From denofgeek [excerpt], What is Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes? Is it a remake? A reboot? A prequel? Or just another symptom of Hollywood's crippling lack of originality?
In truth, it's probably a little bit of all of them. Crucially, however, the film also happens to be one of the more accomplished, albeit slightly cynical blockbusters to land in multiplexes this summer.
Avoiding the mistakes of Tim Burton's, frankly, appalling 2001 remake, this time 20th Century Fox has chosen a decidedly different approach to the property. Cherry-picking elements from the 1968 original Apes flick and splicing them with tropes taken from the subsequent sequels, this new film manages to cleverly set itself up as prequel, remake and reboot, all at the same time.
That said, none of this fancy franchise repositioning would matter a jot if the rationale underpinning the film weren't rock solid. Luckily for Fox, it's in this area that Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is at its strongest.
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