La montée de la planète des singes

Cet antépisode visant à faire renaître au cinéma l'univers imaginé par Pierre Boulle épate par sa mise en scène d'une belle vivacité et sa technique ultra-sophistiquée d'animation par "motion capture", grâce à laquelle les primates prennent vie pour devenir des personnages à part entière, avec lesquels le spectateur peut s'identifier. En revanche, le scénario simpliste, manichéen et parfois ridicule, déroule les fils d'un récit conventionnel, avec escales prévisibles et dénouement connu.

Il y a une excellente performance dans Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Pas celle de James Franco, qui semble s'y ennuyer presque autant qu'à l'animation de la dernière soirée des Oscars. Certainement pas celle de Freida Pinto, qui n'a rien d'autre à offrir à la caméra que son sublime visage. C'est celle d'Andy Serkis.

Un antépisode techniquement au point, mais parfois risible qui sabote son scénario au riche potentiel dramatique. C'est ce qui arrive lorsqu'il y a trop d'humains et pas assez de singes.

This is a well made movie, the kind that deserves praise for setting out to do something and doing it very well. Rise of the Planet of the Apes deserves your ticket dollars, and since it isn't in 3D, you don't even have to spend all that many of them to see it.

It's actually a fairly intelligent re-imagining of the series, with the idea that a serum designed to cure Alzheimer's sowed the seeds of the revolution. As they say, the path to hell is paved with good intentions, and this idea seemed like a truly inspired way to tell this particular tale.

Serkis invests Caesar with a full measure of personality through the indelibly human look in his eyes. The ape cast is rounded out not only by chimps but by a memorable gorilla and orangutan, both of them fine supporting players. The special effects are most convincing and involving, particularly as the apes move through San Francisco and across the bridge in their attempt to take over George Lucas territory up north.

For those special effects alone, this reboot is worth watching.

Still, the real story of the film is written on the startlingly expressive face of Caesar - the image of this ape in full gallop on horseback is iconic - and Serkis makes the idea of sequel seem promising instead of predictable. You want to follow him anywhere.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes, an amusingly cheerful film about the end of humanity that's PETA and critic approved - no animals were harmed in its making, and neither was James Franco's career - is precisely the kind of summer diversion that the studios have such a hard time making now. It's good, canny-dumb fun.

A good film to see in tandem with Project Nim, James Marsh's documentary about the first chimp taught to sign, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a true example of an old-fashioned B-movie with a handsome hunk star, a technical gimmick for "the monster," and a highly subversive agenda that only seems to grow more prescient by the day.