Dawn of The Planet of The Apes

Synopsis:

Ten years after simian flu wiped out much of the world's homosapiens, genetically enhanced chimpanzee Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his ever-growing band of followers have established a thriving colony just outside San Francisco in Muir Woods. Meanwhile, a small band of human survivors emerges, which forces Caesar -- as leader -- to grapple with the dual challenge of protecting his people and re-establishing a relationship with the remaining human population -- the latter being Caesar's secret wish.

Movie Review:

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is directed by Matt Reeves who took the franchise after Rupert Wyatt left and made a film that is emotional and a full of drama and might be better than the first film, which was also good. Matt Reeves did an outstanding job of creating an apocalypse world that was once full of dread and hopelessness, but now with a new leader, is a thriving ape community, and as you watch, you feel for the human survivors and the apes as well. Once again, Andy Serkis returns as the apes' leader Caesar, and he now has a family and wants to live in peace with his pack of apes that he formed. Andy Serkis is so good as Caesar; he brings qualities of leadership to a sad and tense environment trying to prevent a war with the humans and you feel his pain. Jason Clarke plays one of the survivors who help Caesar throughout the movie try to re-establish a relationship with the humans. Serkis and Clarke interact well together on screen and have great chemistry. The supporting cast of this movie that includes Gary Oldman, Kerri Russell and Kodie Smit-McPhee are just that, a supporting cast. They are there to do what is expected of them, which is to explain the plot and they do it well. One of the standout actors of the entire film is Tobey Kebell as the ape Koba. Koba hates the humans after what they did to him at the end of the first movie and his performance is very emotional and he helps you understand why he sparked the war between the apes and the humans. The CGI and visual effects are outstanding once again— they are imaginatively creative and believably realistic looking apes; it is jaw dropping. Also, the action scenes of this movie are entertaining and very well filmed with a lot of dramatic scenes between the humans and the Apes. The only problems with the movie are a few boring explanation scenes that linger a little too long like the details of why the humans need to regain power. And there is too much set up for the next chapter of the Apes movie. But these minute problems don't really matter because this movie is outstanding. With its great visual effects, emotional and dramatic scenes, and spectacular action, talented actors and an interesting story makes "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" a better movie then the original and is a great sequel that I highly recommend you to see. I am giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Director: Matt Reeves

Cast: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keric Russell, Tobey Kebbell and Kodi Smit-McPHEE

Runtime: 130 minutes