Monkey Python and the Flying Serkis

Rating: 8/10 (18 August 2011)

This stands out from a somewhat disappointing 'Summer of 2011' as an excellent popcorn shifter.
I certainly wasn't won over by the trailers for this, with the nasty odour of Burton's 2001 addition to the franchise still lingering in our memories. But after being persuaded to give it a go, it has to be the best film I've seen this year. It's hard not to connect with Ceasar (played by King Kong himself, the brilliant Andy Serkis) and it's very easy to forgive the occasional dropping of the CGI ball. If it wasn't for Serkis' performance, I'd say this film would pan.
Which leads me onto to my only disappointment from the film: humans. James Franco and Freida Pinto played annoyingly wooden characters and were entirely unconvincing as scientists and vets respectively. Veteran actors John Lithgow and Brian Cox held their own, but were wasted in minor roles. And Tom Felton was definitely the wrong choice for the hateful monkey bully. He's spent the past decade bullying The Boy Who Lived and his merry wizards, only to set be loose on a animal shelter full of apes?! Perhaps an interesting twist would be to put a 'nice boy' in that role, like Zac Efron or (insert Glee cast member here). At least then we wouldn't have necessarily seen it coming.
But I'm just being picky. The CGI was more-or-less excellent, the build-up to the action was a steady pace, and the action itself was well worth the wait. And the apes steal the show, and deserve many bananas.
Oh and the 'PS. By the way everyone gets sick and dies' mid-credits scene also strengthens the impact of the film. Hopefully, a sequel is on the way... minus James Franco.