Highly Recommended

Rating: 8/10 (18 August 2011)

This movie was very good and very engaging. It manages to be unaffected by any of the other Planet of the Apes movies (which were all good in their own ways). They obviously all touch on some very interesting questions about humanity, discrimination, the future of life on Earth and so on. Hopefully it's not a spoiler to say that this movie is less of a sci-fi tale and more of a drama with plenty of action and challenging ideas. Twists are not as important as natural development of the plot and characters. In particular, what the apes are capable of and what they're "thinking" and "feeling" and "intending". If we mistreat animals, does that create bad karma for us? I'd say basically yes. Everything comes back to bite you.
Anyway, by setting this movie within a very cool plot-line and focusing on making it believable and (ironically) human, we really ask ourselves these questions. They aren't thrown at you, but you can't help noticing things and wondering. You FEEL strongly about something and you're forced to reconcile it. I also think it's great how the movie takes place within a small area. It's very intimate and small-scale for what it's about. If a sequel was intended and comes along and matches this one for quality of characterisation (or whatever), it'll be very exciting. This one just builds a set-up. But it's far from disappointing. It leaves you wanting more! It'll become a classic, but not quite a masterpiece. Just a great movie that had some impact.
Tom Felton was good. Dislikeable but human, like he's not annoyingly evil, just a prick. Brian Cox was good (yeah I'm deep, I know). The movie just had a good story and went with it. You really feel for Caesar and he came across very convincingly. One weakness is with James Franco's character. His acting was fine but he's plays a pivotal role and his motivation isn't explored. He should be more complex. He meets a girl and then that's it, they're together, no chemistry (well there was but just flirting), no personality. We learn nothing about the girl. He arguably causes many problems because he has influence on Caesar. Maybe that was the point but it isn't emphasised. He spends too much time interacting with other boring minor characters, and not enough contemplating the way Caesar does and confronting the deeper aspects of his situation. John Lithgow gives a nice performance as well.
The apes are awesome. The orangutan looks especially amazing and so does the gorilla. It's funny but when the movie finished, it suddenly hit me that I was surrounded by humans. I forgot. We're so casual around packs of humans. By then I'd gotten used to seeing packs of apes. The way they form social groups. The way they might gather around a leader. We really get to see their beginning. When they just start figuring things out. This movie defies certain things you expect from a studio film in the best possible way. It's not full of stars. It puts a lot on the apes. It's not over-the-top. It holds back a lot. This could be considered pretty brave. It pays off in some legitimately moving/shocking moments.
The best thing is all the little moments when we see a character's expression or gesture and we get to wonder what's going to happen next. We know something's going to go down, these apes are going to do something. But we don't know who will play what role, how they'll get here or there. What's just a silly coincidence and what will come back later as a major point. Of course, twisting things is always fun. Men playing women. Apes playing humans.
Andy Serkis is becoming somewhat of a veteran of animated characters. Funny, he's more famous for his mannerisms and acting but not his face! I have no idea how they combine the acting with the effects - do they tweak things? Put together multiple takes into one shot? Use real chimpanzees as well (with ping pong balls stuck all over them)?
Anyway, although CGI just can't make Caesar look completely real yet, he is very real as a "person", much like an animated character you might become quite fond of. It's his behaviour, the way he sort of leans but also stands like the ape near the right of that famous evolution graph thing. We're really made to question how human he is, how intelligence and caring and understanding but also how susceptible he may be to more primal instincts, like violence. But humans are also incredibly violent, we've just gotten good at suppressing it right? Well, how well would you suppress it if you were in a cage all day?
Funny how silent apes makes for good film-making. They can't just drown us in ridiculously clichéd dialogue, they have to tell their story a different way. We become familiar with all these locations and habits without even thinking. We become like Caesar. We can't speak but we can try to change our surroundings. Try to understanding what's happening around us.