Why I Saw It: Rise was a surprise in August 2011 which spoke well for this.
Cast: If there was ever proof of a need for a motion-capture performance Oscar, here you go. Both Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell do an impressive job bringing their characters (Caesar and Koba, respectively) to life. On the human side of things, Jason Clarke is an action-star trade-off for James Franco and Keri Russell is a trade-up for Frida Pinto. Kodi Smit-McPhee doesn't have an annoying kid role, so there's that. Despite the ads, Gary Oldman isn't really a villain. He doesn't twirl his hypothetical mustache even once. He's just a guy with a different idea of fixing things.
Plot: It has been ten years since the events of Rise. The virus from Rise has virtually eradicated humanity. The colony of apes is barely even known about. The apes and the humans that remain have lived and died blissfully unaware of the other. Of course, that changes and their cohabitation becomes the drive of the movie. The first half of the movie is very tense. Neither side wants to fight, but their fear of each other means that they are one wrong move away from violence. One wrong move later, there's some great ape vs. man action. This isn't a standard blockbuster. It's closer to what science fiction is at its best. All the characters and their actions exist in shades of grey. It's driving home a larger point about how fear can drive people to awful things and doing it under the guise of a popcorn movie. This is not at all what I expected and in the best way possible.
Elephant in the Room: Do the apes talk? They have very limited speech. Only a handful of them use words. Most of them communicate with sign language, so there's a healthy amount of subtitles in this and very little dialogue for good stretches of the movie. It works very well for the movie. It's worth noting anytime a movie that's going to rake in $200 million+ relies so heavily on subtitles. I liked it since it gave even greater value to when words are spoken. And, this is only with the apes. The humans talk plenty.
Movie Theater MVP: The people who sat down next to me followed movie theater etiquette. When you sit down in a place where you can't leave an extra seat between you or the other people, the smallest person in your group should sit directly next to the stranger. In other words: I sat next to the small lady, not the large man, and I appreciate that.
To Sum Things Up:
Rise had the benefit of being a surprise. Dawn got a July release and all the expectations of a studio investing big in the franchise. Thankfully, it is a success on almost every level. Sure there's a lack of female characters of note (to be fair, that does fit with the ape, alpha-male culture, but still) and a couple small plot points veer too much into coincidence. Mostly though, it's a smart blockbuster, with plenty of action to go along with the more subdued moments (There's a few scenes at Franco's house from Rise that with one more beat could've had me bawling). For everyone with the bad taste in their mouth from all the Transformers and Spider-Mans this summer, I recommend you see this as a reminder that the summer isn't all bad.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
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