"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" Film Review

In my spare time I go to the cinema, I have alot of spare time so this is usually twice a week down my local independent cinema where I review them for a local website ad occasionally for the paper. Unfortunately they don't always get used so I thought I'd upload my verdict on " Rise of the Planet of the Apes" on the off chance someone would actually read and find it useful -

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (12A)

While researching a cure for Alzheimer’s scientist Will Rodman ( James Franco) takes home an orphaned chimpanzee after it’s mother is “put down” due to a failed drug trial. In Will’s care Ceasar the chimp begins to display near human intelligence, intelligence that could prove dangerous as it grows...

                                                               One angry monkey

My reaction to the trailer for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” went something like, “That looks ridiculous, I want to see it.” What I expected was a far fetched, unbelievable and big budgeted blockbuster involving some sort of monkey uprising that would be enjoyable but equally laughable. What this film delivers though is quite something else…

The thing about the film that makes it so brilliant is the CGI (computer generated imagery). It’s astounding. It’s hard to believe that all the apes are essentially cartoons but are so detailed that you would be forgiven for mistaking them for real monkeys. The motion capture CGI is so effective that you even empathise with the chimps and long sequences involving only the monkeys interacting with each other did not drag what so ever and made the possibility of the plot all the more realistic. What was Avatar again?

Caesar's reaction to the new "One Direction" song proved his human intelligence

Behind Caesar is Andy Serkis, also known for being behind other motion captured characters such as “King Kong” and “Gollum” in “Lord of the Rings,” so really the unofficial master of motion capture cemented by this  show – stealing turn. James Franco, Freida Pinto and the other human members of the cast were good, not award worthy but enough to keep the story going despite being overshadowed by their CG counterparts.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" suffered some genre confusion when it went all "Oliver Twist"

The film is also thought provoking, raising some controversial questions we all have some opinion on.  Is animal testing justifiable? Is keeping animals in captivity wrong? And for me who were the real animals in the film?

An emotional, exciting and epic picture. A sequel is almost definite to this worthwhile watch – 4/5