I had predicted the possibility that I'd find this film to be overhyped, but I had no idea just how overhyped it would be. I really can't understand the glowing reviews and word of mouth a lot of people seem to be giving it. They seem to be ascribing a level of "deepness" to what I found to be a predictable, often thematically shallow film.
Possibly the worst thing that can be said about this film is that while seeing it for the first time I felt like I'd seen it before. By this I mean that the plot was so predictable that within a half hour into the film, it was blatantly obvious, at least in broad strokes, exactly how everything would progress. And that is precisely what happened. There were no clever twists or unexpected moments whatsoever. In rare cases, leading the audience towards an inevitable, tragic ending can work. But to pull this off, it's necessary for the film to have strong, multilayered characters with strengths and flaws that are so incompatible with each other that tragedy is the only possible outcome. That's what this film aims for, but it falls flat in the attempt. The characters that most drive the plot (both on the ape and human side) are secondary, supporting characters. They are written so thinly as "bad" that they function more as plot devices than as characters. It's as if the filmmakers first decided how they wanted the film to end, then designed cookie cutter characters to drive it towards that ending rather than working with a full cast of complex characters who would take the story in a natural direction.
The "main" characters fare slightly better in characterization, but they are also frequently thrust into generic roles: that of the "good guys". We are meant to feel a sense of tragic loss at the film's end when it becomes obvious that their dream of peaceful human/ape relations will not come to pass, but the movie's timeline makes this hard to do. The whole film takes place, at most, over a couple weeks, and even that's a liberal estimation. Had it taken place over the span of years (as the previous film did) and followed extended attempts by the lead characters to forge and maintain peaceful relations, there may have been some impact when all those efforts were for naught. When the entire period of contact between the two groups can be measured in days, it becomes impossible to mourn the "loss" of something that never truly existed.
Ultimately, I think this film should have been set much further in the future. If the aim is to eventually get to the point where a "Planet of the Apes" film will once again actually feature a Planet of the Apes, taking baby steps like this is just killing time. I would have set the film at least 100 years after the previous one, giving the filmmakers the chance to really explore how the world might have changed and what a world was like in which everyone (both human and ape) had been born into this new reality. Instead, we're given a stereotypical post-apocalyptic community of human survivors and a slightly more interesting ape community, both full of the thinly written characters discussed above. Even more distressing, the film's ending gives the impression that its sequel will just be more of the same, with new humans showing up to fight the same ape characters. I hope this isn't the case. The filmmakers needn't be afraid of jumping far into the future and exploring something new, even if it means leaving Andy Serkis' character of Caesar behind (on a side note, I'm really starting to get sick of people who throw around the words "Oscar worthy" every time he delivers another motion captured performance--I mean, he's fine, but any actor worth their salt expresses emotion through facial expressions and body language, and not all of them need a crew of special effects people to get noticed for it).
This film tries to be both a Summer Blockbuster and something "more". It's blatant predictability and weak characters make it fail on both counts. Even the action beats, while staged with skill, inspire no real interest when the conclusion they're leading towards is so obvious. I really enjoyed "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", and was looking forward to this, but it ended up being a true disappointment (and features the most criminal underutilization of Gary Oldman's talents that I've yet seen).
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