Great storytelling with great themes of animal rights and man playing God

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2017)

This film, and the sequels it spawns (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes came out in 2014, and its FANTASTIC) I feel are extremely important for our society nowadays.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes tells the story of a scientist, portrayed by James Franco, who is bent on finding a cure to Alzheimer's, and in doing so he practices experiments on apes. The rest of the story I won't spoil for you, as this is, in fact, an amazing film.
Mankind has always felt it is superior to every other species on this planet, and, as portrayed in the Jurassic Park franchise, also want to play God by toying with creation and things that are too big for us to comprehend yet we have no respect for. This film illustrates in a great way the abuse, suffering and subjugation animals endure for the interest of humans: we are shown how they are abducted from their habitats to be taken to research facilities, where they are experimented on with chemicals and tests that gradually deteriorate their health and quality of life while being forced to live on cages, we are shown the reality of what animals endure at unregulated ape houses and the abuse and humiliation they are submitted to, and we are shown the little capacity of understanding and our great capacity for violence and destruction when animals break loose and try to flee the concrete jungle to what is their natural habitat; all of this is greatly contrasted by the compassion our main character, Caesar, an ape born in a lab, whose mother was murdered by humans after being experimented on, shows for humans, who at no point in the story downgrades himself to the same level of the humans.
The acting in this movie is excellent. The CGI holds up extremely well in 2017, six years after the movie was released. The story is profound and heartfelt, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The action is mesmerizing as well. The characters that need to be fleshed out are given proper context and backstory, and you feel for them and care for them. The motion capture technology and portrayals are incredibly credible, if that makes sense, and you will be amazed at the capabilities of technology.
As I said, this movie is very profound and there is way more to it than meets the eye. As an animal lover, this film impacted me on a very deep level, and I sincerely hope it does so with generations to come, creating conscience and respect for the sentient and intelligent creatures that surround us.
Please, do yourself a favor and go watch this, and then go watch Dawn, and then go watch War, which comes out this year in theaters. I'm very much looking forward to it, and I genuinely hope they bring in more thought provoking themes of animal rights, mankind's violent and selfish ways, and more.