Review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) by Reece L — 22 Jul 2017

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a huge step up from the first film. I watched this movie and the first one back-to-back and it seriously changes. It makes the first one almost look fun. The simple beginning becomes so much in the next two installments, and despite being seriously tone-shifting, this movie was great.

Like I said in my review of the first one, these films are not cheesy. They're drama movies, especially the 2nd and 3rd installments, and while some like it create nothing but pure cinematic cheese, this movie is believable and realistic. That's largely thanks to Andy Serkis' motion capture suit performance that captures the right stature of an ape, and the impressive CGI. Despite taking a different narrative focus than the first film, Caeser's character shines.

Like I mentioned earlier, this sequel is different in a lot of ways: it's longer, more dramatic, and has a different narrative focus. All these things are great. It feels like a true drama film, with interesting characters and ones we care about and feel for. Despite not having the understanding for the apes the first one did, the apes were still great in the movie. Another thing the last one and this one did well is that they could have been painfully long and they weren't. By the end, we aren't bored, we're interested and want to see more. And the narrative focus is different. While the first film felt like it was about the apes, this felt like it was about the apes and the humans co-existing and getting past obstacles uniting them. While at the beggining I wasn't feeling this movie and wasn't liking it as much as the original, by the end I was satisfied.

Overall, this sequel is extremely different from the first, but is equally great. It has great CGI and the usual good motion capture performance from Andy Serkis, as well as dramatic and great storytelling. It has a lot to enjoy and is definitely worth seeing.