Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a summer classic

For many, this week's new release, the latest in the Planet of the Apes franchise, will bring back unwelcome memories of Tim Burton's poorly received 2001 remake of the groundbreaking 1968 original.

So fans of the series will be relieved to hear that Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a completely different bunch of bananas.

This is a "smart, fun and thoroughly enjoyable" film, says Kenneth Turan in the LA Times. It is everything that a good film should be - "effectively written" and "well acted", making it "one sophisticated summer blockbuster".

But not everybody agrees about the quality of the acting. From James Franco - playing that well-worn trope, the scientist who invites ruin by interfering with nature - to love interest Freida Pinto; and from crumbling father John Lithgow to ape-hating Tom Felton, the actors offer little more than two-dimensional interpretations of their characters.

"The filmmakers seem to have spent so much attention and, presumably, money on getting the primates right that they completely forgot about the people... the cast of human actors is uniformly weak," writes Michael O'Sullivan in the Washington Post.

Nigel Floyd in Time Out takes a similar view, noting that while director Rupert Wyatt "strives to match the philosophical seriousness of the first 'Apes' film... his handling of the underdeveloped characters is never as convincing as the visual effects work".

There is general agreement that the apes, created using stunning CGI and performance capture techniques, steal the show - and one in particular.

Andy Serkis, who has previously portrayed creatures such as King Kong and Gollum in Lord of the Rings, plays Caesar, the ape saved by Franco that will eventually doom the human race with his artificially enhanced intelligence and terrifying bouts of aggression.

"One never knows exactly where the human ends and the effects begin," says Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, "but Serkis and/or Caesar gives the best performance in the movie."

Despite numerous flaws, most agree that this is a strong contender for film of the summer. Even those wary of the simian franchise will go ape for the final scene, which sees monkey meet man in an epic battle on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

It's "good, canny-dumb fun," says Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, the ultimate in "old-fashioned entertainment".Rise of the Planet of the Apes is in cinemas now. ·