As the title suggests, this is 20^th Century Fox’s reboot to the Planet of the Apes series, intended to act as an origin story for a new series of films.

If you haven’t seen the original series of five films starting with 1968’s Planet of the Apes, you don’t have to in order to fully understand and enjoy this film. But that is beside the point. This is the point. See this movie. Now.

PLOT SUMMARY (via IMDb)

“At the story's heart is Caesar (Andy Serkis), a chimpanzee who gains human-like intelligence and emotions from an experimental drug. Raised like a child by the drug's creator, Will Rodman (James Franco), Caesar ultimately finds himself taken from the humans he loves and imprisoned in an ape sanctuary in San Bruno. Seeking justice for his fellow inmates, Caesar gives the fellow apes the same drug that he inherited. He then assembles a simian army and escapes the sanctuary - putting man and ape on a collision course that could change the planet forever.”

Just from reading the above, there are enough elements to make the larger themes obvious. Corruption, classism, race issues, man’s arrogance as regards his place in the universe, the desecration of the natural order and man’s tendency to play god, capitalism and its propensity to place corporate greed over the well being of the individual…

All great themes and well explored in this brilliant film, but -

There is one catalyst in this story that acts as a trigger for Caesar’s future actions and the start of the war that will ultimately subjugate the human race.

Remember the ape sanctuary Caesar is imprisoned in? In its employ is sadistic chief guard Dodge Landon (played brilliantly by Tom Felton). Till this point Caesar has faced discrimination and abuse at the hands of humans, but they have been acting out of fear and ignorance.

This fellow is different. For the first time Caesar meets someone who seems to derive pleasure from the pain of others – and he starts to think that this is the stuff ALL humans are made of…

Dodge’s job is to make sure the apes follow their daily routines. Keep them fed, watered and safe - that’s it. But he turns the facility into his own small concentration camp and he is Head Warder.

He is a bully, a small person who seeks to make himself feel better about his own insignificance by stomping on all those he deems smaller than he is.

And we all know that person. The security guard who is super aggressive when you show up in anything less than a jeep. The customer service official who somehow makes ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ sound like an insult. The store clerk who eyes you when you walk into the store. The lecturer who tells a student “You will never graduate as long as I am in this school.”

What do they all have in common? They seem power drunk from the little they have tasted, but it’s far more basic.

They hate their jobs.

Then why don’t they just quit? Because at the core, all bullies are bullied - by themselves. These are individuals who think that ‘this is the way the chips have fallen’ for them and so that’s it.

They feel they lack control over their lives and thus exert undue amount of control over everything else.

People who act this way are cowards. Unwilling to change what is wrong in their lives. They are small minded and desperately weak.

And they know this -

And think this is a fact that everyone else already knows. So they are quick to overreact at anyone who may come close to revealing this embarrassing truth about them.

The scary part? Everyone has the propensity to be them.

How do we avoid this fate? Step One, if you hate your job so much that it is destroying your soul? Quit. But how will I pay my bills? Right now maybe you could do with less bills, and more purpose in your life.

If you hate your life so much? Get a new one. Don’t know how to? Get help.

Don’t be anywhere where you feel so trapped that the only way to feel better is to lash out at everyone else. You could be starting the war that ends civilization as we know it…

Don’t hate on anyone or anything because they are different. Instead, make a difference.