Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: August 5, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TimeRichard CorlissAug 4, 2011
As both a simian simile and a wonder of technology, Rise of the Planet of the Apes deserves to be in the company of the great original "Kong." This year's sixth "origins" story of a fantasy franchise (after The Green Hornet, Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern and Captain America: The First Avenger) is also the year's finest action movie. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 4, 2011
This summer's best popcorn flick. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 4, 2011
Smart, fun and thoroughly enjoyable, it's a model summer diversion that entertains without insulting your intelligence. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 4, 2011
Judged, though, as the action extravaganza it means to be, Rise of the Planet of the Apes wins high marks for originality, and takes top honors for spectacle. Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreAug 3, 2011
Audacious, violent and disquieting, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a summer sequel that's better than it has any right to be. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 4, 2011
It's the rest of the movie, especially a grin-inducing final third, which makes "Apes" rise above the level of a typical sci-fi rehash. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyAug 29, 2011
By far the best spectacle movie of the season, and one of the few films to use digital technology for nuanced dramatic effect. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanAug 8, 2011
A worthy, exciting, emotional addition to the venerable monkey movie marathon. Apes will rise. Sequels are likely. Read full review
80
Village VoiceNick PinkertonAug 4, 2011
As tight as the parallel homo sapiens storylines are lax, Caesar's prison conversion to charismatic pan-ape revolutionist is near-silent filmmaking, with simple and precise images illustrating Caesar's General-like divining of personalities and his organization of a group from chaos to order. All of this is shown in absorbing, propulsive style, as Caesar broodingly bides his time like a king in disguise awaiting restoration. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensAug 4, 2011
Whereas the original was a work of speculative science fiction - a chin-stroking fable about evolution in the nuclear age - this revisiting of the Planet of the Apes myth is an animal-rights manifesto disguised as a prison-break movie. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 4, 2011
Strong action, special effects and by far the most credible ape "performances" yet seen will spell box office to inspire chest-thumping in all markets. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 5, 2011
It's faint praise to say that this is the best of the "Planet of the Apes" movies, because the evolution of special effects and makeup was predictable. But the unexpected strength of the film is its heart. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenAug 4, 2011
The running time is efficient, the direction is clean, the story is simple but resonant, the effects are understated yet impressive, and the near-wordless star of the show puts on an acting clinic. Damned if the risen one doesn't lift us out of our seats. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 4, 2011
The cautionary tale feels surprisingly fresh and entertaining, given that this is the fifth "Planet of the Apes" film since the 1968 original. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 4, 2011
The movie rises and, at times, even soars. This is all - and I do mean all - thanks to what human actors in league with computer technology can now achieve to bring the apes to life. No more guys squeezed into monkey suits and talking in posh accents. Performance-capture makes all the difference. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 4, 2011
Rise is very consciously a drama about a Simian Spring, and it's close enough in its details to a recent documentary to be thought of as "Project Nim: The Revenge." Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 4, 2011
A shamelessly fun B-movie with A-movie effects. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 4, 2011
While it's effects-heavy, the movie itself does not feel heavy. Consider it a fanciful extension of the recent and very fine documentary "Project Nim." Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsAug 3, 2011
Wyatt brings a light touch to the potentially grim material - too light when it drops in some groan-inducing references to the original film - but he keeps the action compelling whether focusing on apes as they run amok or as they quietly contemplate their next move. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 3, 2011
The movie has its pleasures, although human intelligence is not one of them. Caesar, to begin with, is a wonderfully executed character, a product of special effects and a motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis, who earlier gave us Gollum in "Lord of the Rings." Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 4, 2011
It's good, canny-dumb fun. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineTodd GilchristAug 4, 2011
Compared to this summer's grab bag of superheros vying for a franchise, the apes rise (pardon the pun) to the challenge of making us care. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 4, 2011
I kind of enjoyed Rise of the Planet of the Apes despite its evident silliness and the fact that nobody's likely to remember it three weeks from now. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 3, 2011
Thanks to stunning advances in performance capture technology, director Rupert Wyatt successfully ditches the cumbersome makeup appliances of past chapters, building the story around a cast of photoreal CG simians convincing enough to identify with as characters, rather than just special effects. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 3, 2011
Once you see that ape, named Caesar, riding a galloping horse in triumph, it's awfully hard not to get sucked in. It's not dumb fun, exactly. It's smart dumb fun. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 3, 2011
The movie is zippier than Tim Burton's oddly lifeless 2001 "Planet of the Apes" remake, but unlike good sci-fi, it doesn't signify anything, or really even try to. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 4, 2011
The central problem with Rise of the Planet of the Apes is that it feels more like a piece of something larger than a complete motion picture. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderStaff (Not credited)Aug 6, 2011
To showcase the special effects, the filmmakers reportedly trimmed many of the dialogue-based scenes, thereby dulling the dramatic impact of a strong genre premise. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 5, 2011
The middle section of the story is where Rise truly takes off, perhaps in ways that will have viewers forgiving the rest. Read full review
60
NPRJeannette CatsoulisAug 5, 2011
Evincing more visible intelligence than any of his human co-stars aside from Lithgow, Caesar is disquietingly lifelike. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 3, 2011
Feels like half of a good movie, much of it revealed in admittedly thrilling trailers. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithAug 5, 2011
They probably should have called it "Beneath the Dignity of the Planet of the Apes," but Rise of the Planet of the Apes is tolerable if you'll just keep in mind that the original feature was an overachieving B-movie. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 4, 2011
It is not what could be fairly called a bad movie, but neither is it fine enough to be a good one, with its lineup of dull characters and a limp story that functions like a conveyor belt. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 4, 2011
Now for the bad news. The filmmakers seem to have spent so much attention and, presumably, money on getting the primates right that they completely forgot about the people. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezAug 4, 2011
Like the film that constrains him, a prequel to Planet of the Apes, perhaps James Franco understands his performance as something that will one day evolve into something far greater. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 3, 2011
James Franco looks more bored and distracted in Rise of the Planet of the Apes than he did when he was hosting the Oscars: Watching the movie, I kept waiting for him to pull out his iPhone, aim it at the camera and take a snapshot while mugging sheepishly. Has there ever been a film with a less engaged protagonist? Read full review
45
MovielineStephanie ZacharekAug 4, 2011
Too earnest and dour to be a silly bit of summer fun, but it's not exactly scientifically sound, either. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 5, 2011
Since the only really good "Planet of the Apes" movie was the 1968 original with Charlton Heston, I've always wondered why filmmakers can't just leave well enough alone. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 11, 2011
Hell, even Heston's performance elicited cheers back in the day. Franco, in a totally, tonally different role, but still the prime human here, is a pale shadow of the ruined future to come. Read full review
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