Cinema Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (12A, 130 Mins.)

Synopsis: In the wake of a disaster that changed the world, the growing and genetically evolving apes find themselves at a critical point with the human race.

Verdict: Following on 10 years later from the events of the surprisingly masterful RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, this has proven to be an altogether different sort of film without ever feeling out of place in the franchise. Where RISE was essentially a coming-of-age story, focusing primarily on the relationship between James Franco and Caesar, DAWN has a much darker tone with a focus on war and revolution. 

Things get off to a bit of a slow start, with there being hardly any spoken dialogue for the first 10-15 minutes as we delve into the ape colony. The joy of this movie though is that it isn't purely reliant on the grand spectacle of an endless bombardment of in your face 3D action scenes without ever becoming completely dull. Primarily this is because it does have a lot to say - about morality, life & death. However this means that there's rather a lot of scenes where the 3D was rendered useless as there are long periods where the camera is focused on the faces of the characters involved in the dialogue. As an affect on the film overall though, it draws the audience even more into the characters thus ramping up the tension when events do start to escalate out of control. Having felt like you've grown up with him after the first film, you can't help but feel completely involved in his story so whilst some of the human drama might seem a bit clichéd it feels like the stakes are much higher than, for example, the Transformers movies. There were points throughout where I physically gasped (a rarity) as some of the events unfolded - this is far and away the most tense that I've been in the cinema for a long time.

The performances also live up to the hype. Andy Serkis' interpretation of Caesar is so real and raw with the movements that he makes that some of the audience actually forgot that they weren't actually watching real apes. This achievement should also be used to herald the technology which has helped to make what some may think of as a mad concept feel all too real. The human cast's performances also brought to mind those of WORLD WAR Z - another very dark apocalyptic drama - as they effectively portrayed the strain the characters are under making it all the more realistic and relatable.

The only real flaw with this movie was one that I have had with several blockbusters of late, its length. It is probably about time that someone remind Hollywood that very often less is more. With a bit of a tighter edit the lull that exists in some of the middle of the film could have been resolved. Whilst it is never boring, some of the dialogue felt a bit unnecessary. However if this was my only problem then they're clearly onto a winner.

4/5