Sick Product of a Sick System

Powerful

Admirable film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the best things about this entertaining and intelligent action-thriller is the way that it doesn't pick sides, doesn't paint the humans as stereotypical villains in the way that something like, say, 'Avatar (2009)' does. Instead, it portrays its delicate situation with nuance in a way which allows everyone's perspective to be both clear and understandable. Even the main ape antagonist, who's militant sensibilities stem from a deep-rooted mistrust in humanity established in the prior title, has reasonable and somewhat supportable motivations. Once the set-up is out of the way and the action - which is bigger in scope, spectacle and success this time - begins, the feature still keeps its focus on character and this is what allows it to remain as emotionally resonant as it really is. 9/10

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a solidly good film but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes expands on everything established in that film to great effect.The film is set ten years after the events of Rise where the ALZ-113 virus has spread across the globe wiping out most of humanity. Caesar's community of apes has grown considerably, and they believe humans to have wiped each other out until two apes stumble across a human in the woods and the narrative starts to progress.What I really liked about the narrative was the dynamic of the separate communities of humans and apes, with both just wanting to do what is needed to survive. In that sense the distrust certain humans and apes had for each other was understandable, even for the villain Koba who's hatred for humans fuelled most of his actions. This was rather thought-provoking and I enjoyed how that was explored.The special effects are brilliant once again with how the apes are brought to life and appear like they are a real part of this world, and from that Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell give excellent performances as Caesar and Koba respectively. Their dynamic as contrasting characters was one of the best parts of the film, which was fulfilled in a very cathartic way with Caesar dropping Koba from a great height to his death after he had betrayed him.However, for the human characters the performances were rather bland, especially from Jason Clarke, and surprisingly Gary Oldman who is usually very assured. His character didn't have much to do in the narrative either which was a little disappointing.In the end though this was an emotionally complex second instalment to the Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy, and one that sets up the final film in an effective manner.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The ApesMatt creates this wiped-out world filled with dreadful characters that comes with their own baggage and of course an addition to an important chapter on Andy Serkis; this is a big bang.

After the ending of the first film, I was hoping they would make a sequel so that we could see where the story would go next, luckily in 2014 we got exactly that, and it didn't disappoint. When I heard that Wyatt was retiring as a director in this franchise, I got a bit nervous because whenever you change directors within a franchise, I can either work really well or really bad, but then I heard that they hired Matt Reeves to direct the sequel, the same man who directed Cloverfield and Let Me In, that gave me a bit more confidence in the sequel. Matt Reeves did one heck of a job directing this movie, is stunning, the cinematography is just beautiful. Andy Serkis is once again great as Caesar and Toby Kebbell was also fantastic as Koba, once again the human characters played by Jason Clarke and Keri Russell, while giving good performances, the writing of their characters never made them as interesting as the apes, but that is also because the people playing the apes are that good. I really like the story and how is executed, a lot of things you'd think would be predictable in a movie like this, are done in ways you wouldn't expect. I really think Dawn is up there with T2 and The Dark Knight as one of those few sequels that don't just live up to it's predecessor, it excels it.