What a reboot!

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2018)

I saw this film in theaters and it knocked my socks off. The screen writer, director, and Andy Serkis really out-did themselves.
This acts as a prequel to the original series telling the rise of intelligent Apes and the starting decline of humanity. a genetically altered Ape, Caesar, is raised by James Franco and through some less than wacky antics is forced to be kept in a ape shelter with other, normal apes. Similar to the god Prometheus, Caesar exposes his fellow apes to the gene altering virus and gives them knowledge. thus empowering them to rebel and escape captivity.
The humans are by far the weakest link in this film. James Franco is okay and everyone else is passable, but none are very imaginative or memorable. Meanwhile all the apes are interesting, memorable and carry over throughout the remaining trilogy (Rocket, Koba, and my favorite Maurice).
While this reboot trilogy focuses less on themes of racism and slavery, I feel the themes are still there, it's just more themes are at the center and room is made for very decent action sequences. I really liked this film and it sent the series in a brand new direction.