In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Monday 22 August 2011

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES [2011]

James Franco, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Freida Pinto and Andy Serkis make up the cast to this stunning prequel to the original "Apes" stories from the '60's & '70's.

While it does fall into summer blockbuster action sequences on the occasion (which are still entertaining to watch unfold here), Apes gets itself back on track with interesting situations and relationships that are usually so poorly written in most popcorn flicks.

The film challenges your morales, diminishes your feel good mood that most summer films seem to like to throw at you and gets in quite a few good scares which was a pleasant surprise. While not as good as the original, it is the best thing since.

3 ½ Hidden Charlton Heston's out of 5

2 comments:

budarc said...

I liked it slightly less than you. I kept getting distracted by all the CGI apes and how artificial they looked. Plus the whole bridge scene was too much for me. I liked the implications at the end, but of course we knew all this going into it. 3 from me.

cuckoo said...

3's still pretty decent.

Maybe I was just relieved to see a good popcorn movie after walking out of the Michael Bay shitfest earlier this summer and being pretty disappointed with Cowboys & Aliens. :loldata: