Apes are taking over the planet and forcing humans to surrender — and that includes film critics, too.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes," the seventh film in the series and a prequel of sorts, is earning strong reviews in its opening weekend.
AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire thought "Apes" was ridiculous but also wrote: "There's big, event-movie fun to be had here, amped up by some impressive special effects and typically immersive performance-capture work by Andy Serkis." She gave the film two and a half stars out of four.
Also debuting nationwide this weekend, to much weaker reviews, is the comedy "The Change-Up." Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds co-star as childhood friends who envy each other's lives and end up swapping bodies. Lemire wrote that it's "all over the place in tone, veering awkwardly from some daring comic moments to feel-good sappiness and back again in hopes of redeeming some semblance of edginess." She gave the film two stars out of four.
Here's a look at how these movies and others fared on the top review websites as of Friday afternoon. Each score is the percentage of positive reviews for the film:
— "Rise of the Planet of the Apes": Metacritic, 70; Movie Review Intelligence, 74.2; Rotten Tomatoes, 80. Average: 74.7.
— "The Change-Up": Metacritic, 41; Movie Review Intelligence, 45.7; Rotten Tomatoes, 19. Average: 35.2.
— "The Whistleblower": Metacritic, 54; Movie Review Intelligence, 62.7; Rotten Tomatoes, 62. Average: 59.6.
— "The Future": Metacritic, 69; Movie Review Intelligence, 73.8; Rotten Tomatoes, 84. Average: 75.6.
— "Bellflower": Metacritic, 74; Movie Review Intelligence, 82.6; Rotten Tomatoes, 91. Average: 82.5.
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Online:
http://www.metacritic.com/
http://moviereviewintelligence.com/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/