A solid start to the Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2017)

It's fair to say I was intrigued by this film. All the ideas about the morality of the humans and apes was very interesting and drove the narrative of the film quite effectively for the first two-thirds of the film. The final act was more action-orientated but was directed well.
The acting was consistently good across the board, with obvious mention going to Andy Serkis' portrayal of Caesar who did brilliantly well in a motion-capture role, conveying so much through body language alone. And when he does speak it is an amazing moment, that sends shivers down your spine.
As it was a prequel there were a few nods to the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film which were well handled, as you see mentions of a astronaut crew that had originally gone up to Mars and then got lost in space. Then you get the first few hints of how the ape takeover happened with a virus spreading amongst humans from the ALZ-113 serum, which I can wait to see explored in the following two films.
In terms of negatives the pacing isn't consistent throughout, and when you are away from Caesar it becomes rather dull. Aside from Caesar speaking for the first time and the final fight scene on the Golden Gate Bridge there wasn't anything that really stood out for me, but overall this is a solid film and one worth checking out.