Starring: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell and Kodi Smit-McPhee
Running Time: 2 Hours and 10 Minutes
I remember the original "Planet of the Apes" back in the late 60's and 70's. I was a huge fan of the franchise until they became way too strange and overdone. I was reluctant to revisit the series in the 2011 movie "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". It was a little too environmental for my taste. I did fall for the sweet ape Caesar (Andy Serkis) though and his plight for freedom for himself and his fellow apes which leads me to the here and now, the 2014 updated version "The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes".
This movie takes place a decade later after the devastating virus and its catastrophic effects leave the genetically superior apes living on their own in the Muir Woods area north of San Francisco. They have evolved to the point of being able to talk and communicate with one another. Their designated and compassionate leader is Caesar from the former movie. He is a great leader, he is both strong and gentle.
When a group of humans somehow survive the catastrophic virus attack, they leave their compound in downtown San Francisco to search for the dam. They need to access the dam to work on to help to restore power/electricity to San Francisco to help to resume some normalcy to their devastated city. While out searching for the dam they stumble upon the compound of hostile and violent apes. After one of the humans shoots and wounds an ape, all chaos ensues and a small war begins. The human Malcolm (Jason Clarke) tries to settle the apes down and bring peace, unity and trust to them. He and his comrades are both shocked and intrigued when they find out they can communicate and talk with these superior apes. They develop a relationship and try to gain their respect. As always someone has to be greedy and defiant and betray the apes trust.
I was quite impressed with this story. The movie ended up being better than I had anticipated. I really enjoyed the relationship between Caesar and Malcolm. Caesar was easy to fall for. He was so human-like and so tender and dear. His facial expressions as well as the other apes were absolutely incredible!
The Weta Digital 3-D was stunning and literally made you believe that the apes really were real. They did an outstanding job portraying these apes as human-like as possible. The story was impressive as well. It pits the bad guys against the good guys in hopes that the good guys will prevail.
Parents be advised: I would not recommend this for children under 13 because of the very realistic animation and the violence and the ferocity of some of the apes. It is very dark and dreary as a post apocalyptic world. Also, the F-bomb is needlessly dropped once.
I am giving "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" three and a half bags of popcorn.
