The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Directed by Rupert Wyatt

I may know what you might be thinking 'Why in the world would a christian girl go and see this movie'. True it is about evolution and has pretty much no reference to God. But it is a surprisingly entertaining movie. The reason I saw this movie is because one of my youth leaders, David Oyelowo, starred in this film as Steven Jacobs, the man who owns the company that the testing of apes is being done on. Now again I may know what your thinking 'Why would a youth leader take a job that is about evelutionist', I don't know exactly why he took the role but I am guessing that the project intrigued him, and that he would challenge himself with this role. His Character is nothing like him and David is one of the sweetest, most-dedicated-to-the-Lord people I know.

In the movie you see Will Rodman(James Franco), a lead scientist in a company's project of trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's. Will's father is plagued with the terrible disease, and is failing quickly. At the lab Will is about to present his project to the board of the company, when the ape they had been testing on went viral and had to be killed. Will later finds out that the ape was only protecting its child, who had been born at the lab. Will takes the baby ape home to where he and his father live.
Charles Landon(John Lithgow) immediately bonds with the ape, and Will discovers that the formula they had injected into its Mother had transferred into the baby ape.
Will takes it upon himself to raise this ape. He teaches Caesar(the ape) sign language, and how to interact with other people. But apparently not enough. After Caesar attacks one of Will's neighbors, he is locked up. When Will tells him he isn't going home, Caesar plans an escape.

This movie kept me on the edge of my seat pretty much the whole time. You end up wanting Caesar to win but you don't want him to do the things he did in order to win. This film not for those who scare easily. The ending was a little disturbing and might have the cause for more Ape films. There is definetly some intense scene that are not for young children's eyes.
The evolution in this movie didn't bug my all that much, sure it was a little annoying, but I was watching a movie where Apes learn to talk. So obviously there is evolution in it. I would recommend this movie.
Review by Sweetie Pie

P.S. If you are interested in seeing my youth leader in other things (he is an amazing actor) then here is the list of stuff he is in or will be in:
The Help (He plays a preacher and had to write his own sermons that ended up changing the end of the film)
Red Tails