If the big box office is any indication, a lot of you have already seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the franchise reboot/prequel that explains how monkeys first began to take over the world. I had low expectations for the film, but I found it surprisingly engaging — I was impressed that the filmmakers actually got me to care about Caesar, the CG-created chimpanzee at the center of the story. More surprising, though, was the complex moral conundrum I was left processing for hours after seeing the film. Was it okay that I was rooting for the primates? (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.)
You see, Rise of the Planet of the Apes asks you to do a funny thing: sympathize with a small army of apes as they revolt against humanity, kill off various police officers, and generally terrorize San Francisco. On the one hand, I actually wanted the apes to escape their sad existence — they were experimented on constantly, horribly mistreated, and kept in prison-ish cages. I don’t wish that fate upon any animal. At the same time, though, I wasn’t totally on board with their efforts to take revenge on my own species. (Even if the humans in the movie never feel like fully articulated characters.)
Normally, I have no problem empathizing with onscreen animals. I felt awful for Buddy when Josh tried to make him run away in Air Bud. I cried when Simba couldn’t wake up his dead father in The Lion King. I really did want Sassy, Chance, and Shadow to reunite with their family in Homeward Bound.* But those benevolent animals weren’t threatening humanity.
The apes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes are calculating and angry. They kill quite a few people — some bystanders are just collateral damage, but others are offed malevolently. Theoretically, as a loyal human, I should have been disgusted by this violence to my own kind, but if I’m being honest, I found the action scenes exhilarating. I oohed and when the monkeys took down a helicopter in a fiery blaze. I laughed when the gigantic gorilla chucked a parking meter into the moving cop car. Go apes! Get to the forest! It wasn’t until after the movie that I stopped and thought, “Hmm, that was actually kind of messed up.” (It’s similar to the way I felt when I realized that the “good guys” in Ocean’s Eleven are all terrible.)
Granted, the monkeys in Rise are genetically enhanced, so that their brains function on a human (or almost human) level, and primates are our closest ancestors. But at the end of the day, they still aren’t humans, so should I really have been rooting for them to escape into the forest and ultimately take over the world? We know that this film takes place about 2,000 years before the original Planet of the Apes, which presents a world entirely inhabited by humanoid apes. So, in a way, to support the chimps in Rise of the Planet of the Apes is to support the (fictional) end of humanity, you know?
Thankfully, all the ambiguity is part of what makes this franchise compelling, and director Rupert Wyatt approached these questions delicately, never allowing the film to feel preachy in either direction. “As a human audience going in, the natural instinct is certainly to root for the humans,” he told EW last week. “We wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to portray the humans in a bad or evil or negative light — it’s much more naunced than that. Our main approach was to approach it much like Spartacus. We’re telling the story of those slaves in revolt, rising up against an empire and a civilization that is not necessarily bad, but is dominant — it is one that is looking to exploit their closest cousins and use them for their own benefit.” I can get behind that idea!
Honestly, I’m probably being too serious about the whole thing — it’s not like my little moral quandary is going to keep me from seeing the sequel in a few years — I mean, Caesar talked! Of course I’ll go see the next film… and then ask myself this same cycle of questions all over again! Did any of you find yourselves feeling weird about rooting for the chimp revolt? Sound off in the comments!
*Notable exception: I felt nothing for the horrible, disobedient dog who died in Marley and Me. That constantly barking, furniture-chewing, annoyingly rambunctious dog had it coming. Good riddance.
Read more:
EW.com’s movie recap of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’: Gorilla Warfare
Box office report: ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ dominates with $54 million
‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’: Freida Pinto talks special effects, working with Andy Serkis — VIDEO
Didn’t root for the apes, to be honest. I liked Caesar, but he was the only one I cared about surviving. All the others were punks.
I don’t know…Maurice from the circus seemed pretty cool.
It should be noted that humans more or less defeat themselves based on this movie (and the original when you get down to it). Apes just filled the niche that we left behind.
Agreed. Apes are just fighting for their own survival. Humans developed the apes and the ALZ-113 which will cause our extinction. They’re just gonna wait us out in the trees.
I did find myself rooting for the apes. They were brutally mistreated, and I always find myself rooting for characters treated like that.
