Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Both an exciting sci-fi adventure and powerful cautionary tale about human arrogance and folly, this film explores how apes got their super-intelligence

Both an exciting sci-fi adventure and powerful cautionary tale about human arrogance and folly, this film explores how apes got their super-intelligence.

James Franco plays a San Francisco scientist, who unwittingly sets events in motion when his gene-therapy experiments for an Alzheimer's cure lead to the creation of Caesar, a highly intelligent, lab-born chimp.

Caesar ends up living with Franco in his home and, with the aid of Freida Pinto's sympathetic vet, they care for him until, eventually, he is sent to a primate shelter where Tom Felton enjoys mistreating the apes and Caesar, angered by how his own kind are abandoned and mistreated, puts in motion a plan to release them.

Thanks to motion-capture technology, Andy Serkis brings Caesar to life with awesome skill.

Look out for a series of sly nods to the original films, too, including a glimpse of a Statue of Liberty toy that recalls the 1968 original movie's iconic ending.