Ok, so just got back from seeing it, review as follows.
I'll admit I really had no desire to see this film a few weeks ago given that Fox was behind it and the trailers were less than inspiring to say the least. But the trickling of positive reviews quickly made be decide to give it a chance and overall I'm glad I did for this film is a surprising breath of fresh air in an otherwise average blockbuster season of films.
The real star of this is Caesar. Once again Andy Serkis is the soul behind the pixels delivering a memorable digital character, he might have no dialog but his mannerisms and expressions tell the story, an outsider who's desire is to simply fit in but feels rejected and retaliates in response, a tried and true tale but one we've never seen through the eyes of a character like this. He's no animal, he's a fully developed character with a heart and more emotional punch than just about every other character over the last few months. His relationship with Franco and John Lithgow feels organic as does his journey to becoming the leading force of the ape rebellion.
The rest of the cast is pretty good but not remarkable, Franco isn't nearly as annoying as he looked like being in the trailer but still doesn't come across as a scientist. Frida Pinto doesn't have a lot to do but looks pretty! John Lithgow is quite good as Franco's father suffering from Alzheimers, the rest of the cast are a little cliched, surprisingly it's the supporting primates that are the real attraction, a good portion of the film resembles a silent movie at times when they interact with Caesar as he begins to assert himself.
I guess my main issue with the film is the third act. Sadly this is where the film goes from being a really engaging character story to a being a bit of a cheese fest, it's not awful by an means, but it does feel a little silly at times compared to the rest of the film. It's entertaining but for some reason doesn't feel as well connected to the previous two acts, it also surprisingly more upbeat than I imagined, but it's a minor complain really.
I'll give massive kudos to Weta, they're really pushing the boundaries when it comes to digital characters and whilst it doesn't always come off perfectly the majority of the time the apes look fantastic and as real as I imagine you could get them, I struggle to image how you could have done this film a few years ago.
Overall it was far better than I imagined it was going to be, a delightful surprise to say the least sprinkled with a few references and nods to the previous films in the series. Sadly Andy Serkis won't get the recognition he deserves here, even though he's covered in pixel the performance is all his and that alone is worth the price of admission.
8/10
