Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Rating 7 out of 10

I saw the first movie in the Planet of the Apes reboot in 2011 and was not really impressed.  I gave it a 5.5 rating.  I didn't plan on seeing this version of Apes until the trailers drew me in.  This movie is much better than the last one.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is in the future when a virus has killed off most of the human population yet it did not effect the Apes at all.  Somehow the apes have learned how to build places to live in the mountains, ride horses, build fires and communicates via sign language.  At times they can even speak english!  They think all the humans are gone as they have not seen one in years.

Crazy things happen when a couple humans show up and a group have been living in San Francisco thirty miles away.  The humans are running out of power and their one hope is the electric power plant which happens to be in the back yard of the apes.  The apes don't trust the humans and want nothing to do with them.  Most of the humans don't trust the apes and are not nearly as surprised to se the Apes speak english as I would have been.

There are good and bad both on the human side and the apes.  Eventually they go to war and the apes sneak in and steal many of the humans guns.  The effects are as incredible as you might guess.  We saw the movie in the 3D format only because it was the only time that worked.  I would say we got zero benefit for our extra dollars other than looking cool in our dorky glasses.

The movie is a little longer than it needs to be but I was mostly entertained.  A little peeved that it seemed to more be a setup for Apes 3 rather than conclude this one.  I would say it's worth seeing at the theater.