Movie of the Week: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

A continuation of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", it takes place many years into the future, where humans were thought to be extinct and apes rule as the dominant race. The movie revolves around the struggle that Caesar and the other apes deal with when they are re-introduced to humankind. This struggle then turns into all-out battle against the humans in pursuit of power led by Koba, an ape who had usurped Caesar as leader of the apes.

This movie had a lot more action in it when compared to its prequel as it was more focused on the conflict between each character rather than on character development. It was also quite dark, both in lighting and in nature. For the lighting, there were many scenes that were shot at night or in a dark area, which made it a bit difficult to see what was happening. For the nature of the film, there were times when the scene would be centered around joy and laughter, and would suddenly change to hate, anger, and even murder.

As a fan of the first film, I really liked how the sequel was made. The pacing of the story was a bit slow, but it had a good plot. What got me the most though was that despite using many computer-generated graphics, and the fact that the apes were talking in incomplete and sometimes incoherent sentences for most of the film, the emotions of the apes were still shown and emphasized.

If you liked the first film, I highly recommend that you watch this one if you haven't already.

- Lee Balmaceda, 12-F