Weekend reviews in 140 or less

There's the critical review, and then there's the 140 character reaction.

These days, most of us rely on some combination of professional criticism and our Twitter timelines to figure out which new movie is worth 2 hours and the cost of a ticket.

Seeing that expectations were on the low side for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" ahead of its release last Friday, it wasn't looking good for the James Franco starring film. But it seems that critics and moviegoers returned from the flick pleasantly surprised. (Website Poptimal.com wins for the headline that says it all: "'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' review: Wait...what? It's good?!," and the L.A. Times writes that the movie may prove that reboots aren't always a bad thing.)

As you can see in the gallery above, Twitter reactions were pretty positive, and the sentiment was echoed over on iReport. For iReporter Al Mealey, the movie is one of the best movies of the summer and potentially the year.

"James Franco is excellent as a San Francisco based scientist trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, but he has [a] personal reason to rush past the serious possible side effects of the new drug – [his] father is dying and needs help quickly," Mealey writes in his iReport. "Freida Pinto plays his animal researching love interest, and the two of them have excellent chemistry."

Julie Ellerton, who attended the junket for the film, says in an iReport that "The effects are truly phenomenal. 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' is the first movie to be animal free. All animals in the film are computer generated, with actors playing the roles through performance capture."

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" ended up coming in first at the box office, pulling in $20 million more than anticipated with a total of $54 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Ryan Reynolds' comedy co-starring Jason Bateman, "The Change-Up," also received some positive Twitter reviews, but it didn't do nearly as well as "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." The body-swapping film opened in fourth place, grossing $13.5 million.