Review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) by Silversun101 — 01 Aug 2014

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the equivalent of a holding pattern. A film who's seemingly only purpose is to set up the events for the inevitable third film. The first in what I guess will now be a trilogy, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, was a perfectly contained movie, showing us how the world of Planet of the Apes came to be while giving sly nods to the original film. At the end of Rise, the story is concluded and nothing more needed to be said. And indeed, nothing more is said with Dawn. While the depictions of the Ape society are fun (and indeed the best part of the movie) the "drama" between the apes and humans that this film hangs on is flat, overwrought, and hopelessly predictable. All this film does is draw out what we, as an audience, could infer happened from the closing credits of it predecessor without bringing anything new or interesting to the table (aside form monkeys with machine guns). While an entertaining distraction and a true achievement in the field of special effects, I left the theater with the distinct notion that nothing substantial or satisfying had actually HAPPENED in the film.

A movie that didn't need to be, it poses no convincing argument for its own existence.