An origin story set in present day San Francisco, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.
Rise has more brains than your average summer blockbuster and, middle act sag aside, entertains and eventually enthrals. Bring on the sequel.
With simulated simians authentic enough to make Project Nim look almost phoney, allied to an involving, evolving story, Rise is the Planet we’ve been waiting for.
A worthy, exciting, emotional addition to the venerable monkey movie marathon. Apes will rise. Sequels are likely.
Takes an intelligent, sometimes exhilarating and even poignant look at the origins of the story that pays clever homage to the classic 1968 original while potentially re-establishing the franchise as a force once again.
Hugely silly, but great fun.
A relatively modest B-movie bolstered by A-grade technical wizardry.
As a summer blockbuster Rise of the Planet of the Apes won't regenerate any brain-cells, but it doesn't forget a sense of humanity while delivering its package of thrills.
This really is a very enjoyable film: suspenseful and involving, and Caesar is a great character with mannerisms and expressions that are neither simian nor human but bizarrely convincing as a combination of both – dramatically and comically, if not scientifically.
Rise may be one of the best surprises this summer.
An entertaining prequel with marvellous special effects.
Great apes, weak humans.
If in the end it’s all just so much setup for a sequel, or even a series, then bring it on.
The film really comes into its own, however, when Caesar is forced to reintegrate with his fellow primates, setting the stage for the full-on ape vs army climax, which Wyatt executes with clear-headed efficiency and sound pacing.
It's not mere film critic hyperbole to say that the performing monkeys – sorry, apes – in Rise... wipe the animal enclosure floor with their human counterparts.
This prequel, set in the present, takes advantage of the spectacular advance in special effects over the past 40 years but adds little by way of imagination or insight into our appreciation of the original film.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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