Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – movie review

Grade: A

Lets put aside the acting and the story for just a moment, both of which were great, and consider that there were no apes, no real apes at least, in this movie. There wasn’t a single moment, not one frame, that I saw where I thought, “Oh yeah, the apes are all computer graphics.” That is astounding considering the large number of extreme closeups.

Note: I saw the movie in 2D. I don’t know if the same can be said of the 3D version.

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The thing I liked most is that the plot revolves around the character development instead of the other way around. Summertime blockbusters are typically thought of as heavy on the action and lite on the story (Cough-cough-Transformers). And wintertime movies are usually the obverse – Peter Jackson movies withstanding – heavy on story and character development and lite on action. With DotPotA we get the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of movies.

Dear Hollywood, more like this please.

The only thing I can think of to gripe about (I have to be critical of something, right?) in this movie is that I thought it was rather predictable. Not that that’s such a bad thing. It’s hard to tell a story that focuses on character development that isn’t predictable. But if they could have somehow managed it, I’d given them the first A+ movie rating in over 2 years. As it is, they’re going to have to suffer with only an A.