Esc-Ape to the Movies!

Last week a few of the members from the Escape team took a group outing to see one of this summer’s biggest blockbusters, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It’s a movie we had been discussing at the school quite a bit since the first sneak previews were released some months ago. Surprisingly, it felt like a movie that didn’t have a great deal of general hype and one that many people I spoke to had not considered. Among the three of us there was Tad, a seasoned planet of the Apes fan, Stu, a reasonable newbie to the franchise and budding CG artist, and myself, kind of somewhere in the middle. I think we can say it was a big success. Tad and Stu will be writing shortly to share their thoughts with you, but in the meantime, here is my take on it.

There were so many impressive aspects to this movie it’s hard to know where to start, but I would go as far as to say it’s the best digital characters work I’ve seen in a long time. Weta really had a difficult job in making Caesar (the lead ape), look and act like a real primate whilst also being believable as an ape with a higher level of intelligence, but they did a great job. The progression of Caesar throughout the film was probably one of the most interesting aspects. As an infant the level of realism was not quite there, but as soon as he reached the age for which he remained throughout the majority of the movie it was extremely effective. I have heard some criticism that his physicality becomes too human towards the final sequences of the film, but I would disagree. In fact we may have seen the first film where the CG characters were more believable than the human cast.

I’m looking forward to some behind the scenes footage to show how much of the animation was based around motion capture data and how much was tweaked after. This could have a significant bearing on current opinions about the ‘motion capture’ vs ‘motion performance’ debate, which will no doubt be raised again when Weta’s next project, Tintin, pops up later this year.

All in all, ‘Apes’ was the most enjoyable CG film I’ve seen this year, and whilst it lacked the script, acting and set pieces of greats like Jurassic Park, it certainly had that welcome feel to it that was a nice break from the comic book set. I can’t wait for the next movie in the series. In fact, I think Stu and I are going for a repeat viewing!!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, whether you’re a seasoned pro, big ‘Apes’ fan, or simply someone interested in working on projects like this in the future!