You just can't keep those damn dirty apes down. 10 years after Tim Burton's 2001 "Planet of the Apes" re-imagining failed to reignite audiences' passion for stories about intellectually-enhanced simians, the long-running sci-fi franchise made an unexpectedly strong comeback with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." Director Rupert Wyatt's entry in the series is now generally considered the weakest of the modern "Apes" trilogy, which is more of a testament to what Matt Reeves was able to accomplish with his subsequent sequels than necessarily a knock against Wyatt's film. "Rise" itself makes for an effective cautionary tale about humanity's hubris, our lack of compassion toward other living beings, and our habit of being our own worst enemy, as seen through the eyes of its co-protagonist, Caesar (Andy Serkis in his touchstone motion-capture role).

Yes, it's easy to forget that Caesar wasn't originally the singular lead of his own story.