4.5/5
This 2014 movie is the second of its franchise, preceded by Rise of the Planet of the Apes from 2011. Rise was quite a good movie in its own right and set the franchise up perfectly. Even with how good it was, I did not expect to love Dawn or this series as much as I do. I guess there’s just something about an ape on horseback dual-wielding automatic weapons that really gets me going.
First off, Caesar’s character is awesome. He is the blueprint of a great leader and values peace above everything. Seeing the near-perfect society that he built and how respected he was just made Koba’s betrayal and uprising even more anger inducing. Koba also got bitched TWICE, the second time after Caesar was shot too. That is super embarrassing for a tough guy. It’s also another great example of Caesar’s extraordinary leadership. It reminds me of the quote by Thucydides, “The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.” The leaders that I respect the most are the ones that can walk the walk and talk the talk, and Caesar is the perfect example of that.
One thing I thought was hilarious was the human colony leader who blew his own ass up even though a military backup was coming. Was that really necessary brotha? He killed himself along with his boys and didn’t even take down the tower. Another thing was that apes have incredible aim and firearm knowledge considering they’ve never used them before. I have to assume that they were reloading mags and everything with how much spraying was going on.
I’m very much looking forward to War of the Planet of the Apes and the new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. If Maurice dies I will riot.