Director: Matt Reeves
Writers: Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
Cast: Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Kirk Acevedo, Toby Kebbell, Judy Greer, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Studio: 20th Century Fox
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is amazing. The ALZ-113 virus has devastated most of the world and now the Apes have retreated into the Redwoods. They are building a community, while Caesar has pumped out two possible male heirs. Caesar has a pal named Koba that’s still pissed at the humans and watches them, as they scurry in and out of the remnants of San Francisco. Eventually, the sides come into conflict as the humans want to restart the local hydroelectric dam to bring power back to their city. Koba thinks it is a trap, while Caesar wants some medical aid for his wife. The two sides come to an agreement until Gary Oldman shows up to remind us why we loved him in the 1990s.
Andy Serkis deserves every accolade that can possibly be given. While there has been a bit of controversy in the film nerd world about the man stating that his performance is 100% him and nothing to do with CG, the guy has physical acting chops that fans haven’t seen since the Silent Film era. Serkis as Caesar will stand among his Gollum performance as some of the greatest CG performances of all time. You feel his Caesar struggle with the trials of leadership, as he now has to provide for the apes that he lead in the last film’s revolt. Unfortunately, you don’t get much into his relationship with his wife.
A lot of viewers have complained about the lack of strong female roles in the movie. You get Judy Greer as sick ape and you get Keri Russell as a nurse. Outside of that, this is a total dude movie about dudes fighting apes for the rest of humanity. It was really odd to see, especially since we’re long overdue for this revamp franchise’s version of Zira. But, that’s the trouble with making movies in this economy. It seems like dudes only pay to see monkey dudes slap around Gary Oldman.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!