Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Different director and mainly different actor’s set the sequel to the first of the reboot of the original Planet of the Apes series, 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes apart from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). This latest in the series is set ten years after the end of the first movie and we find the remains of humanity struggling to cope with the aftermath of the plague and to stay alive. To hold civilisation together the humans need electric power and the defunct power plant is in the middle of ape territory!  The intelligent community of apes are still lead by Caesar (again played by Andy Serkis) who begins to loose control after giving permission for the humans to access the power plant, but not all members of the ape community are happy with Caesar’s decision.

 

If you go down to the woods today your sure of a big surprise!

As well as Serkis the film stars Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver who were involved in the first of the rebooted series with the addition of Mark Bomback who is also the executive producer. Matt Reeves, who was responsible for directing Cloverfield (2008) and the English language version of Let The Right One In (2008) is a good replacement for Robert Wyatt and is also set to direct the third film in the franchise War for the Planet of the Apes.

 

A little sentimentality goes a long way.

Similar to Rise of the Planet of the Apes we get another example of some first class escapist entertainment but underlyingly the story highlights the way so called ‘superior classes’ treat people when they don’t always understand their way of life and their different beliefs - so look beyond the obvious narrative to get the best out of this movie.

There looking forward to the next film.