NEW ULM – See the latest evolution of film special effects with “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is the last film in the New Ulm Film Society’s special effect series. The screening begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10 at the public library.

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was released in 2011 and is the seventh film in “The Planet of the Apes” series, but is actually set before the original “Planet of the Apes” film.

In the original 1968 “Planet of the Apes,” the world has already been taken over by super intelligent apes, with humanity falling back into its primitive roots. “Rise” is set in the modern world before the fall of mankind. This movie tells the story of how the apes first began their rise to dominance. The film’s tagline “evolution is revolution” summarizes how apes rise to power. An overnight evolution in primate intelligence, caused by genetic manipulation, leads to a revolution.

The plot of “Rise” works as a metaphor for a shift in film special effects. From the beginning, the “Planet of the Apes” films were at the cutting edge of filmmaking magic. The early films were pioneers in makeup effects. Using sophisticated appliances and makeup, an actor could be turned into a convincing ape or gorilla. “Rise” was the first film to forego traditional makeup in exchange for digital effects.

The apes in this film were created by actors wearing motion-caption suits. Later, animators could add ape features to the actors digitally. “Rise” was not the first film to try using motion-capture to create non-human characters. The late ’90s saw the first use of motion-capture in film, but the technology was rarely convincing and audiences rejected replacing actors with computer effects.

One of the first motion-capture characters to be widely accepted was the Gollum character in The Lord of the Rings franchise, who was played by Andy Serkis. In a short time, Serkis became the top actor for playing motion caption characters. In 2005, Serkis played King Kong in a remake of the classic monster film. After successfully playing the most famous ape from cinema, it made perfect sense to bring him on to play the lead ape in “Rise.”

In “Rise,” Serkis plays Cesar, a genetically altered ape raised by humans. His intelligence grows to be comparable to a humans and can speak through sign language. Since his character cannot verbally speak, his physical movements were extremely important. The motion-capture technology was sophisticated enough to catch subtle nuances in Serkis’ performance.

Serkis would receive nearly universal praise for his performance as Cesar. There were many in the industry who believed Serkis deserved an Oscar nomination for his work. However, at the time there was a disagreement over whether the actor of the special-effect team had the greater impact on the performance.

This is an ongoing debate in film. With motion-capture technology it is hard to tell where the human ends and the technology begins. Twelve years after “Rise” was released, people in the film industry are still having these conversations about how motion-capture and facial recognition technology is used.

There is concern this technology could be used to replace actors with entirely digital characters. The fear is actors like Seriks could become obsolete if studios chase easy profits over human actors. This question about ethics in technology is at the center “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” but, like the film,s it is only the beginning of the story.

The New Ulm Film Society’s screening of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is free to the public. Before and after the film, there will be a discussion about the film’s place in special effects history.