Review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) by Homer4President — 26 May 2015

After the pleasant surprise that was the first film of the new Planet of the Apes series, the expectations for the sequel, or middle part of the trilogy, were somewhat bigger. Thankfully, everyone involved was fully aware of that and delivered another smart blockbuster with a lot of vital commentary on the futility of war and violent conflicts.

The film doesn't want you to pick a side too easily as hostility between the last remaining humans on Earth and the intelligent apes arise. There are decent and bad characters on both sides. This makes for an interesting ride, as the conflict spins more and more into chaos and there is little anyone can do against it, after a point of no return.

Once again, the CGI is incredible, thanks to great motion capture acting and the accompanying special effects. Thankfully, the human actors are en par, especially Gary Oldman only takes two short scenes to make a strong point for being one of the best of his generation.

The gloomy atmosphere, the great cinematography, it all adds up to an intelligent and pretty damn entertaining continuation of the story. If there is one complaint it would have to be that the ending is merely a cliffhanger for what's next in part three.

But at least we all have something to look forward to.