Over the past few years I've frequently railed against motion-capture technology in such films as "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and "Disney's A Christmas Carol" because the process seems to hinder character development. The people in these films look distorted and goofy, and their faces are so bland that it's impossible for them to be expressive.
For me, that kind of distraction makes it difficult to enjoy a two-hour movie, especially an animated feature that is attempting a real-world look. Roger Rabbit is more realistic.
But when it's done right, motion capture as one piece of the filmmaking puzzle can be magical. That's certainly the case in the two best examples we've seen, the title ape in "King Kong" (2005) and Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy — both played by Andy Serkis in motion-capture suits over which animation was later laid.
Of course, the technology was still new enough that even those were works in progress for Serkis.
Since then, motion capture has made tremendous strides, as demonstrated in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," in which Serkis plays Caesar, the lead chimp. It's a remarkable performance, with much more nuance and conviction than you might expect.
It's as if Serkis has been working toward this one all along, and the emotional range on display — taking Caesar from playful and childlike to bewildered and dismayed to determined and rather scary — reminds us that Serkis is no one-trick monkey. He's a talented actor whose work, until now, has been woefully underestimated. (Unless you saw him as a human character in the recent British TV adaptation of "Little Dorrit.")
As a consequence, there has been some discussion among national critics that perhaps Serkis should be considered for an Oscar nomination when Academy Award season rolls around late in the year. And despite my continued reservations about how much computer technology is muddying the visual aspects of moviemaking, I couldn't agree more.
Hey, if acting is all about engaging the audience, persuading us to suspend our disbelief as we invest in a big-screen character for a couple of hours-plus, then sign Serkis up. He's done it. Big time.
In fact, Caesar is by far the best-developed role in the film. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is told primarily from this chimpanzee's point of view — and he is so expressive that the human characters have trouble keeping up.
Well, except for John Lithgow's powerful (and all-too-brief) performance as an aged man who slips into dementia, then is brought out of it by a new drug that allows him to recapture his former life, only to have it once again taken away as the fix proves to be temporary. (It wouldn't be surprising to see Lithgow get a supporting-actor nomination.)
Most of the best-actor contenders arrive in movies that are released late in the year, so the bulk of Serkis' competition isn't even known yet. But I'm hard-pressed to think of any other actors who've done better so far this year.
Of course, all of this may be moot. Who knows what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will think of this idea? The Academy has always been slow to embrace the new, and while motion capture has been around for a while now (can you believe it's been seven years since "The Polar Express"?), it will take some forward-thinking voters to get Serkis in the running.
Like those who perform in comedies, actors in fantasy roles don't get much respect from Oscar.
Remember that it wasn't until 1992 that an animated feature finally received a best-picture Oscar nomination. Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" was the first. And an annual award for best-animated feature wasn't created until 10 years after that!
In 1937, Walt Disney was given an honorary award for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Hollywood's first feature-length cartoon (he received a statuette with seven miniature statues). And many of his subsequent animated features earned Oscar nominations in other categories, most often music.
But science fiction and fantasy have rarely been nominated in the top Academy Award categories, much less won. Exceptions include these best-picture nominees: "Dr. Strangelove" and "Mary Poppins" (in the same year), "The Exorcist," "Jaws," "Star Wars," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Ghost," "Babe," "The Green Mile" and "The Sixth Sense" (in the same year).
Then the three "Lord of the Rings" movies stunned everyone by being nominated three years in a row — and the last one, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," actually took home the best-picture Oscar!
Since then, nominees have included "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and in the same year, James Cameron's "Avatar" and Pixar's "Up" — thanks to an expansion of best-picture nominees from five to 10. Last year, probably for the same reason, both "Inception" and "Toy Story 3" also received best-picture nominations.
There were best-actor/actress nominations for only four of the above films, and only one since 1973 ("Strangelove," "Poppins," "Exorcist" and, most recently, "Benjamin Button").
Not that "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is quite up to the best-picture standard. This one is more of an action piece with sci-fi trappings than anything profound.
It's fun but genre clichés abound as it goes from being an in-the-lab mystery to a domestic "Bedtime for Bonzo" remake to a chimps-in-prison melodrama, ultimately breaking loose for its most inventive sequence as apes climb all over the Golden Gate Bridge in a battle with humans.
Perhaps the biggest cliché of all is that misunderstandings abound. The mystery in the lab has to do with why a chimp goes wild and, in the end, though they are perceived as a threat, the apes really just want to use the Golden Gate as a bridge — to get to what they perceive as their nature-built sanctuary.
But in terms of the amazing, tour de force central performance, Serkis definitely rises above the rest of the film.
Still, the odds are against him, and Academy voters will have to look past a lot of distractions to appreciate Serkis' amazing performance.
Here's hoping they do.