Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Parents Movie Review

movie review rating guide for parents and families

MPAA Rating
PG-13

for intense and frightening sequences of action and violence

Genre
Science Fiction

Director
Rupert Wyatt

Starring
James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis, Brian Cox

Studio
20th Century Fox

Release Date/In Theaters
8/5/2011

Movie Summary

Ever wonder how the Planet of the Apes came about? This installment in The Planet of the Apes series is about a group of American scientists performing genetic experiments on apes. The testing leads to a revolution by the intelligent apes. James Franco, Freida Pinto and John Lithgow star in this movie.

Movie Review for Parents

-by Ginger

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a movie that is long overdue, and this family guide to the movies thinks that it is 43 years overdue to be exact. The original 1960 a version of Planet of the Apes portrayed a world where apes ruled and where humans were enslaved. The next several years saw the ability to milk this theme to produce a combination of theater and television versions, seven to be exact. The last of which was Planet of the Apes: Rule the Planet, a television movie released in 2001. Movie makers were able to suck the theme dry for over 30 years before taking a break. Throughout all of these movies a single question remained unanswered, how did the apes overthrow humans to rule the earth?

Now, in 2011, we finally get an answer. Rise of the Planet of the Apes tells the story of how apes came to rule the planet and overthrow humans. This parental guide to the movies will not give you any spoilers, but many of the questions and holes in the other movies that were never answered are finally filled in. The story revolves around genetic engineering in a San Francisco lab. These experiments lead to the development of super intelligence in apes. Caesar is the ape that leads the revolt. The humans find them a formidable foe and humanity appears to be on the losing side.

This is a violent movie and the characters shoot, stab, and point guns at chimps. There are shootouts and numerous explosions, but most of the times only objects are hurt and no one is killed, either ape or human. There is a love affair in the story and on several occasions the characters hug and kiss, but nothing too graphic. This movie received a PG-13 rating for excessive violence throughout the film. Younger children might find the actions of the apes and humans to be frightening. I would not suggest taking them to the zoo soon after seeing this movie, particularly to the primate display, just a friendly family warning from parental guide family movie reviews.

A couple interesting points about the movie are that we know much more about chimpanzees and apes than when the first movie was made. The apes in this movie speak to each other, but in reality they do not have the ability to do that because of the placement of the vocal cords. This should not be considered an educational family movie to learn about apes because many of the abilities of apes in this movie are not possible for apes at this time, but who knows about the future?

However, this movie does raise some questions to ponder. For instance, what are the consequences of science and where could genetic engineering lead us? It also asks the question of what will happen when man’s time to rule is over. What new species will be the new replacement for modern civilization? This was a thought provoking movie and one should plan to watch it and then ponder its message for some time. It is a good movie for children, but parents need to be aware of the excessive violence throughout the film.