Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) Movie Review

Director: Matt Reeves
Writers: Rick Jaffa, Mark Bomback, Amanda Silver
Starring: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the personally long awaited sequel to the second attempt at a reboot of the famous movie. This movie exceeds my expectations like a dwarf slam-dunking.

The movie carries on years after the ending of ‘Rise’ meaning that much of the human race has been utterly wiped out. The apes have also become far more advanced and have developed their own society. The humans need power from a dam nested deep within the apes’ territory.

I really enjoyed Koba in this movie. There are a few great scenes where he acts like some sort of show-chimp, fooling some humans. In the last movie, it never seemed to me like he would ever actually betray Caesar. The great personalities from Rise come back. My favourite is Maurice because he is an orang-utan and orang-utans are amazing. I also really enjoyed the character arc of Caesar’s first son, ‘Blue Eyes’. While he is physically developed enough to fight a war, he seems pretty naïve in his decisions. He really does improve by the end of the movie and that was pretty satisfying. The battles in the movie also offer some of the best desktop wallpapers for a long time. For instance, Koba on a horse with a heavy machine gun in either hand with fire blazing in the background. Fantastic

I feel like it is going to become a staple in this version of the apes series that the humans have to be about as interesting as ready salted crisps. I watched the movie yesterday but I am only able to remember the name of the main human. My only other problem with the movie is that there was very little point for Caesar having a wife (If apes have wives now). Other than explaining Blue Eyes’ existence, she is pretty much a vegetable. Perhaps Caesar’s affection for her shows how emotionally advanced the apes are compared to the real life chimpanzees who I am sure do not have wives. Honestly most of the female apes would just want a piece of Caesar and he wouldn’t really mind.

I hugely enjoyed this movie. The simian characters are thoroughly entertaining to watch develop and the conflict looks absolutely amazing with the trademark Andy Serkis quality of CGI. I only have some very minor complaints with this movie and I can easily recommend it. It is undoubtedly the best film I have seen this year… so far.

Please feel free to leave a comment on either the movie or the review. Say if you liked or disliked the movie. I'm interested to find out what you think!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2012) Movie Review

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Writers: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto

Planet of the Apes is often heralded as having one of the coolest plot twists since the invention of the plot twists. This first movie was good enough to keep the series going for eight movies (soon to be nine) and even a few TV series. Is Rise of the Planet of the Apes good enough to reintroduce the franchise to a newer generation?

The movie tells the story of Caesar, an ape that was born in a lab that test experimental drugs on primates. Andy Serkis provides the electrical signatures used to create Caesar and it looks fantastic. The movie boasts some of the most impressive CGI characters ever. The incredible CGI allows the movie to create characters that are original as well as recognisable.

The best scene in the movie is when Caesar has been locked in an abusive ‘rescue’ centre for primates. When Caesar grabs Draco Malfoy and yells ‘NO!’, everything goes silent and the gorilla almost sheds a tear. It is an unspoken rule that if you are able to bring a gorilla to tears, you are a pretty cool character. The tension in the scene is incredible and it sparks the third act, which is one of the strongest that I have seen in a long time.

The third act builds up really well. Once Caesar escapes the centre you know that something big is going to go down. The scene on the Golden Gate Bridge is amazing. Watching all the ultra-smart apes walk along the suspensions of the bridge is visually astounding.

This being said, the movie isn’t completely good news. Most the humans in the movie are the most basic and generic people who have ever been fictionally created. I truly believe that if you told a computer to simply create a person, this is what would come out. James Franco is just a man who is a scientist. Freida Pinto’s character may as well just be called woman because let’s be honest that is all she amounts to. One rather interesting character is that of David Oyelowo’s character. He is rather hard to read and is only in it for the money.

I heavily enjoyed the movie. The visual effects were an absolute delight to watch and the tension and pacing was utterly sublime. The apes are great as the movie carved out unique characters for each of them even tough only one of them had dialogue. Unfortunately, the humans are some of the most default people ever. Nevertheless, it was a fun movie and I certainly recommend it.