Evan Wessman (CinematicInceptions) Although there was plenty of room for improvement here, there were a lot of things that I thought this movie did well. When I first saw the trailers back in 2011, it looked to me like the apes were the enemy that was trying to take over the world like in an alien invasion movie. However, I was pleasantly surprised upon finally seeing it this past summer to find that this is not at all an action driven movie. The trailers make it out to be an action movie, but in truth there is only one action scene at the climax. However, there is plenty to keep it interesting and exciting throughout the rest of the movie.The science/medicine/tech corporation that Will worked for felt a little bit standard, much like Oscorp from the Spiderman movies. However, the company was not looking to make any kind of military technology, which is seen in a lot of action movies. Instead, the writers decided to make the serum that makes Caesar smarter a drug that is intended to cure Alzheimers, which I think was a good choice. It made the entire movie feel more real and allowed it to put some more focus on some of the societal issues that come up in it. There is an active search for a cure to Alzheimers, and it is almost a certainty that pharmaceutical companies would test out their cure on animals before humans. Later, when Caesar gives all of the apes the serum, it makes sense that the first thing the apes would think about with their more intelligent minds would be the oppressive circumstances they are in. Even though animal cruelty was not a major theme of the movie, it was at least presented in a way that gave it more attention and made viewers more likely to think about how we treat animals than say the way the Avengers dealt with the Tessaract. The climatic battle also has more weight because the apes are not the aggressors. Rather they are simply trying to escape and live on their own; the fighting only ensues when the police try to stop them. Whether the serum would actually have such an extensive impact on chimps as it does in the movie is unlikely, but choosing to have the drug make the apes smarter rather than more aggressive like some movies might have done was a good choice in my opinion.I also really liked the way that the movie used their graphics and mo-cap when dealing with the apes. Like most computer graphics today, it did not make the apes look like real apes, but it at least looked clean enough that it wasn't distracting. But I especially liked the way that Caesar and the other apes were written, directed, and acted. Most of the times when intelligent animals are featured in movies, they either talk, or make incredibly annoying gestures and noises to make up for not being able to speak (see Curious George, Sven from Frozen, the chicken in Moana, the horses in Mulan and Tangled and El Dorado). Here, Caesar was able to communicate through sign, which is a much more realistic and eloquent way of making him a human character to the audience. Instead of trying to make Caesar overly cute or overly aggressive, they just made him seem more human. This made the moment when he finally speaks so much more powerful, at least for me.There were a few things that I disliked about it. Several shots that were used at the beginning and end of scenes felt rather clichéd and overused, especially as the pace of the movie picked up. Steven Jacobs, the head of the company, felt like kind of a caricature and I got a little annoyed by the way he was written. Last and worst was the young zookeeper Dodge Landon, who felt heinously unrealistic. He's a character that the audience is meant to hate, but I hated him even more because he just felt like a copy of a stereotypical punk, especially in the scene when he brings his friends in to see the apes.On the whole, I liked it and want to see the next two. It's by no means the perfect sci-fi movie, but sci-fi movies should strive to be more like this one. Overall Rating: 7.8/10.

tataruioanamiruna I do not like sci-fi movies. But this one was really good. James Franco and Freida Pinto were the main human characters, while Caesar was incredibly especially in the end. Good movie and it gave me the idea of watching the next movies (Dawn of the planet of the apes and War for the planet of the apes).

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a British/American blockbuster movie from 2011 (6 years ago) that started the "Planet of the Apes" franchise that currently has its third and possibly final installment hitting cinemas. The people who made this and I am referring to the director and two writers really were no big names at all, so this one clearly boosted their careers as it did not just receive a great deal of praise from critics and audiences alike, but also managed lots of awards attention, including an Oscar nomination (lost to Hugo). The film features actor James Franco (fresh after his Oscar nomination) and the stunning, sadly underused Freida Pinto (not too long after Slumdog Millionaire), playing the main roles, especially Franco, plus a strong supporting performance by John Lithgow and a mostly forgettable turn by David Oyelewo slowly turning into the main antagonist. But in the center of it all is probably Andy Serkis' (Gollum) Caesar, the one ape who changed everything for the others thanks to his superb intelligence. This character's story is really the heart and soul of the film, already as a baby when cuteness prevails, but also as an adult ape when he is no longer willing to accept the cruelties and oppression (I think that's more accurate than suppression) of his "people". It's somewhat fitting that with this story the writers were picked to write an upcoming Avatar sequel.Anyway back to this one here. One of the film's biggest strengths is that even in action sequences like the one on the bridge, it never loses its essential focus on the very core of the story. And for a Sci-Fi movie, the story really did feel extremely realistic. This is thanks to the special effects, but also thanks to the fact that it is a 105-minute movie and if you ignore the end credits, it is only slightly longer than 1.5 hours. It is a really essential film, no need to push it past 2 hours or anything. It is also one of the rare movies that does not care about comedy one bit, no funny one-liners or reactions that could have hurt the overall outcome and I think this also helped in taking the movie seriously from the scientific standpoint. Like I wrote in the title of my review, this film is a prime example of competent execution and I give a thumbs-up to everybody who worked on this project. It is pretty close to a ****/*****, so maybe it will get there on rewatch at some point. I am certainly curious about the sequel(s) and I will check them out at some point in the near future I guess. Until then, I give this first installment a big thumbs-up. Highly recommended.

