A Thoughtful, Deliberate Elaboration on Forgotten Themes

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2011)

A very smart, sensible way to reboot the franchise, enriching the legacy left by the originals while paving the way for fresher material. It does struggle through a few minor glitches - some terribly forced one-liners and a stereotypical redneck jailer spring to mind - but at heart it's a bright, challenging take that takes its time, delivers a few powerful moments of revelation, and doesn't look or act like your typical CGI-driven action dump. James Franco has shown more versatility in previous leading roles, but his character in Apes is intended to be about as straightforward and vanilla as it gets, so that's precisely what he delivers. The real focus is on the apes themselves, anyway, with whom the picture treads lightly amidst some very tricky material. It often toes the line between excess and believability, but never gives in fully to temptation and emerges as a far better film for exercising caution. An intriguing take on material that everyone already assumed they understood, it opens the door wide to further investigation.