Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I've never been a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes franchise. I haven't seen the original, nor the Tim Burton movie, though I am aware of the pop culture references in it. For example, I love this reference.

Now I've heard good thing about the new Planet of the Apes franchise. I heard the Rise of the Planet of the Apes was actually a better movie than people expected and The Dawn was actually a pretty great movie.

I never actually got around to watching the first one but the trailers from this one (the second one) made me interested. With all the hype of the movie and the interest I already had, I decided to forgo the first one and watch the second one. I mean, it was on TV and that's kind of where I'm getting all these new movies, but still, I wanted to check it out sooner or later.

I think one of the best parts of the film is the fact that it really didn't matter that I hadn't seen the first one. I could really jump into the plot of the second movie and understand what was going on. Besides the fact that I know James Franco is in the first one and he raises apes, I don't know anything about the first movie.

The movie is set in a future where an epidemic has destroyed the majority of the human race. On the other hand, genetically enhanced apes have built a civilization of their own in what was once San Fransisco. This Ape civilization is headed by Caesar (motion captured and played by Andy Serkis). From what I understand, Caesar was the ape in the first movie but again, not a huge deal whether you know that or not.

Caesar is the leader of his clan of Apes and he's a good leader. Other apes trust him and from the beginning, you see that Caesar is a fair leader. He's not ruthless but he's also not a wimp. He's a smart leader.

When there's an unfortunate incident between some of the Apes in Caesar's clan and a small group of humans that ends in an Ape being shot. While the Ape survives there is a tension between the apes and the humans led by Gary Oldman (honestly, I never actually picked up his name). But again, Caesar is fair and says the humans stay in their area, the apes stay in theirs. Any more interactions between the two will mean all out war.

The majority of the movie is the tensions and interactions between Caesar and a small family of humans who want to work with the Apes to bring a power source to the human area and stay away from the ape area. This family is headed by Malcom (played by Jason Clarke). He and his family end up working closely with the apes and there is actually a great relationship that forms between them and the Apes.

What's really interesting is the dynamic of power Caesar holds in his own kingdom of sorts. This movie isn't so much an action science fiction film as it is a film about politics, Ape Politics. Which I find really interesting. There is conspiracies the same way there were conspiracies in Rome with the real Caesar.

Another great thing about this movie is the motion capture.

I mean first off, you have Andy Serkis, the king of motion capture. His facial expressions just make the interactions between the apes and the humans just fantastic.

Now that being said, there were sometimes that I felt the apes were a little too animated. Now they were a great animation and I really have to applaud the motion capture for this film, but I could definitely tell the apes were animated.

Its kind of a mixed reaction because I did like the motion capture, I just wasn't always convinced that it was an ape in front of these humans.

I'm just gonna say that the motion capture was great and leave it at that.

The other thing that is not quite a complaint but still worth mentioning is the story. I feel like I've seen this story before. Its the political drama of a ticking time bomb. From the very beginning, you should know that someone is going to mess up and piss off one of the groups. One of the groups are going to piss off the other one and its going to end up in a physical confrontation. I'm not gonna say that it was bad, it was just predictable. As much as the apes and the humans try and get along, them living happily ever after doesn't really work in this scenario.

Individual performance-wise, I've already talked about Andy Serkis. The guy is the man. I'm looking forward to him in The Force Awakens, I love him in every role he's in whether its motion capture or not.

The human cast was also really good. I don't think I've reviewed (or even seen) a full movie with Jason Clarke and I've wanted to. I like him as an actor, I think he does a good job.

Keri Russel was good, she's not a huge part but she was good. I enjoy Kirk Acevedo.

Gary Oldman I think was in an absolute perfect role as the leader of the human survivors who is very much on the "they are animals" side of things. I feel like he was a little bit under developed and his character wasn't exactly given a lot of development for me to totally say that he was a good "antagonist"/ complicated authority figure.

While I've talked a lot about Andy Serkis, I loved all the actors who did the motion capture and I loved their work int his movie.

Overall, the apes looked great. I got invested in a story where Apes and humans were fighting against one another and after writing that sentence, I realize that that was probably a hard thing to do.

The movie did what it set out to do and it did it really well. so much that I'm interested in seeing the first movie. Furthermore, I'm looking forward to the next movie because there's a war coming and I love it!

And oddly enough, I want to see this situation happen with a franchise like Jurassic World. I think this might be where the franchise might be headed. I'm not wild about the ideas of sequels for Jurassic World but I'm sure that it will happen and if it does and something like this happened, i would be very happy.

But those are my thoughts on Dawn of The Planet of The Apes. What are your thoughts on the movie? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and get updates on movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts and give me your requests for movies to review in the future.

I'll leave you with this. Let's make it easy and just give you an honest trailer. Enjoy!