As a movie junkie, I have come to the conclusion that all big budget films will forever fall under two categories. The first category is a remake, reboot, or sequel. I group them together because all three types of movies are in general, not terribly creative. The other group are movies made from blockbuster books that are almost guaranteed to turn a profit (Hunger Games, 50 Shades Of Grey, Harry Potter, Eragon, etc.). If you want a movie that is truly groundbreaking or original, then you will have to watch independent films.

I watch my fair share of independent films because I like original ideas. But there are just as many lousy independent films as there are lousy blockbusters. I used to rail against remakes and reboots. But Star Trek and Godzilla changed my mind. Hollywood, in my opinion, is getting better at remakes and reboots. The technology allows those old stories to have brand new dimensions. But sometimes Hollywood reboots a movie franchise in a way that can arguably be considered better than the original. It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened with the new Planet Of The Apes franchise.

I loved the first two or three movies of the original Planet Of The Apes franchise. I understand why that very first movie was considered so groundbreaking. The political, economic, religious, and social commentary in that first movie was nothing short of brilliant. I could watch that movie over and over again.

But as much as I respected its method and groundbreaking approach, I always felt that the first movie really lacked something. I know that the original series of movies was meant to be just that – a series. By the time it was done, it had pretty much told its entire story. But the original series utilized that time travel element that has always been a bugaboo for me. I hate time travel and I consider it lazy writing when a story explains away everything with time travel.

The 2001 reboot of the Apes series was weak and, in some spots, ridiculous. I liked the movie, but it was extremely shallow compared to the original. Then again, anything with Marky Mark is weak and shallow. Sorry, the guy just does not strike me as a quality leading man.

I always felt that if the Planet Of The Apes story could be told with a little more continuity, then it would be something awesome to behold. The problem is that telling an Apes story that is more “believable” would risk losing that political and social edge. The Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes gave me hope. It was a great movie that set up the new franchise very well. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes followed up Rise in such a brilliant way that I cannot wait for the third installment.

Let’s get some of the nitpicky negative stuff out of the way first.

The movie skips past a lot of things that made no sense in the way they were presented. For example, all of the apes suddenly knew how to use human guns when none of them had any contact with guns in their lives. Human intelligence cannot automatically make you a natural for using a gun because I am a human and have no idea how to load or fire a gun. But you can get past that pretty easily because the movie is paced so well.

Another big problem with Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes was that it was predictable. There were a few surprises here and there but, for the most part, you see this movie coming a mile away. But it is done so well that, even though you know what is coming next, you simply have to watch it.

The Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes utilizes the ape characters from the Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes extremely well. The progression of the apes’ intelligence and communication skills seems plausible. In other words, we are not introduced to apes speaking the King’s English and quoting scientific theory like we were in the original series and in 2001. The way these apes talk makes sense and the mixture of hand signals and speech for communication is extremely easy to follow.

The political and social messages in this movie are frightening. The dark tone of the movie helps to drive home its negative outlook of the future of our planet very well. When the human race is left to his own devices, it panics and turns on itself. But, in the end, any intelligent species has the capacity to destroy itself, as the apes almost do in this movie.

There are strong leaders in this movie (Caesar for the apes and Malcolm for the humans) and there are evil characters that you cannot wait to watch die (it’s a movie – don’t be so sensitive). Then you have characters like the one played by Gary Oldman that you just don’t know what to do with. But it is that confusion of purpose that makes Oldman’s character, and others like it, fit so well into this movie’s world.

Once again, as with Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes makes no great leaps of logic and assigns nothing outrageous to man or ape. We are not left with a feeling that the things we saw could not have happened. Quite the contrary – we are left with a feeling that we were watching a news report more than a movie.

The human race’s ability to panic and turn on itself has been represented in hundreds of movies. But when we see in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, we see a situation that could easily happen in our lifetime. I don’t mean that we could see our planet ruled by talking monkeys in our lifetime. I am talking about the strong possibility that our own human insecurities could allow us to turn a crisis into a life-ending disaster. That is what Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes does so well and that is why this is a welcome addition to one of the better franchise reboots in movie history.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

George N Root III is a movie fanatic who spends his weekends at the Sunset Drive-in. He invites everyone to get a drive-in at least once this summer and see a movie on the really big, silver screen!

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