Director Rupert Wyatt’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” delivers a cautionary tale about the risks of animal testing and the hubris of mankind in a relevant way. James Franco plays Will Rodman, a genetics scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer’s, which ails his father played by John Lithgow.

Rodman, who makes his living by working at a pharmaceutical lab called Gen Sys, makes a break through with a cocktail that not only reverses the effects of Alzheimer’s but also increases intelligence.

One experimental chimp nicknamed “Bright Eyes” is given the cocktail and shows signs of accelerated intelligence. Not surprisingly, she acts out during a serious business meeting at Gen-Sys, and as a result, Rodman must put all of his apes to sleep. Franco’s character is the archetype of the scientist with the heart of gold, and so when he sees Bright Eyes’ baby chimp, he sneaks it home and raises it as his own.

Interestingly enough, despite his dashing good looks, Franco is not the center of the story.

His character spends most of the movie unable to do very much to help his surrogate son Caesar. He does however develop a relationship Caroline, a veterinarian played by Freida Pinto. The couple does not do much for the film except prop up the background for Caesar, the CGI chimp that ironically steals the show.

Caesar the chimp undergoes deep and visceral character development and packs the film with its emotional punch as he grows from a cute little monkey into a brave and threatening ape. The character is brought to life by Andy Serkis, most famous for his role as Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

The effects of this film are stunning. The climax of the film, which overpowers most of the slow plot, involves a massive manoa monkey face off atop the Golden Gate Bridge. Weta Digital (the same team that brought us Avatar), uses performance capture technology to let us in to Caesar’s world through Serkis’ emotive facial expressions and does this very well.

The effects are not overbearing and give the film an impact that makes up for the emotionally absent human actors.

The film does however delivers on an emotional front. Some viewers may be turned off by the sci-fi stigma associated with Apes franchise, but do not fear! Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, a husband-wife writing team, keep in mind the modern perils of animal testing and the prominence of big pharmaceutical companies. Besides the relevance of modern science, your heart-strings will be tugged as Caesar faces enemies like Draco Malfoy.

Tom Felton’s role is also archetypical in that he plays an employee of what most would call a “primate prison”, where he verbally abuses the apes being held. An audience can expect to be entertained by the film which is a light and clever prequel to a classic.