Dawn of the planet of the apes Review

Movie: Dawn of the planet of the apes
By: Maniac E
Date: July 30, 2014

One last chance for peace.

After 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes was received so well a sequel couldn't be out of the question. Dawn of the planet of the apes is a direct sequel on the Rise and it wants to show us that the apes franchise is not done yet!

Picking up 10 incident-stuffed years after the James Franco-led first film left off, Dawn sets the stage as most post-apocalyptic movies do nowadays: with a helter-skelter montage of dire news reports informing us that humanity has been nearly decimated by a virulent strain of simian flu and that cities such as San Francisco, where the film is set, have been reduced to overgrown piles of rubble and ruin. Set to find new ways to get power back to the human city a exploration group is set out to the old dam, where they discover the apes and everything from there on is about to begin a bigger conflict.

The franchise is now almost 50 years old and it is great to see it really made a return to the newer audiences. Dawn of the planet of the apes shows how creative and how well it fits within the franchise. Dawn gives a nice a look into the hierarchy within the group of apes themselves. Power struggles and betrayal are just around the corner. The whole set up to make apes react and be more like how humans are was fantastically done. Everything about the movies screams that there has been put time and effort into each scene, this really shows in the ape only scenes where you can see every detail in the fur of the creatures for instance.

Let's talk visuals because these are absolutely the best so far I've seen in a movie. The animators are really the ones that should get all the credit for making this movie come alive. For me the humans were just some play things within the whole movie. It actually ended up being about the apes and their power struggle, the human aspect is more or less there to make sure you can see the reflection of the human race in the apes. This is an key element that really gave the apes depth and made you care for their ways of thinking.

Let's face it the movie does not pack the same emotional values as Rise and that is in this case a good thing. You don't follow around one ape but a group, a group where bonding and survival is the main thing. And yes, this movie is not your average brainless popcorn summer block buster movie. It actually tells a way deeper story which in my book really makes this movie. The CGI is really overwhelming and makes sure you can feel related to the apes, this one thing makes the movie for me.

The movie has it faults: like apes shooting without reloading, the whole set up towards finding the weaponry, stiff human character plots and generic we hate the apes for no reason thing. But everything is perfectly executed on screen, everything is believable and most important thing it fits the apes franchise completely. The third act of the movie is just really spectacular, visually stunning and captures the right emotions. I would say bring on the next ape!