Caesar is home.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

(2011)

Impressive from the outset through being an original take rather than a remake, and even more so in its careful storytelling and intelligent direction from Rupert Wyatt.

The desired effect of sympathising with the CGI apes is more than achieved (and they only feel distancingly CGI on a few occasions) and Andy Serkis' performance as Caesar is outstanding. This is very much from the apes POV, meaning there's long, well-sustained sequences without dialogue and nary a human in sight.

The set pieces are well-conceived and the joining the dots to where a Heston-type movie begins manages to be quite convincing (if a bit 12 Monkeys); there was some criticism of those I saw this with that pushing the film to the point of the sequel was overly schematic, although I didn't feel that way about it except maybe the climax/credits sequence. Also that the use of Alzheimers as a device was a bit poor taste, but again (although it's a fair comment) I thought Lithgow's performance was typically sensitive and engrossing.

Minus points most definitely for bland Franco, though. And Pinto was even less of a presence, if that's possible. The need to have characters mouth famous lines from the original was a distracting and unnecessary.

****

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