I just watched Rise… for the first time. Since this film spawned a massively successful reboot franchise (with the latest installment in theatres right now!), I assumed it would be a cut above your typical Hollywood blockbuster.
This is a perfectly decent movie but the script has the integrity of wet tissue paper. In fact, it is so poorly-constructed that I’ve broken one of the cardinal rules of film criticism – I’m going to do a CinemaSins style breakdown of all the plot holes:1And for those of you about to click away from this article, I’m not talking about petty nit-picks – I’m focusing on serious gaps in logic that drag down the film for no real reason.
- A company presentation on the efficacy of the ALZ-112 drug somehow required the presence of an unsedated chimpanzee.
- When said chimpanzee becomes distressed and runs away from its handlers, this behaviour isn’t seen as understandable but proof that the drug is useless.
- No-one noticed that said chimpanzee was pregnant or witnessed her giving birth, despite the lab having security cameras and staff being present most of the time.
- James Franco’s character2The actual character is named Dr. Will Rodman but does anyone care? takes the baby chimpanzee home and keeps it in his house for many years, despite the fact that it is illegal to keep an ape as a pet in California and his neighbour has every reason to report him.
- When the pet chimpanzee (named Caesar) is confiscated via court order because he attacked a human, he is housed in a wildlife sanctuary where different species of apes are allowed to interact in one giant pen.
- No one in a position of authority ever asks how James Franco acquired a pet chimpanzee and as such, it doesn’t affect his employment at the large genetics company that is known to experiment on wild animals.
- Caesar befriends an orangutan that knows sign language. Despite having a “normal” level of intelligence, the orangutan calls the other apes stupid – an abstract concept that no animal should be able to comprehend.
- While trying to create an improved version of ALZ-112 that is inhaled rather than injected, a staff member is accidentally exposed to the drug.3The ALZ drug is a genetically-modified virus, similar to the cancer cure that destroyed civilisation in the Will Smith version of I Am Legend That staff member is allowed to go home instead of being quarantined, despite people witnessing the exposure and Franco later quitting his job because he thinks the experiments are dangerous.
- The infected staff member goes to James Franco’s house as his health rapidly declines, instead of calling him on the phone, contacting another member of staff or dialling 911. This spreads the disease to an airline pilot who lives next door to Franco, and consequently the entire world.
- Caesar is able to navigate his way to James Franco’s house in the middle of the night, collect aerosol canisters of the ALZ drug and return to the wildlife sanctuary without being detected or getting lost.
You can see my problem can’t you? All these lazy and unrealistic plot-points take away from the genuinely good moments in the story, such as Caesar pickpocketing a student so he can use the man’s switchblade to unlock his cage. I don’t even have any complaints about the battle on the Golden Gate Bridge – I just wish we had a more complex and nuanced story leading up to that final showdown.
That’s when I decided to look up who wrote this script:
- Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver – worked on Jurassic World and the Disney Mulan remake.
- Mark Bomback – worked on Live Free or Die Hard, the Total Recall reboot, the 1st Divergent sequel and The Mummy with Tom Cruise.
Turns out 20th Century Fox got exactly what they paid for.