Apes will rise?

NO SPOILERS

I was looking forward to seeing this.  Hearing Andy Serkis interviewed and his enthusiasm for it helped a lot.  The trailer made it look very good and exciting.  The original film is a classic.

The film looked great.  The apes looked fantastic but it isn't new technology anymore, I expected it to be good.  Technically there was nothing wrong with the film for me.  It had Brian Cox, always a bonus.  John Lithgow gave a great performance, heartbreaking.  James Franco was ok.  Didn't rate him, didn't hate him.

The message of the film is pretty sledgehammer.  Nevertheless it struck a nerve with me.  I found the opening scene upsetting.  It's very clever for setting up how you should feel for the rest of the film.  If none of the film is subtle it still worked on me.  Which is unusual, slamming a message into my face usual shuts my empathy down.

My huge problem with the film was its predictability.  You knew what was going to happen and when.  Making the majority of the film drag and drag.  There was an awful lot of stuff you knew was coming for the last payoff of the last 10 minutes.  

I did enjoy the last ten minutes.  Even though they were as predictable as the rest of the film at least there was some excitement.  It ends plausibly for the original film to then come into being.

There are many nods to the original film.  Some clever, some not so clever and one that took me out of the moment.  I missed a few.  Luckily Wikipedia has a nice list of them.

All in all, I couldn't fault the cast.  It looked great.  The apes were much better than I expected.  The predictability was what ruined it for me.  I was bored for a lot of it.  There wasn't a plot point you couldn't see coming.  I can't see me ever sitting through it again.

2.5 pawprints out of 5