Movie review – “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011) ***1/2

This took a while to get going – mainly a straight Bedtime for Bonzo with James Franco raising a super smart chimp and romancing Frieda Pinto. Not bad, though not that gripping – all is forgiven by the tremendous last third though when the apes go apeshit and revolt. Not as anti-human as the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and all the better for it. Special effects here are used for good instead of evil – apes rampaging through the suburbs and over the Golden Gate Bridge is terrific. Like Terminator 2, the man in charge of the corporation responsible for wiping out the world is black.