Review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) by Halfwelshman — 04 Sep 2011

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is certainly evolutionarily superior to the vast majority of summer blockbusters. It's not only visually stunning but boasts some clever ideas and moral questions. Andy Serkis continues to prove that he's not only the master of mo-cap, but a brilliant method actor.

Not since Avatar has CGI so effectively been married with the real world, and every Ape is believable as a character. The sequence documenting Caesar's formative years is magical, and the action-packed finale is heart-racing, but sadly other parts of the film lack a bit of a punch.

This is partly due to the dullness of the human characters - no-one (with the possible exception of John Lithgow's Alzheimer's-afflicted Charles) are anywhere near as interesting, or easy to relate to as Caesar.

This motion-captured chimp (a hyper-intelligent chimp, this is true, but still a chimp) out-performs everyone else on screen. This is a true testament to Serkis' skill, but also proof that the rest of the cast's performances are generally lacklustre.

So the film is interesting enough, the plot reasonably entertaining, with some nice nods to the original Apes film, and the visuals are beautiful. However none of the flesh-and-blood characters can compete with the apes in terms of likeability, complexity or emotional grounding.

And the title's just silly.