2014 has actually been a strong year when it comes to movies dealing with high-concept. Captain America: Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future Past went above and beyond expectations. Winter Soldier being a large improvement over The First Avenger, and Days of Future Past heavily outshining any movie since X-Men 2. This isn’t it either, Edge of Tomorrow came out of nowhere. Tom Cruise went from doing a mediocre science-fiction to one that I would actually refer to as a great film. Lego Movie was the best animated film that I have seen since released by-far since Toy Story 3 hit theaters. I have increased interest of what happens when the tides turn in-favor of some of the “less spectacular movies” at the end of the year. Last year, we had films like American Hustle, Lone Survivor, Wolf of Wall Street, and others to enjoy.
There’s been a couple ones that I haven’t enjoyed. (Maleficent, Godzilla, and I have never been too high on Transformers.) Overall though, this is shaping up to be a tremendous year. And while, it may be true that this film wont be cracking the top five highest-grossing films of 2014.
I think Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the best film I have seen from 2014 so far.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a 2014 American science fiction film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, and Keri Russel. The film is a sequel to the 2011 movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, notably, it discards old cast-members like James Franco in-favor of a completely new ensemble. However, not only does Caesar remain a character, he has an even larger focus than before. The movie is the eighth in the Planet of the Apes series, and has thus far received critical acclaim from audience and critics alike.
In Dawn, the aftermath of Rise is certainly heavy. The ALZ-113 virus has showed its wrath on the humans, killing so many of them that they are nearly extinct. Meanwhile, the Apes have kept strong, led by their leader, Caesar. A village of humans look to use a nearby dam to restore power to their city, however, it falls into Ape-territory. The film revolves around how they resolve this situation.
The movie brings back a lot of the elements that were loved about the last film, and expands on them. Caesar and the rest of the Apes become more developed by the end of it than they have any right to be. They use sign-language for a means of communication, and honestly, they find a way to get across more emotion than one would expect. The film builds Caesar highly as a strong character, as well as Koba and Blue Eyes. One of these is a new character that you be introduced to in the movie. Koba is very well in his role. Surprisingly, I think that he might even be the second-best character in the film, behind Caesar. He actually does a couple things that make him likable, especially when he is in the armory, but he also feels like a throwback to certain more colorful villains that you love to hate.
The human-side is also an improvement. I also like to see a performance from Gary Oldman and Jason Clark achieved a lot from his role as well.
The CGI is even better than it was in the last movie, having to tackle a lot more that it didn’t tackle before. The story is so well-written that I wanted to bring it up again. The story is also very well written.
Thanks for reading…