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134 of 162 people found the following review helpful.
Caesar Rises to Greatness!
By Russ Nickel
For a movie whose trailer seemed fake at first glance (a serious drama about a superintelligent ape and his issues?), RotPotA (rot-POT-uh) does an incredible job getting you invested in the plight of a chimp. Low budget for a summer blockbuster, this ninety million dollar film focuses on the rise of Caesar, first of his species and leader of the apes. We watch as he grows up, casts off his human friendships, and eventually leads a revolt in the hopes of achieving freedom for his people, err, his fellow apes.

Whether or not you're going to like this movie boils down to one thing: can you buy into it? Can you lay your hard-earned money on the line and accept Caesar as a fully human character with hopes and fears? Since the actual humans are sort of irrelevant and the apes are incapable of speech, there's not a lot to go on. Basically, if you liked the first 40 minutes of Wall-E, then you'll probably be fine. Caesar may not be a lovable trash robot (or is he?! Twist!), but Andy Serkis does an incredible job conveying his feelings through his motions. Serkis must've spent years living among the apes of the wild to achieve such realistic mimicry (he went to Rwanda and chilled in zoos!), and he strikes epic and expressive poses aplenty, each one conveying Caesar's thoughts without feeling obvious and overblown. By the end of the movie, you'll care more about Caesar than any actual human (in the film--hopefully not in real life). You'll fear for his friends and root for his victory. Honestly, an ape that likable? I'll let him rise above me any day.

Once you're down with the movie's premise, and once you're finally ok with Franco's whole "Let's make a much more aggressive form of this untested virus! What could possibly go wrong?" line of thinking, you're ready to experience a truly great film.

The movie builds and builds, each scene more intense than the last. Watching Caesar slowly learn to despise humanity is fantastic, and when he finally becomes a total champion, you're with him all the way. There's a moment when the music changes and Caesar first uses a basic tool to win his freedom, and I couldn't have been more stoked. Then he goes on to recruit his friends, who are all hardcore. I wasn't really sure what their names were, so I made my own: Grayback, the original leader whom Caesar overthrows, Jowly, the friendly circus orangutan with giant, jiggling jowls, Kong, the huge gorilla, and Scar, the one-eyed embodiment of evil. While they cannot be as well drawn as normal human characters due to the lack of dialogue, I still had a distinct understanding of each of their personalities.

Just like I distinctly understood Draco Malfoy's new character. He once again nailed the sniveling jerk role. I hated that guy so much. He was just so mean to the apes! I guess what he didn't count on was that they'd all become superintelligent. Nobody expects that (in that way, it's like the Spanish Inquisition). His somewhat subpar predictive powers aside, he does get the best Planet of the Apes reference, shouting, "Take your stinking paws off me, you d*mn dirty ape!"

It's people like that who'll make the apes kill us all, which reminds me: the climax of this movie is crazy epic. It takes place on the Golden Gate bridge, and it's unbelievably fun to watch the ramshackle ape army use their new intelligence to take on the unprepared humans.

Not everything was perfectly executed, but all the problems feel like pointless nitpicks. Some characters agree to things a little too quickly, one or two lines are just a little off, Franco gives up on freeing Caesar super easily, the girlfriend should've had either a much larger or much smaller role, and they don't show some scenes of the other apes getting exposed to the intelligence drug (I just assume they cut that scene but that it happened). Also, the entire audience laughed at the epic/heartwarming scene between James Franco and Caesar in the forest at the end, and while it did feel a little ridiculous, it's that same issue I brought up before. You have to buy into this film. You have to let go of that cynical part of you and allow yourself to enjoy what you're seeing. The movie takes its premise 100% seriously, and there's no room for laughter.

In the end, this film is so good that I found myself lost in it. I was unaware of the music, the pacing, the acting, everything, because I was just too busy being completely invested and enjoying the heck out of myself. I cannot wait for the sequel. In a rare piece of cinema, this movie managed to feel complete on its own and yet leave you craving more. If you had to see one film this summer (and you didn't care about the cultural impact of Harry Potter), this would be it.

Score: 4.5/5 ¢

One of the best end credits ever. Rarely do I actually care about what's happening in the background behind the names, but here I was devastated.

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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
One of the best movies of the year, and a rare movie that lives up to the hype. A must see. I easily say A
By Tony Heck
"At age 3, Caesar has completed puzzles ages 8 and up. He has been displaying cognitive skills that far exceed that of a human counterpart." Will (Franco) has been working on a cure for alzheimers. He tests his experiments on apes, and thinks that he has finally found what he is looking for. When one dies during the test he is left to take care of her baby. When he takes the little ape home he begins to notice things that aren't normal. This is another movie that exploded in the theaters and I waited to see it till just the other day. What I have noticed lately is that the longer you wait to see a movie this popular it never lives up to what you expect. When everyone says how good the movie is and it's the best movie they have seen your expectations are too high and it always disappoints. This is the exception. This is truely a great movie that is an absolute must see. I did not like the Marky-Mark "Planet Of The Apes" but this one is nothing like that one. This one actually has a story that keeps you interested and you are hooked in from the beginning. The most amazing part of this movie is that there are large chunks of the movie where there is no dialog at all and until someone says something you don't really notice. This movie sucks you in and keeps hold of you until the ending. A must see. Overall, one of the few movies that can actually live up to the hype it has gotten. I easily give it an A.

*Also try - Planet Of The Apes

52 of 67 people found the following review helpful.
The best since the original way back in the 60s
By TheCountofMonteCristo
This film is excellent, and that is saying a lot when expectations were never that high for the film.

I think a part of it was down to the CGI in the trailer. The CGI is by no means bad, but we still seem to be a long way away from CGI that leaves you wondering whether it is real or CGI. However, in the case of rise of the apes - the story, most of all characterisation, lift the film away from that shortcoming.

The writing is excellent, and the apes seem almost better actors than the humans. Caesar in particular seems so full of emotion and reality that you actually look past the CGI and into the character.

This is definitely the best apes movie since the very first, which is saying something when it was made in the 60s.

I loved the apes movies when I was a kid, and this remake brings all the wonder and interest back to me.

A blockbuster movie with a brain - highly recommended.