Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011
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- A gripping account of interspecies conflict, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes manages to do at least three things exceptionally well that are hard enough to pull off individually: Maintain a simmering level of tension without letup for two hours, seriously improve on a very good first entry in a franchise and produce a powerful humanistic statement using a significantly simian cast of characters.
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3 days ago · Critics Consensus: With intelligence and emotional resonance to match its stunning special effects, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes expands on its predecessor with an exciting and...
May 10, 2024 · Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) 52% 46% Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) 36% 30% Planet of the Apes (2001) 43% 27% Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) 82% 77% Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) 91% 88% War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) 94% 84%
- A return to greatness.
- Verdict
By Scott Collura
Posted: Jul 1, 2014 11:21 pm
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the kind of movie that reminds me why I love movies in the first place -- and more specifically, why I love sci-fi movies. Smart, emotionally deep, exciting, beautiful to behold, and culturally relevant, Dawn is quite simply a great film.
While I enjoyed Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the first film in this -- for lack of a better term -- rebooted series, my issues with it pertained mostly to the sometimes idiotic human characters and wobbly screenplay, which tended towards easy Hollywood-storytelling outs and tone-deaf “homages” to the original 1960s-1970s films. Thankfully, incoming director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) rarely, if ever, makes such missteps with Dawn, but rather solidifies the strong foundation of the first film and improves on everything else in a hugely gratifying way.
Andy Serkis is now rightfully front and center as Caesar, the leader of the small group of apes who were granted intelligence, language, and eventually their freedom in the previous movie. A decade has passed since then, and as was predicted at the end of Rise, human civilization has fallen in the wake of the Simian Flu -- fittingly enough, the same virus that enabled Caesar’s kind to rise. (Reeves depicts the end of the world as we know it in a chilling opening credits montage that ties events closely to the real world.)
While mankind has suffered and mostly died off over the past 10 years, the apes have flourished. In the forests north of San Francisco, an ape city of a kind has taken root, carved into the lush woods and waterfalls of the landscape. Caesar’s people, who now communicate through a mix of limited speech, signing, and body language -- and by the way, it’s impressive just how much Reeves uses subtitles in what is, after all, a summer tent pole picture -- have established a virtual paradise here, living off the land, hunting, and growing their tribe. The ape children attend school, where Maurice, the orangutan from Rise and Caesar’s trusted adviser, teaches lessons such as “Ape will not kill ape.” Of course this is a notion that will have great significance as the film progresses.
The Apes franchise returns to greatness with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, a film that works as both a rousing summer tent pole movie as well as an intelligent science-fiction tale with heart. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.
Jul 10, 2014 · Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, while not nearly the masterpiece proclaimed by many critics, is certainly a fascinating cross-species: a big-budget summer action fantasy with a sylvan, indie-film...
- Richard Corliss
Jul 10, 2014 · NYT Critic’s Pick. Directed by Matt Reeves. Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi. PG-13. 2h 10m. By A.O. Scott. July 10, 2014. A quick montage at the beginning of “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”...
Jun 28, 2014 · Movies. Movie Reviews. ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’: Film Review. Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman and Keri Russell star in Matt Reeves' follow-up to the 2011 reboot. By...
