Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was this years big summer blockbuster (so far) and it deserves it. Hi everyone Brandon here and I'm here to discuss the sequel to one of the greatest reboots in a while; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This is a sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and if you haven't seen that movie yet, then definitely see it before seeing Dawn. It is crucial to understand everything that is going on in the story. I'm getting ahead of myself here. Lets just move on with the review.
The story takes place many years after Rise, and the world is in shambles. A disease wiped out most of humanity and the few that are left are cut off from each other. The great thing and semi-risky thing they do in this movie is not focus on the humans to much. The story is more about Caesar and his tribe of apes. There are a ton of subtitles because the apes haven't mastered the art of speaking quite yet; so if you hate reading, well you wouldn't be reading this so eat a dick. I dug the fact that they focused on Caesar and made him the center of the movie because he is the one we need to know and care about. The humans character play their role but ultimately I cared more about the apes than the humans because the humans in this movie aren't fleshed out. The plot is kinda predictable but for the most part I was still on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens. I will say the trailer will mislead you into thinking a certain someone is the antagonist when the real antagonist is a little bastard. I will say one thing that made me slightly disappointed was the fact there was no oh fuck moments in this movie. Rise had this moment where the entire theater went dead silent, even the mumbling bastards in the back shut the hell up. Dawn didn't have that which made me slightly very slightly disappointed. I will say the end of this movie makes me really interested on where this series is headed and how it will execute it. I can say I very excited for the sequel to this one.
The actors are all great but like I mentioned before the humans get about 30 percent of the screen time so I can't judge most of their acting abilities. Andy Serkis does the motion capture and voice of Caesar. This monkey like man is amazing and my hat is off to him and the CGI team for really emoting Caesar and bringing life and heart to a character that I never would've thought would work. They make you care for Caesar again but unlike in the first movie where it was a sympathetic caring this is more of a I want to see him win kind of one. I found myself rooting for Caesar and not just because he is the smartest in the entire movie. Jason Clarke is our good human. That is his entire arc is that he is the good guy just trying to keep his family alive. You understand his character but he is pretty one dimensional. Last one to mention is Gary Oldman. He plays as just the leader of the humans. He is not as evil as the trailers may infer that he would be. Hell I started to understand why he would do what he was doing. Overall he doesn't have a hell of a lot of screen time which surprises me that they pushed so hard on him in the trailers and he wasn't in the movie very much.
The director is Matt Reeves this guy has made some of my favorite movies like Cloverfield and Let Me In. He does an amazing job with this movie, he captures the action scenes beautifully. He keeps the movie moving at a decent pace. I will say there are times when the movie goes on to talk about unimportant shit like Malcolm's annoying son and the whole human ape phobia I feel is starting to get played out a bit in this series. Other than that this goes on to be in his great short film record.
In the end the movie is fun, dark and exciting. If you enjoyed the first one you have no reason not to see this movie. It is a great film and leaves you wanting more. Not the best of the year but I can see this making many top of list. I give this a 4.5/5. I leave with a question; when is Marky Mark going to show up to kill the series?
The story takes place many years after Rise, and the world is in shambles. A disease wiped out most of humanity and the few that are left are cut off from each other. The great thing and semi-risky thing they do in this movie is not focus on the humans to much. The story is more about Caesar and his tribe of apes. There are a ton of subtitles because the apes haven't mastered the art of speaking quite yet; so if you hate reading, well you wouldn't be reading this so eat a dick. I dug the fact that they focused on Caesar and made him the center of the movie because he is the one we need to know and care about. The humans character play their role but ultimately I cared more about the apes than the humans because the humans in this movie aren't fleshed out. The plot is kinda predictable but for the most part I was still on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens. I will say the trailer will mislead you into thinking a certain someone is the antagonist when the real antagonist is a little bastard. I will say one thing that made me slightly disappointed was the fact there was no oh fuck moments in this movie. Rise had this moment where the entire theater went dead silent, even the mumbling bastards in the back shut the hell up. Dawn didn't have that which made me slightly very slightly disappointed. I will say the end of this movie makes me really interested on where this series is headed and how it will execute it. I can say I very excited for the sequel to this one.
The actors are all great but like I mentioned before the humans get about 30 percent of the screen time so I can't judge most of their acting abilities. Andy Serkis does the motion capture and voice of Caesar. This monkey like man is amazing and my hat is off to him and the CGI team for really emoting Caesar and bringing life and heart to a character that I never would've thought would work. They make you care for Caesar again but unlike in the first movie where it was a sympathetic caring this is more of a I want to see him win kind of one. I found myself rooting for Caesar and not just because he is the smartest in the entire movie. Jason Clarke is our good human. That is his entire arc is that he is the good guy just trying to keep his family alive. You understand his character but he is pretty one dimensional. Last one to mention is Gary Oldman. He plays as just the leader of the humans. He is not as evil as the trailers may infer that he would be. Hell I started to understand why he would do what he was doing. Overall he doesn't have a hell of a lot of screen time which surprises me that they pushed so hard on him in the trailers and he wasn't in the movie very much.
The director is Matt Reeves this guy has made some of my favorite movies like Cloverfield and Let Me In. He does an amazing job with this movie, he captures the action scenes beautifully. He keeps the movie moving at a decent pace. I will say there are times when the movie goes on to talk about unimportant shit like Malcolm's annoying son and the whole human ape phobia I feel is starting to get played out a bit in this series. Other than that this goes on to be in his great short film record.
In the end the movie is fun, dark and exciting. If you enjoyed the first one you have no reason not to see this movie. It is a great film and leaves you wanting more. Not the best of the year but I can see this making many top of list. I give this a 4.5/5. I leave with a question; when is Marky Mark going to show up to kill the series?