Review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) by Filipeneto — 22 Aug 2018

"Planet of the Apes: Revolt" is the promised sequel to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", both of which are based on Pierre Boulle's dystopic book. Now humans are a minority, a race facing extinction (what an irony!) that apes seem to be able to seriously threaten.

The contact between them reminded me of the difficult and dangerous understanding between different communities when distrust prevails. We can imagine something similar in moments of our past, like the first contact between European navigators and indigenous peoples of the Americas, for example.

Distrust, fear, displays of power to intimidation... the film shows these in a very interesting way, with the apes being very similar to us, in behavior and way of think. Unfortunately, the whole film is quite pretentious and full of self-importance: both sides have an exaggerated awareness of the relevance of events to their own community.

This is the most boring point of the movie. The actors do a good job, but non-human characters get more interest and dominate the scene. Technically, the film doesn't deserve major criticism. CGI is more cautious than in the first movie and seems more real.

Sequences of combat and action are breathtaking, certainly pleasing to those who seek action and adventure.