Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The original movie, taken from the English language translation of Pierre Boulle's book," Monkey Planet", was innovative from start to finish. This poor cousin of a remake depends on CGI effects and one-dimensional characters, both human and simian, to the neglect of the simplistic "story". At least four other recent movies are being "aped" by this dud, and the lame directing and acting are unable to make this any more than a maudlin propaganda flick for the "animal rights" crowd. If you like comic books for their subtle narratives, this one's for you. In all fairness, however, this is just the set-up for a sequel, and that is even more obvious than its flimsy, no-surprises plot. Here's one case in which the sequel will have no problem being better than the (un)"original". I recommend that you rent or buy "Planet of the Apes" and watch it instead.