Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Such an intelligent and breathtaking narrative with awesome CGI brings me euphoria. From start to finish, a visually epic and entertaining ride that makes you inhale at the beginning and exhale at the end. Caesar is a proper good guy with all the positive qualities (I'd like to have him as a friend), and Koba on the other hand is an incredible bad ass greedy and eager for war and revenge even his appearance looks incredibly ugly and evil. For me I'm beyond satisfied, but here I was expecting it so I'm not surprised :) 95% (29/10/2014)

Ape not kill ape. The stunning impression from Rise of the Planet of the Apes remains unmatched, but the sequel does not embarrass the apes, quite the opposite. It is only the world of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, where heroes and flawed characters exist on both sides of the barricade, that feels very real and convincingly enough that instead of offering an action-packed and dramatic spectacle, it provides a rather depressing spectacle. However, there is still plenty of room for superbly executed intense moments, which once again unsurprisingly belong to the majestic Caesar. I am slowly losing confidence in how many installments this saga can withstand, but if it really continues under the helm of Matt Reeves, my concerns will quickly disappear. (24/07/2014)

Ten winters have passed since the events in part one and apes haven’t seen humans for a good few years. But the idyll that Caesar build in the jungle away from the city is to come to an end when man enters his territory. Slow building of relationships and introduction of heroes prove to be worth it in the more warring second half. When Koba gets to work with his gun. The ape gang led by Andy Serkis comes across more realistically than last time and so we should say a few words about the excellent acting performances. Kebbell’s Koba is awesome. The human rabble is concentrated around Clarke’s family and even though they fade a little beside their ape brothers, they are still really fine. I was surprised about Gary Oldman’s appearance. He isn’t given much room. Excellent narration from Reeves on a conversational level, but he’s also at home in warring situations. The attacks by the apes and one-to-one combat are original and powerful (especially the scene with the armored transporter and the rotating turmoil of battle) with precise special effect sequences. The ruins of San Francisco is a feast for the eyes too. I’m happy. Apes do not kill apes. (24/07/2014)

I stumbled upon Dawn of the Planet of the Apes by chance—there wasn’t much else on TV, so I figured, why not? As far as Hollywood blockbusters go, it’s pretty solid. Visually, it’s impressive, and the technical aspects are actually great at times. But story-wise, it just didn’t grab me. You can see from a mile away that the cooperation between humans and apes is doomed, so there’s no real tension—just some well-executed action scenes. The performances didn’t blow me away either, so in the end, I landed on a middle-of-the-road three stars, which is actually more generous than how I rated the first film in this trilogy. (19/06/2020)

A few minutes of over-digitalized introduction suggests that the second instalment bet on a completely different horse than the first part, where digital monkeys complemented an emotionally charged and dramaturgically sensitive story about people and the place of animals in the human world (and vice versa). It was a cleanly made film in the Spielberg tradition. The second film drowns in digital effects, is action-packed and, following the current trends set by Nolan, visually dark. Which in itself might not hurt if all of its characters had a meaningful place in the story and if it didn’t provoke emotions with cheap sentiment. I really expected more from Matt Reeves than a mere flashy but empty blockbuster. (16/10/2014)