Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – review

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the sequel to the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The writing is top notch, showing compelling protagonists and complex antagonists.  The acting is great too. The story provided significant growth of the characters that returned from the first film.  It is a smart movie that can really stand-alone on it’s own merits.

Taking place ten years after the events of the first film, Caesar and the rest of the intelligent Apes have started a community in the woods. While they are living there they encounter a human group that is attempting to start up an old electrical dam in order to get electricity to their city.  There is distrust on both sides but both cultures must work together in order to avoid war. 

The writing is very solid. The characters we remember somewhat from the last film have grown considerably.  The human survivor characters are also really well developed. While some are not empathetic to the Apes, the movie does a really good job showing you that they have realistic motivations for their actions. How Andy Serkis has not yet gotten an Oscar nod is mind blowing.

Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, and Gary Oldman really make this a new and fascinating film. Turning a story of apes revolting in the last film into a very relevant story about understanding one another despite very complicated circumstances involving resources and possible war.  The CGI is well done and the action scenes are very fun to watch.  The apes look awesome and terrifying and at times it is easy to forget there is an actor doing motion capture.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the superior film in my opinion, however Dawn of the Planet of the Apes movie can easily stand-alone and can still be considered a good movie. The characters are likable and the story is very entertaining.  It is very worth seeing and anyone who enjoyed the first movie will enjoy this movie. You’ll have more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

No comments:

Post a Comment