A lot was done right here, almost everything

Rating: 6/10 (20 August 2017)

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a British/American blockbuster movie from 2011 (6 years ago) that started the "Planet of the Apes" franchise that currently has its third and possibly final installment hitting cinemas. The people who made this and I am referring to the director and two writers really were no big names at all, so this one clearly boosted their careers as it did not just receive a great deal of praise from critics and audiences alike, but also managed lots of awards attention, including an Oscar nomination (lost to Hugo). The film features actor James Franco (fresh after his Oscar nomination) and the stunning, sadly underused Freida Pinto (not too long after Slumdog Millionaire), playing the main roles, especially Franco, plus a strong supporting performance by John Lithgow and a mostly forgettable turn by David Oyelewo slowly turning into the main antagonist. But in the center of it all is probably Andy Serkis' (Gollum) Caesar, the one ape who changed everything for the others thanks to his superb intelligence. This character's story is really the heart and soul of the film, already as a baby when cuteness prevails, but also as an adult ape when he is no longer willing to accept the cruelties and oppression (I think that's more accurate than suppression) of his "people". It's somewhat fitting that with this story the writers were picked to write an upcoming Avatar sequel.
Anyway back to this one here. One of the film's biggest strengths is that even in action sequences like the one on the bridge, it never loses its essential focus on the very core of the story. And for a Sci-Fi movie, the story really did feel extremely realistic. This is thanks to the special effects, but also thanks to the fact that it is a 105-minute movie and if you ignore the end credits, it is only slightly longer than 1.5 hours. It is a really essential film, no need to push it past 2 hours or anything. It is also one of the rare movies that does not care about comedy one bit, no funny one-liners or reactions that could have hurt the overall outcome and I think this also helped in taking the movie seriously from the scientific standpoint. Like I wrote in the title of my review, this film is a prime example of competent execution and I give a thumbs-up to everybody who worked on this project. It is pretty close to a ****/*****, so maybe it will get there on rewatch at some point. I am certainly curious about the sequel(s) and I will check them out at some point in the near future I guess. Until then, I give this first installment a big thumbs-up. Highly recommended.