When I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes back in 2011, I loved t, and was blown away at the visual effects. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes really does take it to places you couldn’t have imagined. It is amazing the work and effort they put into this movie. As apposed to recent films, ahem, Transformers: Age of I don’t give a sh*t. The story was a perfect continuation of where the last film left off. It was reminiscent to the beginning of World War Z, in a good way, in that they didn’t waste too much time explaining what happened, how it happened, and when it happened. That’s the kind of thing we already knew from the previous film, can be shown briefly in the opening titles, and the rest we can figure out for ourselves. It allowed this film to be less of a science fiction film, and more of a character-driven epic. A lot of work was also put into the characters. What was so amazing about this film was that not only did the humans have complexity and depth, but so did the apes. And to call them apes diminishes their potential. In this film we see them become more than just animals, we see them become people with personalities, emotions, and feelings.
Another thing this film obviously spent a lot of time getting right was the visual effects. I’m not kidding when I say that this is the best visual effects I have ever seen. Better than Gravity, Pacific Rim, and also a big improvement over Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Now when I say that it is a big improvement, that is like saying The Empire Strikes Back improves on Star Wars. “Rise” was still a great film, but “Dawn” takes it to a whole new level. One of the things I think helped this film so much was the amount of on-set photography was done. It made it so that everything was in-camera, the trees, the rain, the humans, and the performance of the apes. Every close-up, every movement, everything the apes did looked seamless. You could have convinced me it was a person in a monkey costume, like the previous 7 films. It was that realistic.
All of the actors in the film were also great. But all of the performances obviously get overshadowed by the amazing work of mo-cap god, Andy Serkis. If he does not get an Academy Award nomination (or win) for his performance in this film then I will have officially lost all remaining hope for legitimacy in the award.
Overall the film was fantastic. If you have not seen this film, drop what you are doing and see it. You don’t need to have see Rise of the Planet of the Apes before-hand. You should, but you can see Dawn without it. I give this movie 10 ingredients, and it deserves every one of them.Be sure to “Like” us on Facebook down below, or at Facebook.com/BLTFilmsReviews. Also make sure to follow us on Twitter @BLTFilmsReviews. Thank you for reading my review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, see you next time.
Linus Schill–––––––14
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| BLT Films Rating- 10 Ingredients |
