Fish and Cherries Productions

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a conflicting movie, but an overall good one. Caesar returns as Andy Serkis’ outstanding role as the apes have begun developing their own culture while humanity is struggling not to slip into devastation. The parts with the ape civilization are honestly the best parts of the movie, with all the dialogue taking place in sign language with rarely a spoken word. The humans, on the other hand, are a little bland, even though they are sympathetic. In a way, it harkens back to WALL-E, though the quiet period doesn’t last quite as long and the humans aren’t colorful enough to stand out. But the film falls into one of my least favorite tropes behind the Amnesia Reset Button, which is the trigger-happy/xenophobic/take your pick asshole who screws things up for both civilizations (see the Doctor Who episode “Cold Blood” for this trope in action). This time, we get not one asshole, but three, one of whom turning out to be the villain, so I get a three-for-one sale on something I didn’t want to the first place. Hooray. Like the first movie, the action pieces are astounding and quite brutal, but there are also some really grim, almost holocaustian scenes that stay for just a bit too long. So I’m a bit mixed on this movie, but there was still enough quality to consider it good. I’d recommend you see it for the sequel at least, because make no mistake, there WILL be a sequel.