Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) English Language

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130min

Cast: Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Andy Serkis…and more

Writers: Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver & Pierre Boulle

We find our planet many years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes where humanity has been decimated by the Simian-Flu leaving pockets of survivors scattered around the globe, while Caesar (Andy Sirkis) has lead his Apes into the Northern-Californian forests to build a thriving civilisation only to be confronted by a colony of human survivors which sets off a series of events that threaten both species’ survival.

The action as expected of a summer blockbuster is impressive and entertaining and the storyline simple and effective if not particularly original, where this film excels is in the visual effects department and with the motion-capture performances from the actors playing the Ape characters.

It’s much easier to create convincing CGI characters when they don’t exist in real life but much more difficult to convince audiences that they are watching real characters when they are human or animals they know well, this film comes closest to that than any other ever made and the visual effects achievements are far greater than those of Avatar both visually and in terms of performance & emotional content.

Rarely do remakes and re-imaginings of classic films do justice to the originals but in the case of the new “Apes” films and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in particular they far exceed them, this looks like the best summer Blockbuster film of 2014.