Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
A group of scientists in San Francisco struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of a plague that is wiping out humanity, while Caesar tries to maintain dominance over his community of intelligent apes.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Overlong and slow-moving at times, I did not find this film as interesting or exciting as 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'. It is nevertheless an extraordinary film (and I think Caesar is one of the sexiest CGI creations ever!).
One of the best things about this entertaining and intelligent action-thriller is the way that it doesn't pick sides, doesn't paint the humans as stereotypical villains in the way that something like, say, 'Avatar (2009)' does. Instead, it portrays its delicate situation with nuance in a way which allows everyone's perspective to be both clear and understandable. Even the main ape antagonist, who's militant sensibilities stem from a deep-rooted mistrust in humanity established in the prior title, has reasonable and somewhat supportable motivations. Once the set-up is out of the way and the action - which is bigger in scope, spectacle and success this time - begins, the feature still keeps its focus on character and this is what allows it to remain as emotionally resonant as it really is. 9/10
Roddy McDowall is now out of a job being replaced by a sexless CG ape. During the opening credits we quickly discover the ALZ 113 virus has killed off many humans creating a quarantine condition which for some unexplained reason caused rioting and killing off more humans. In spite of the weak plot point, it was more probable then the original dog/cat virus which lead to breeding apes with long gestation periods as pets.The film spends time building ape character with perfect English syntax subtitles. In this plot, our quarantined humans are running short on fuel and seek to restart a hydro-electric dam in ape territory and seem willing to go to war for oil, er ah, energy if need be. Koba, a neo-con ape, doesn't trust the humans and wants to have a first strike. (Koba was a nickname for Stalin.)Some of the initial soundtrack and imagery reminded me of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" with later scenes of cooperation reminiscent of the final film and TV series. There was nothing bad about the CG apes, except they got their money's worth from them. The ape on ape fighting was far too long, reminding me of that first Iron Man film.Okay, this film is done. I am ready for the film where women wear the Linda Harrison loin cloths.
After the ending of the first film, I was hoping they would make a sequel so that we could see where the story would go next, luckily in 2014 we got exactly that, and it didn't disappoint. When I heard that Wyatt was retiring as a director in this franchise, I got a bit nervous because whenever you change directors within a franchise, I can either work really well or really bad, but then I heard that they hired Matt Reeves to direct the sequel, the same man who directed Cloverfield and Let Me In, that gave me a bit more confidence in the sequel. Matt Reeves did one heck of a job directing this movie, is stunning, the cinematography is just beautiful. Andy Serkis is once again great as Caesar and Toby Kebbell was also fantastic as Koba, once again the human characters played by Jason Clarke and Keri Russell, while giving good performances, the writing of their characters never made them as interesting as the apes, but that is also because the people playing the apes are that good. I really like the story and how is executed, a lot of things you'd think would be predictable in a movie like this, are done in ways you wouldn't expect. I really think Dawn is up there with T2 and The Dark Knight as one of those few sequels that don't just live up to it's predecessor, it excels it.