Sparse Rise of the Planet of the Apes isn't an allegorical powerhouse like the 1968 classic, though it's still substantially more realized than 2001's abomination. What impresses me about this film however (and makes up for its comparative allegorical thinness), is its remarkable complexity as a character study. Spectacular action aside. . . . this film blew me away.Rise is directed by Rupert Wyatt, and despite his relative lack of experience yielded spectacular results. This film has an unprecedented sense of momentum: everything from the montages to the tension to the seamless action leaves me utterly breathless, and paired with its relatively short runtime, flies by and boasts an extraordinarily high rewatchability factor. There are a few dubious edits here and there, sometimes in the cinematography, sometimes in the music, but is otherwise a very tightly shot and edited feature.The director of photography is award-winning cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, who is more than worthy of mention here. The cinematography throughout is breathtaking, with majestic wide shots of the forest, the ape compound, and the city in general. It's also rather intelligent in its usage of visual motifs, juxtaposing cages and windows throughout in a reversal on expected themes. Here, the windows represent false hope/freedom, and the cages represent incitement for revolution. My only issue in regards to cinematography is the "face falling on the camera" motif, which though interesting, is a little dubious. Thankfully, it's not obnoxious in context. Lesnie was actually DOP for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which explains a lot), though he isn't the only carry-over from Middle Earth.The special effects by WETA Digital are magnificent, and are some of the best out there. Though if you've acquired an eye for CG then you'll still notice it here in select instances. One potential mistake I caught is that the size of Caesar's eyes sometimes appear inconsistent, though that could be a misperception. It gets better in the follow-ups, but this film still boasts some of the best-looking apes in cinematic history. The screenplay is by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and despite its simple plot, features compelling concepts throughout. Though not an allegorical heavyweight, the revolution on the bridge appears to be modeled after civil rights movement race riots and even contemporary police brutality, though it's not anything as profoundly realized and intricate as 1968's masterwork. Commentary on animal rights/testing ethics are also present, though it's the obvious choice and hence isn't particularly impressive. To the film's credit, the ape revolution is now more believable than it was in the original movies, with a sci-fi premise that bends reality no more than it has to.The film still has its fair share of fun with delightful easter eggs for fans of the original, but more importantly presents us with a character worthy of study. Caesar is an exploration of duality and isolation. For one, Caesar is set up with a dilemma in which he has seen the good and bad of both apes and humans, inciting an inherent internal conflict which he does not yet understand. On the other hand, he is the only one of his kind. As the only ape born with the enhanced intelligence, he feels a certain kind of isolation. He's a character of two worlds, doomed not to feel at home in either of them. This kind of intelligent, complex character writing creates various avenues for subsequent films, and makes the film for me. One flaw worthy of noting is the dialogue, which at times is a little clichéd, and could have benefited from another read-through or two. The best characters in the film didn't actually need much dialogue though, so it's not as detrimental as it could have been.The characters/performances are a little mixed in quality, but overall positive. The apes across the board emote spectacularly, enabling the audience to understand and sympathise with their characters without the need for dialogue. Andy Serkis in particular (another Lord of the Rings carry-over) is phenomenal as Caesar. His performance is the the epitome of physicality and expression, synchronously nuanced, powerful, and heart-wrenching. He nearly had me in tears at several moments throughout the film, masterfully unveiling the complex internal tragedy of his character.First thing about the humans: James Franco is not the main character--apparently there's been some confusion there. He serves but as a transitionary lead, since the story is clearly about Caesar. That being said, Franco is fine in this film. I don't know if I've seen him better, but he's competent. Many of the other human characters (though good in their roles), are simply fulfilling archetypes. I quite enjoyed Brian Cox, Tom Felton, and David Oyelowo, yet they weren't any different than what I expected them to be. John Lithgow however is fantastic, and Tyler Labine as Franklin was very likable. Freida Pinto is fine, albeit kind of unnecessary and highlighting a lack of female characters with comparable depth to the male ones. That being said, the supporting characters we did get were sufficient, and it's better not to force in characters for the sake of a quota.The musical score by Patrick Doyle succeeds brilliantly on a melodic level and proves to be quite memorable, despite bearing an almost-formulaic epic-inspirational style. It doesn't compare on the avant-garde spectrum established by Jerry Goldsmith, but provides propulsive percussion nonetheless, and serves the emotional, character- driven narrative excellently, better than most films of its decade I dare say.Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of my very favorite action movies, but like most of my favorite action movies, it's actually far more than that. There are layers in this film from the intricate focal character to the intelligent, motivic cinematography, and it sustains the kind of intelligence that made Planet of the Apes great in the first place. Score: 9/10