Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

James Franco plays a genius scientist like a guy waiting for his ride, so the movie hands all the feelings to a chimp, and the chimp runs off with them. Andy Serkis plays Caesar through motion capture, and you can watch him think, every glance a tiny decision. The humans around him are cardboard. Freida Pinto has almost nothing to do but worry, Brian Cox is a boardroom villain on autopilot, and Tom Felton plays the ape shelter bully like he wandered in from a different, meaner school. John Lithgow is the exception. His scenes as a father slipping away, with Franco as the son trying to hold on, are the most human part of a movie about apes. The back half builds like a prison break and earns every beat. It made $481.8 million worldwide on a reported $93 million. A 7.2 because Caesar is a great character stuck in a just-okay movie. $361 says the next zoo chimp you see stares back like it knows something you don’t.

What works: Andy Serkis’s Caesar is a fully alive performance, and John Lithgow brings real tenderness to the family story.

What doesn’t: The human characters are thin, especially Franco’s distracted lead and a cartoonish shelter crew with zero shading.

Who it’s for: Sci-fi fans who like an origin story with a heart, and anyone who roots for the animals in every movie.