor and his crew found when they crash landed on future Earth in Planet of the Apes. Weaving the two together is a tricky business, and it’s done very well in this film, with hints and nods to earlier story elements.

I just happened to stumble upon your site when looking for a computer-related question led to to “Ask Dave Taylor,” which was extremely helpful. As a film lover, I really appreciate your review of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” especially your suggestion to pay attention to the film credits and what they are suggesting transpired. I watched the credits but I didn’t fully grasp the implications of what I was watching, in terms of how it is connected to the original movie, until a friend pointed it out to me last night. I do have a question for you though. What was the significance of Caesar’s scar? They make a big point of talking about the scar in at least one scene, but I never grasped why that was important. We know from the beginning who Caesar is because he’s the monkey who lives in the house and most of the time, he’s wearing a shirt. Even once he loses his shirt, we don’t need the scar to differentiate him from the other monkeys because others are constantly pointing out where “the leader” is and we know the leader is Caesar. So what was the relevance of giving him a scar?
If you haven’t already seen them, I would suggest a couple of movies to you, both of which are Australian…”Animal Kingdom” and “Red Hill.” I would recommend you consider watching them with the subtitles if catching all of the dialogue is important to you.
Thanks for your kind note, Juli. I have to admit that I don’t know the significance of the scar, but you’re not the first person to ask: I found a question posted on Yahoo Answers (though, alas, no answer). I’m sure there’s a reason for it, as you say, but it’s also obvious that he’s the leader and which monkey he is in crowd scenes… I’ll check out both Animal Kingdom and Red Hill if I can find them. Thanks for the recommendations.