Had the human characters been developed as well as the apes, I would have rated this film higher. It is still however a way better than average summer blockbuster. Excellent CGI and a compelling character (Caesar) make for a pretty enjoyable ride.

This is the first Planet of the Apes movie I have watched. It is a really enjoyable film with great special effects. The actors do a fine job but it is the main ape portrayed by Andy Serkis that steels the show

It's that rarest of cinematic beasts: a Hollywood summer spectacle with relevance and vigour. Wyatt imagines this rise of an oppressed population with socio-political awareness absent in studio blockbusters that ignore the Zeitgeist and instead sedate audiences who've forgotten how exhilarating were pictures like E.T. and King Kong. Making Caesar the film character of the year, Wyatt also makes Rise of the Planet of the Apes one of the most satisfying, thrilling event movies of the last decade.

Better than anyone could have predicted, with a soul-crushing first half supporting a thrilling hour in which the filmmakers get you to root for the extinction of mankind -- quite the feat for what should've been a mid-level blockbuster. One of the best of 2011.

Surprisingly, very little of it could be considered an action film. The bulk of it is an interesting spin on the prison movie genre. These are the best parts of the picture (okay, the tearing shit up is pretty cool too). The rest of it is rather meh. Franco is entirely uninteresting. Basically, everything not directly involved with Caesar is quite obvious, clichéd, predictable. The CG is oddly inconsistent. In general, though, the film is better than expected yet not as good as I'd hoped for.

Focusing on the ape characters more than the humans was quite a clever and interesting idea, if not indeed courageous, given the longish portions without dialogue. The narrative, if very predictable in its overall thrust, was nevertheless well put-together. Contained several impressive long takes making very good use of computer animation technology.

Good blockbuster but everything feels overly manufactured. There's so much background to get through that the we never get the full picture of a man and his ape child, a relationship central to the film that gets lost in the shuffle until it's suddenly important again. I enjoyed it and don't have major issues, but it failed to capture my heart, my head or my imagination.

Amazing!

Okay

CGI Curious George leads a revolt or smth

Well-made sci-fi action with impressive special effect that manage to make the apes look almost soulful.

This is high quality big time entertainment movie, only one or two of these comes out a year. With tight direction, well paced, captivating and emotionally involving story Rise comes close to original Apes movie. I find that the transformation of famous 'filthy paws' line perfectly illustrates the change in general psyche after those 43 years between the movies. I'm curious about the sequel too, hopefully producers will retain same quality.

Considering I don't care much for any movies about apes, I wasn't expecting to like this. Franco did his due diligence. As did the special effects guys. Lithgow owned.

I couldn't help picturing James Franco getting up every morning and thinking, "Jesus, I have to be in that stupid apes movie," then getting blunted, driving to work and half-assing his way through the day for a paycheck.

After a spate of horrible remakes, prequels, reboots and preboots I expected nothing from this film, so I was really happy too see it turn out so good. They do a great job of bringing across a breadth of personalities to the apes.

Thought it was going to be a crap film but was thoroughly surprised. Some over the top parts didn't take away from the enjoyment of it.

Planet of the Apes has always been a bit silly and while this prequel does its best to rectify that... it is still a bit silly. Regardless Andy Serkis, powered by Playstation 3, is brilliant as Ceasar and has you rooting for him from beginning to end. The biggest problem I always have with these kinds of films is the suspension of disbelief but the wizards over at Weta Digital have done a fine job of taking that disbelief, stabbing it in the face and leave it bleeding out on the street. Bravo.

Well, I did not expect that at all! I thoroughly enjoyed it. You've heard all the praise before, so I wont bore you with it (it deserves it), however I will say something. The first three mini-reviews on my ratings feed all mention a sequel. I sincerely hope there isn't a sequel. We know how it all ends before we go into the film. If you don't, the credits certainly tell you. This film has given the Apes series a good reputation again, and the less chances of ruining it once more, the better.

Got to love when one of these summer CGI shit-fests actually slow-burns the build-up to the inevitable boom blast nonsense. Pleasant surprise.

A good movie, nothing seemed wrong with it. The only down side is I feel I can only watch it once or twice, but great for a first time.

I like how they didn't overstate everything like they usually do in remakes and most hollywood movies today.

Not much to see here, move along. Predictable to the last part, so much CGI, that i was wandering if the actors weren't computer made aswell. And the monkeys had too much dialogue... really. Was i supposed to feel sorry for the apes? The Maurice ourangoutang was cool.

Surprisingly good. Generally mess with classics is not a great thing, but here was pretty cool.

So much monkeys! James Franco and the apes made the score. The ending wants a bagilion sequels. I'm okay with that but with more intense drama and action added.

Ludicrously insane. And not necessarily in a good way.

Decent well done making a CGI ape connect that well with the audience

Casting was odd, but was a good prequel

Fairly decent movie. No masterpiece or something. I liked the monkeys, the CGI was pretty good. The acting of the humans was sometimes pretty stale

A worthy near-perfect prequel to the classic. Superb writing and direction. First class entertainment. Although it doesn't reach the same levels as the classic - making us think about other meta stuff in the story's framework. Still solid entertainment.

As impressive as the emotion-capturing is here, the various large action bits with not so great CGI don't make this visually stunning as I had hoped it would be. CGI aside, the script rushes through pages a pages of story for 90 minutes, and then unleashes its fury for 20. Felt uneven. Still, a good blockbuster and far superior than Burton's take.