Movie review: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

I read nothing about this movie before seeing it but I did see a couple of trailers for it and was therefore intrigued. Yesterday we went to a matinee and saw it, which by itself is shocking since anyone who knows me knows I hate going to the movies on the weekend and I never go see a movie just after it has been released.  I don't like crowds and I dislike noisy crowds even more.  But we went.

First the crowd:  the theater was very crowded, to the extent that there was a family of three small (under 7) children sitting on the floor in front of us, which would never happen in litigation-conscious California.  (We were sitting in the first row behind the walkway, which is how they could be on the floor.)  They were, at least, quiet,  unlike the kid a couple rows behind us, probably about 5 years old, who had a running commentary all through the movie, never once shushed by his parents.  "Why is that monkey crying?  What is he eating? Oh, look at the horses! Is that medicine?  Who is playing the piano?"  On and on.  It could have been much worse, but it reaffirmed my dislike of weekend matinees, crowds and, often, children.

Now the movie:  there are no spoilers here, but don't read this unless you want my honest opinion, which might color the experience for you.  The movie is OK.  The plot is one dimensional and you can pretty much figure it out in the first ten minutes of the film.  The apes are all computer generated, they are very well done and they are really the stars of the show.  James Franco, as the scientist working on a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease, is fine but anyone with a human face could have played his role since he is just a tool to get the movie moving along. There is a bad guy with a bad, evil face and a lazy guy with a fat, lazy face and a cute woman with a cute face.  Again, any faces would have been fine, the humans are really just token characters in this movie. Things move slowly and predictably until the last 25 minutes and then the pace picks up nicely and creates some dramatic tension for the viewer (in other words, wakes us up) and while the final scene is totally ambiguous, at least the ending isn't a long, drawn-out schmaltzy affair. 

Bottom line, for a $5.00 ticket (yes, much cheaper than in California) it was an occasionally amusing and sometimes entertaining 105 minutes.  In my grading system, I give it a C.  Totally average but acceptable.

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