Movie Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes takes place ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The first movie was a great adaptation from the original series and set a high standard for Dawn, one that I think it met in most ways. Much of the world’s population has been wiped out by the Simian flu, which was created in a lab in the first movie. Although the humans aren’t fairing so well, cramming into a section of San Francisco, the apes are doing much better. They have created a community, have developed language skills, and some can even speak English. The apes all think the humans are gone until they go into the ape’s territory to start a hydroelectric dam. Things get off to a bad start when one of the humans kills an ape. Caesar, from the previous movie, is the head ape in charge and is the only thing holding back the other apes from going apes**t on the humans (pun fully intended). That all changes when one of his own apes shoots him with a gun, which leads to the inevitable fighting between the two sides.

In the infamous words of Rodney King, “Why can’t we all just get along?” It was obvious that things weren’t going to work out because of a few bad apples both on the ape and human side. There were too many factions within the factions that could not build any trust for the other side. The movie had deeper themes regarding trust issues and the tensions that result with people that are different from each other, and the many wars that people have had as a result. There was a lot to like about the movie. The story was well-developed and intelligent. The apes, effects, and CGI were really well done. The 3D elements were also quite cool. I didn’t like this quite as much as the first movie, but it was still very good and definitely worth watching.