Review: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

If you're a fan of monkeys jumping through glass, this is the film for you!

I'm not sure whether this counts as a remake, a reboot or a prequel, but whatever Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is it's definitely good - John Lithgow is the highlight of the human cast, it's his performance of an Alzheimer's sufferer and his bond with young ape Caesar that shines more than lead James Franco, who still gives a fine performance Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and the one out of Harry Potter manage to get all they can out of some pretty unsubtle villain roles. Freida Pinto is basically just there to look pretty and unsurprisingly she does this very well.

In the end any Planet Of The Apes film comes down to how well they do the apes themselves - and thanks to excellent mo-cap work from Andy Serkis and team this is almost a total success, even if the hard work that went in to making them as realistic as possible is spoiled by the amount of times they fling themselves through glass windows several times to many.

Unlike may recent blockbusters, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes takes its time building up to the action , making you wait till the final set piece before the Man vs Monkey action kicks off in earnest. and is all the better for it giving it real impact. Not going for overkill also means that you leave the cinema actually wanting to see the sequel that is blatantly teased at the end of this surprising summer hit.