The newest installation in the Planet of the Apes franchise, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is a mixed bag of odds and ends that never quite comes together.

We follow the tale of young Dr Rodman (James Franco), who has come upon a revolutionary new cure for Alzheimers. To cut a long story short, his serum makes apes super smart, and creates an unstoppable plague that kills all humans, acting as a catalyst for the downfall of civilisation.

At the centre of all this is head ape Caesar (portrayed by Andy Serkis; best known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy), a chimpanzee shunned by the good doctor who develops a severe power lust leading to the beginning of the ape revolution.
Throughout the feature, CGI abounds. Every ape is digitalised more or less unconvincingly, resulting in an extreme case of uncanny valley. Along with this, the disparate elements of the plot never truly gel together. Whereas the original was a satire, this is a straight adventure film. In a satire we can accept that monkeys rule the earth. In an adventure film this isn’t necessarily the case.

There is a pervading question of why the story is the way it is. Monkeys have inherited the earth; surely something so inherently ridiculous cannot be logically explained. Super intelligent animals and Armageddon never truly merge into anything coherent, as is evidenced by Deep Blue Sea. Why is this something they have tried to make sense of?

This is a functional and moderately enjoyable film. Nothing amazes to any great degree and indeed it never reaches the lofty heights of the original. Despite this, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the best film in the franchise since the original – no mean feat.