DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Matt Reeves

When it comes to summer blockbusters, you can always count on many sequels. Some do well, others become great disappointments, but all have high expectations and make lots of money. However, it doesn’t happen very often, very rare in fact, that a sequel goes above and beyond any other film that’s released that summer. A film that gives you every possible level of expertise a movie goer is looking for in a sequel.

However, the rarest of all is when a sequel out does it’s original. It’s rare, but it does happen. To my knowledge it has happened four times: Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Terminator 2 and The Godfather Part 2, and now you can add another title to that list; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Here are my thoughts in what I believe to be clearly the best film of the summer and of 2014 (thus far) and one of the best sequels of All-Time.

The story takes place ten years after the events of the 2011 film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the ALZ-113 virus that was released onto the world has almost wiped out the planets population. Humans have now become the endangered species. The genetically evolved apes have taken over in population and gone into hiding in the Muir Woods by San Francisco. It is there they live in peace in their homes made of wood and trees. They teach their young, they hunt for food, and they have families of their own. Lead by Caesar (played by Andy Serkis), Caeser teaches everyone that the humans are all but gone and where they are at is the safest place to be. However, while Caesar’s son, Blue Eyes and his friend, Ash go out hunting, they run into a human walking through the woods.

When the human shoots one of them, Caesar and his fellow apes are ready to attack a small band of humans they come across. The humans are asked to leave and head back into the city. The leader of the group, Malcolm (Jason Clarke) tells Dreyfus (Gary Oldman), the head of the colony about Caesar, the remaining apes, and that they actually talked. Dreyfus tells him he must go back and get the hydroelectric dam working or they will have no more power and no more fuel which means the last of the human race will die.

As Malcolm and his small group try to make peace and show Caesar their good intentions, the plot thickens and unexpected violent attack accures when Koba (a once close friend of Caesar’s who believes the humans are all bad and mean nothing but harm), sets a violent and deadly plan in motion to take Caesar’s place and lead the apes to battle the humans in the city and take over once and for all. Koba blasts his way (literally) with his followers into what will be the beginning of the end for humans, but it is up to Caesar to rise back up and reclaim his leader post and save what’s left of peace before the real war begins! To find out if the apes succeed or if peace prevails, I highly recommend Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

This film was truly amazing on so many levels! It had a strong cast (Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, and the incredible Andy Serkis as Caesar). When you go to most films these days you just know it’s all CGI, but in this film, they went above and beyond expectations! The apes were so realistic it was breathtaking! This film had many emotions throughout, you truly felt the pain the apes were going through. They didn’t ask for this, they became a part of it and you can see that sorrow in their eyes. Caesar wants peace, Koba wants war, and the humans just want to survive and get their lives back. I was on edge the whole film, yet the heartfelt scenes were very touching and believable. At one point, you almost feel like cheering for the apes.

The Planet of the Apes franchise began in 1968 with five films in all, in 1974 there was a short-lived TV series, in 2001 Tim Burton put out a less exciting version of the original film, and in 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes would reboot the franchise to a whole new level. The film leaves it clearly open for Part 3 rumored to be titled, War of the Planet of the Apes and if it’s anything like this one we are in for a great ride! This film was directed by Matt Reeves and he did an amazing job. This is truly my favorite film of the summer and of 2014 (so far). If you see one film this summer see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, you will be in for a real summertime treat.