Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The much anticipated sequel to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was the reboot and prequel to the Planet of the Apes series.
I’ll start off by saying that I really enjoyed this movie, it was fast-paced with high action and it was very tension driven. Now maybe I didn’t necessarily like the characters or connect with them like I did in the first one, but this one definitely had more action.
What I kind of compared it to was what The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 were to the first Jurassic Park. The first was obviously the best, it had more plot, better characters, (even though it’s mostly the same characters throughout the three, but it’s better when they’re all together) and since it was the first one it had the “wow” factor. Now, not to say that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was like The Lost World, because it wasn’t, it was much better, but I’m just comparing the two because they share the same basic story and idea in relation to their predecessors. Both Dawn and The Lost World were follow-ups to movies that ended it’s conflict only partially resolved. Jurassic Park ended with them leaving the island behind, not knowing what happened or what will happen to the dinosaurs. Rise of the Planet of the Apes ended with Caesar leading a rebellion. Dawn, The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 were, in the most basic form, movies about people running away from animals.
Now, what made Dawn better then The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 is the connection with Caesar, I think. The emotional connection to Caesar that is established in the first film is carried over to this one, making us care about him. In the other Jurassic Parks, we could care less about most of the dinosaurs, especially the Velociraptors and Spinosaurus. There was definitely no emotional attachment in those movies. But I think because of Caesar we care more about their tribe of apes and less about the tribe of humans, which makes us more emotionally attached to the movie, which is why it was better.
With that being said, it was a fun movie, at times it was a bit scary too, and there’s great conflict between characters. I’d give this film a 9 out of 10.
Do you agree?
The Qualmist 