Great CGI do not a good film make.

Rating: 1/10 (13 October 2011)

To see reviewers say "the most emotional planet of the apes film" or "a masterpiece" makes me wonder if they have seen a different film to me.
Firstly, I must admit, I am a huge fan of the original films, when I say original, i do not mean the Tim Burton catastrophe of 2001, but he original series of films.
What those films had and what set the apes franchise apart, was strong scripts, extensive plots, social messages, and plenty of twists. Rise of planet of the apes, sadly has none of those.
The storyline, is basic at best, for the first half an hour it felt like a Disney movie, as they explained the blatantly obvious to the viewers. They almost completely fail to explore the characters, James Franco's relationship with Pinto, his relationship with his father, even his relationship with Cesar seem barely explored. Jacobs seems to flit from bad guy to good guy quicker than you can say Jacobs. And the lab tech, who was so memorable I cant even remember his name, what happened there, are we supposed to care about his fate, did the other characters in the movie even care about his fate? Is it a good film? Its OK, it really has very little to do with Planet of the Apes and probably shouldn't even say Planet of the Apes in the title. The plot is pretty thin and the whole film feels like its missing about 30 minutes of background and relationship scenes. That said, it was tedious and slow enough for the first hour without the extra scenes. The CGI is great, although claims that Cesar is the greatest moment of cgi in cinema history are well off the mark. Its good, but most of the time its pretty obvious its cgi.
Is it better than the Tim Burton film, the jury's out. Is it better than the original films, no chance.
Plus Points: Great CGI Downsides: Formulaic plot, no character development