Of course it could all be because they were led by Gollum. I love Andy Serkis!
Same thing with “Avatar”. The whole point of the movie was to get you to root for the aliens, against the evil humans.
Everyone in my theater was cheering when the apes came out on top. But it’ll be interesting to see how sympathetic we’ll be in in subsequent sequels were humans are the ones suppressed.
First, stop calling them monkeys. They aren’t monkeys. Completely different species. Second, how are the Apes going to survive living in the forest? The northern California forest doesn’t provide food like a jungle would. Just saying!…….Well it is just a movie.
Clearly no one at EW.com cares to look up the difference between primate, monkey and ape. They are not synonymous! Sloppy “journalism” if you ask me.
Also stop referring to the apes as “primates” like humans aren’t also primates.
My favorite part was the “humanoid ape” bit. If we’re going by the usual definition, there has never NOT been a humanoid ape! I believe “apes with human-like abilities” was more what the author was going for. Oh, and I also enjoyed that “primates are our closest ancestors.” First of all, as you say, people are primates. People are also apes. And the other word issue is “ancestors.” I believe the author was shooting for “relatives” and instead came up with a word that has a whole different meaning.
what a piece of crap..really…like our military couldn’t put those punks down in 30 minutes…c’mon man! watch the original Planet of the Apes!
**SPOILERS**Our military could put down the apes in 30 minutes or less, I’m sure. But let’s be realistic here, as much as you can be realistic in a movie about talking chimps. Apes escape the city and goto Muir Woods (that whole forest system is pretty darn huge). Not many people died, and most of those that did were a case of self defense. It’s enough of a morally ambigious situation (especially when you will no doubt have the main human protagonists trying to defend the ape actions) that they aren’t just going to napalm the redwoods (heck, there would be enough people defending the forest itself to prevent that from happening). This is the US Government we are talking about here. They will quarantine the area and probably spend weeks or months debating what should be done while trying to score political points…cept the catch is they only have 2 weeks before that virus starts dropping people like flies, at which point do you honestly think super apes would be high on their agenda when dealing with a super virus that is decimating the human population across the planet?
That just about says it; thee’s far more to worry about than a few hundred apes.
Is it worse that in “The Dark Knight” I was rooting for The Joker? That I was disappointed that at least ONE of those boats didn’t blow up?
Brian
It was very unsettling to hear the whole audience cheering with increasing glee as the humans get slaughtered in growing numbers. Very creepy.
The whole audience in my showing went absolutely crazy with applause when it was revealed that the unpleasant neighbor had been infected with the deadly virus at the end.
If it was truly the director’s wish not to “portray the humans in a bad or evil or negative light”, then he failed miserably.
Actually, I noticed that the film tried to keep the human body count down, especially the innocent bystanders (such as the ones on the GG Bridge). There were several moments where Caesar actually stopped one of the apes from killing a human. The only ones who I remember being killed were the few who created the biggest violent treat against the apes (such as the men in the helecopter who where shooting and killing the apes).
Apes were awesome! Good movie.
Never aerosolize an experimental virus….everyone knows that!
I liked all the references to the original movie. Caesar was lovable; agreed.
This was a better movie than I thought it would be. Yeah, I was rooting for the apes, despite knowing how things would end up. Caesar was very much a “no-killing-if-it-can-be-helped” kind of tactician, so that made it easier to root for them. The people who did die were either accidents (Tom Felton), self-defense (the helicopter cops) or they, frankly, deserved it (the corrupt CEO), so I had no problem with hoping they’d win.
Exactly, they weren’t killing indiscriminately. They only killed when there was a direct threat (does anyone really think Jacobs actually outran a few dozen apes at the lab?). Caesar stopped them from killing several people. Sure they destroyed a good deal of property but the writer of this article obviously wasn’t paying close attention to the movie if he thinks the apes went on a killing spree when they escaped.
I was definitely rooting for them. You can’t give them human-level intelligence then continue to treat them like animals. Even ordinary animals don’t deserve to be mistreated & abused! I have about as much of a problem with they did as I would with a dog attacking its abuser…none!
“Apes! Monkeys are further down the evolutionary ladder, just above humans!”