Let’s be honest, good sequels have been lacking on the big screen since the brilliant, Dark Knight Trilogy. Hollywood owed us one, and fortunately, this film delivered above and beyond.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is the sequel to 2011’s surprisingly good, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. The Dawn’ picks up 10 years after the events from the Rise’, by showcasing a post-apocalyptic setting in San Francisco. We learn early in the film that a worldwide epidemic has wiped out the majority of the population, and tension is still building between human and ape. We also see that the apes have evolved into their own culture. This was executed with what can be argued as the best setup to a film, all year. Once the ape and human cast is developed, most of the plot revolves around attaining a power source for the make-shift city. What seems like an easy job for the humans quickly escalates to the brink of war, when they find out the ape’s colony is too close for comfort.
From the first shot in the film I was 100% in the ape’s world, which was the exact opposite of what I was expecting. While I enjoyed the first film, I didn’t think the second one would pull me into the ape-world. If there’s one good thing that 2014 has done with movies, it’s the surprisingly good films it has produced, and I’m happy to say Dawn’ is one of them.
This film did so many things extremely well, it’s hard not to rave on, but a few points are superior, and worth touching on. First, the setup for the apes as characters was truly something special to experience in theaters. The apes are the true driving force of the film and were so well related on screen. Watching them go about their every day lives was incredibly believable; It was the flawless special effects that deserve all the credit. The way it depicted the apes was perfect. If you thought the CGI in Transformers or any other 2014 release looked good, be prepared to be blown away. I can argue this film contains the best special effects of the year, and it’s safe to say I haven’t seen emotion captured so well in special effects since Avatar.
Aside from the gold the film struck with showing the apes on screen, Dawn’ was visually breathtaking without even showing the CGI. The pacing felt solid due to realistic tension building scenes, as they were entertaining without being stylized, which is always a respectable quality about films. The action sequences were terrifically directed and really showed up on screen. Beneath the flashy action and spectacular CGI, Dawn’ is epic all the way down to the the emotional core that was portrayed with care.
My only gripe with the sci-fi action film is the unnecessary amount of establishing dialogue that is littered throughout. Even though this may not seem like a huge problem, it bugged me more than usual because the film was on a higher level than what some of the dialogue showed. When this flaw occurred it took me out of the immersive world the film believably portrayed. This could have been fixed simply by visually showing, on screen, what the dialogue established, without having to talk and foreshadow what was going to happen. It would have been nice to see the passing of time achieved by action, no forced dialogue.
With the wave of popular movie titles recently released, it’s safe to say Dawn’ is the best choice for a movie night. The overall great experience I came away with is precisely why I go to the movies, and that’s saying something special. I think it’s one of the best films of the year, one that can’t be missed.
A-
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