Rise of the Planet of the Apes - 8 or 9 out of 10
Definitely better than I was expecting it to be. It seems crappy trailers can mask a good film just like a great trailer can mask a crappy film. Well paced, and as good as the plot is to set up the apes with the human characters being a catalyst to their rise, The Apes are the true stars of this movie. It's truly about them. And wow, WETA did some powerful work. The fact they managed to make me feel for them and understand them is a testament to the director and animators. There's some great themes here too. It also raises questions as to how far we should treat animals this sort. Should we treat these animals with respect and indivduality or control them? Who is superior? Who has the higher right to be here? Humans are controlling and violent creatures who take things for granted. It's justifiable to see why they did this. The idea of using the primate as a foundation to these questions makes the most sense and asks for more thought than any other animal would, especially how the original film asks interesting questions of its own. Which by the way, this film has some nice nods to the original which I enjoyed. I'm intrigued by the idea of a sequel. I want to see the next step in the rising.