Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt, 2011)

The world may not have needed another Planet of the Apes reboot, but the lure of the franchise was clearly too strong. As it is, this is a perfectly serviceable film in its own right, far superior to Tim Burton's risible rewrite of the 1968 series initiator. It wisely chooses to work over the weakest of the original series, i.e. the last three TV movie-standard films detailing the origins of the apes' ascendancy, instead of futilely going head to head with the Charlton Heston classic or its passable sequel. There are of course the obligatory transpositions of memorable lines from the first film, but these are mostly cunningly placed and don't compromise the flow of the film.
The plot may be fairly off-the-shelf, with the first super-intelligent ape, the product of a genetic experiment, raised by his creator, treated as an animal by the authorities and eventually leading an army of his kin in a revolt against their captors. In short, we know exactly what will happen from the word go, and a few allusions to religion or fascism do not add up to significant innovation. Nevertheless, it's tidily put together and decently acted, even if the best of it comes from the go-to guy for CGI monkeys, Andy Serkis, and in truth there's nothing distinctive about the way the digital simians look or move.

5/10