“Apes not kill apes”.
Rise of the Plant of the Apes surprised pretty much everyone. From the campy original series, to the terrible Tim Burton attempted reboot at the turn of the century, the Planet of the Apes franchise couldn’t have had less cache than it did three years ago. But against the odds, it turned out to be a great movie, telling a great story, exhibiting some pretty ground breaking motion capture effects that upped the anti from things like The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. The only problem with that kind of unexpected success is, all of a sudden, the inevitable sequel has a lot more pressure on it to be good. A lot higher expectations to live up to. Which is why it’s so impressive that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes exceeds that pressure and those expectations.
Jason Clarke is Malcolm, part of a small group of humans who survived the Simian Flu, which wiped out most of the population a decade earlier. Trekking through the woods outside San Fran Cisco, headed to repair a dam that could restore power to the dilapidated city, they are confronted by one of the super intelligent apes who have been bust building their own community. Realising these chimps are smarter than the average roller skating, cigar smoking, music grinder dancing monkey, Malcolm convinces the human leader (Gary Oldman as Dreyfus) that a peaceful alliance with the apes is the way to go. (more…)
Bored and Dangerous 