Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released on Blu-ray and DVD by 20th Century Fox on December 13 and fans will be happy to known that it’s one of the better home releases of 2011. In fact, Rise of the Planet of the Apes gives girls the perfect holiday home entertainment gift for the bush apes in their lives.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton and Andy Serkis, the story of Rise of the Planet of the Apes predates the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film with Charlton Heston. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, James Franco plays a gifted pharmaceutical scientist named Will Rodman hard at work on a cure for Alzheimer’s who bonds with a baby ape named Caesar, the offspring of gene intelligence therapy test subject. As Caesar matures inside the home of Rodam, the ape’s hyper-intelligence far surpasses that of his kind. When Caesar attacks a local, the intelligently advanced ape is institutionalized, which intensifies the primate’s rage and lays the foundation for apes to rise up against their human oppressors.
As far as visuals go, the 1080p Blu-ray transfer makes for one of the most visually impressive apey experiences of the year (forgive all of these ape references, they don’t come around too often). With the visual bar set so high on Rise of the Planet of the Apes, fans won’t be disappointed. Although you can’t go wrong with the film, the bonuses take the movie to whole new level, namely in the form of The Genius of Andy Serkis. The actor focused extra feature goes deeper behind the scenes to show the great Andy Serkis employing various motion capture techniques while playing lead chimp, Caesar. As an extended extra, viewers can watch a scene from the film with effects intact or split between actor and CGI.
Fans also get eleven decently entertaining deleted scenes, a great audio commentary by director Rupert Wyatt, another commentary track with writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and an in-depth featurette on The Great Apes plus another that explores the Mythology of the Apes within the Planet of the Apes franchise. Additionally, Rise of the Planet of the Apes serves up a scene breakdown, another featurette on motion capture, and lastly a breakdown of how the film was musically scored.
After a stellar theatrical run, Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Blu-ray is sweet simian sugar in time for the holidays.