Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I had enjoyed the first film in what I guess is the modern version of the PotA franchise, so I was quite looking forward to this second film. The plot jumps quite some time ahead, to find mankind surviving in small bands following the outbreak of a virus around a decade ago. Meanwhile Caesar has established a community deep in the woods, founded off the survivors of the battle on the Golden Gate bridge. When a group of men ventures into the woods looking for an old dam in the hope of getting power to their community, it tests trust and loyalty within both camps. As the title suggests, this is the point where the Apes start to develop rather than just survive, and as such it holds a key point in the series; unfortunately this is something that the film very much feels and as a result it carries itself much more seriously than it can bear. The base elements of the plot are all well and good, with a narrative that expands on war, peace, trust, fear and aggression in a way that balances the apes and humans pretty well. The problem is not that it does this, but that it carries it all too heavily, producing a rather ponderous tone that sees the delivery imbued with too much weight, with all the characters and every line seeming to be aware of the import which it has. This robs it of flow and naturalism, both of which it could have done with. When the action comes, it carries this same weight. It provides plenty of good moments but again there is the constant sense of importance and darkness about it – so there is nothing that really rivals the Golden Gate Bridge sequence for spectacle and tension. In terms of the technical side of things, it is hard to fault the film, and the motion-capture performances really feed back into the effects to produce more than just impressive computer generated effects. Performances from Serkis and Kebbell are both very good, and it is shame therefore that Clarke is as stiff as a board and Oldman mostly wasted with little to actually do. The rest of the cast are the same – the humans seems overly labored while the apes are generally better. It is not a bad film by any means, and there is a lot to like about it, even if a lot of this is what it could have been rather than what it is. The weight it carries is evident, so it doesn't just deliver an epic plot, it feels that it is doing that, in every word and scene. This stifles it, making it feel ponderous and too self- aware, which is a shame because there are a couple of very good performances in here, and a lot of impressive effects work.

After watching the 'not too bad' Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the 8.3 out of 10 rating is what made me think this film might be worth going to see at the cinema. I mean, if it was a bad film it couldn't get such a high rating, right? Well God knows who on earth is giving this such a high rating because it is a very poor film, even with my low expectations after the first film, which was mediocre (but a lot better than Dawn). In Dawn, humans have mostly died out. Then some humans (who were apparently living in their hundreds just down the road from the apes, despite the apes claiming they haven't seen a human in over 2 years) stumble upon the apes' den in the forest. The humans want access to the dam that the apes have built their home around. There are some good humans and some bad. There are some good apes and some bad. There is some betrayals and then war breaks out. It's all very, very, VERY predictable and we've seen it all before many, many times. There really is nothing new or interesting here. I mean, yeah OK it's an old 'one side against the other' story but Jesus man, if you want to keep the audience interested you've got to do something a little different! Every element of this film, including the subplots, have all been done before and it has taken no talent to write this story. All of the characters are bland and I really just wanted all the humans shot, good or bad, so that I wouldn't have to suffer their inane conversations. I had to give this a 1 because it was so dull, so pointless, so unoriginal, so bland and a total waste of time.