Soulful but not suspenseful

Rating: Null/10 (18 August 2011)

No monkey movie (sorry, Caesar!) is ever going to recapture the two sublime shocks in the Charlton Heston original: the first time he (and we) heard an ape speak, and the electrifying moment when he discovered what planet he was on. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES has an uphill battle to dazzle us, just as the 2001 remake of the original did. Yes, the CGI is brilliant (and clearly the whizz-kids deserve most of the credit for the "motion capture" technique), but there are quite a few scenes, especially during the Golden Gate sequence, when the apes do still look like men in monkey-suits, much as they did (and were) in 1968.
Are we meant to think the Andy Serkis Caesar is the Roddy McDowell Caesar from the original series or an ancestor of his? Rome had many Caesars; and so may Hollywood if the box office justifies it! Since the infant chimp learns sign-language whilst still a toddler, we are not going to be too amazed if he acquires vocal skills. There goes surprise number one. Since we know what planet we're on, an alternative surprise number two needs to be scripted, and the ape rebellion is territory covered in several of the earlier movies. The end appears to rewrite the scenario that led to Charlton Heston learning what was written in the sand, so maybe we're meant to see this as a reinvention rather than as a prequel, like Daniel Craig's take on 007 in CASINO ROYALE.
RISE OF ETC is fairly predictable and lacking in suspense. John Lithgow, as Franco's dad in the throes of Alzheimer's, gets more tender moments than Caesar does, although this is a much more emotional, even soulful chimp than we're used to. But, overall, this movie is another of the summer blockbuster "duds".