The story is interesting and well-executed without resorting to the easy cliches that a lesser film could have used, the CGI is seamless and probably the most realistic I've seen in a while.
Unusually the story is viewed through the eyes of the apes, namely Caesar (Andy Serkis) who was taken from the laboratory as a baby chimp and raised by scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) and his father Charles (John Lithgow).
Will is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s (which his father is suffering from) and Caesar's mother (Bright Eyes) initially reacted positively to the drug that Will created called ALZ-112, unfortunately an episode of aggressive behaviour meant that all the chimps have to be destroyed, but Will was able to save Caesar.
Caesar inherited some of the ALZ-112 through his mother and grows to be a super-intelligent chimp who displays human emotions, but also retains an aggressive streak. After an incident where Caesar tries to protect Charles from a particularly unpleasant neighbour, Will is forced to send Caesar to a local Primate Sanctuary run by John Landon (Brian Cox) and his son Dodge (Tom Felton) where Caesar is exposed to other apes for the first time. This is the point when Caesar realises how intelligent he is and starts to work out how he and the other apes can escape.
The humans in the film are weak if truth be told, but not through the lack of good performances, the quality of the script clearly wasn't a priority. Franco did the best he could with Will, but there really wasn't much for him to do, however the warm relationship between him and Caesar was very tangible and convincing. Again Lithgow and Cox didn't have much to do, but did it well and Felton just played another version of Harry Potter's Malfroy, albeit with a tan and slight American accent. I didn't think much of Freida Pinto's character Caroline Aranha who plays Franco's love interest, again she had nothing more to do than look pretty.
The real star of the film is Caesar played brilliantly through the art of performance capture by Andy Serkis. Although the dimensions of the ape in comparison to humans doesn't always work (I can be very picky about things like that), it is Caesar that holds the film together and keeps it interesting. Caesar is a very believable, noble, flawed character and I suspect that a number of the audience will identify with him, as I did.
As I mentioned, the CGI is stunning and the scenes on the Golden Gate Bridge where thousands of apes go into battle with humans deserves a special mention, although one small scene was not really necessary, I can see why it was included.
Although the director (Rupert Wyatt) hasn't confirmed whether a sequel is happening, the ending of the film leads me to think that there will be and I sincerely hope that this stylish director and the fantastic Serkis are part of that.
Verdict - With a stand-out performance by Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a very watchable blockbuster, lets hope that any future sequels are of the same standard.
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