Matt Reeves took over directing duties from Rupert Wyatt, for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes along with the third installment titled "War". What to say about his direction and visual storytelling? It's superb and he was rightfully chosen for this franchise. The screenplay is once again written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, but Mark Bomback joins them. The writing is smart and it's been both directed and written with intelligence, wanting to put research first instead of imagination first. The themes they bring up, from the script and how Matt Reeves brought that to the screen. The story and all the characters, new and old, are so rich. It stars Andy Serkis as Caesar and alongside him are a brilliant cast with Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirk Acevedo. With this cast of brilliant actors, comes a bunch of brilliant performances. Andy Serkis gets to do much more in the role as Caesar, verbally I mean, here he's still one of the film's highlights. But Jason Clarke, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Gary Oldman and Keri Russell stand out a lot from the human characters whilst Toby Kebbell is there alongside with Andy Serkis as having one of the best performances. You see Toby's character, Koba, was only briefly seen in the first film but is one of the leads here. Mark Hughes from Forbes stated that Kebbell's performance as Koba truly defined the film, and compared Kebbell's performance to that of Heath Ledger's as The Joker in The Dark Knight. It's one of the film's best character arcs, hugely thanks to the writing and the character's sympathetic motivations due to his history of abuse. The interesting thing is how this character have grown to be and are now cited as one of the best, most developed and sympathetic movie villains of the 2010s. All thanks to three things; Toby Kebbell's performance, the writing and Matt Reeves' direction.
In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, human survivors battle to stay alive in the wake of a deadly pandemic, while Caesar tries to maintain control over his expanding ape community.
The story has such emotional depth, it's written and directed so brilliantly that you just fall in love with the characters and world built. The visual effects are one of the reasons why it's so easy to get immersed, it looks spectacular. It also sounds spectacular, with the sound design but especially the musical score, Michael Giacchino's score is truly brilliant and works so well with the emotional drama along with the memorable sequences and action. The action sequences are terrific, directed and performed to such perfection. Matt Reeves' direction is one of the film's many highlights, I couldn't picture anyone else to helm this movie. It's shot so beautifully, with imagery that'll stay in your mind for years after you've seen this film. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was a commercial success for a reason, becoming the eighth-highest grossing film of 2014 and the highest-grossing film in the franchise. It also received numerous awards and nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.
If you decide to rewatch this film, or this whole trilogy, you might find yourself in the same boots as me. You notice the themes more than watching solely for the spectacular experience the Apes films have to offer. Theme of fatherhood is present here like the previous film, but now it's Caesar who's the father. We also see the difference of two people, who're trying to live together to find peace, but like in the real world, greed leads to questionable actions. I think this is a great film, a perfect sequel that expands on lore and its characters, a story worth telling. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a post apocalyptic SciFi film, with half its cast being Simonians, would an outsider to the franchise ever think this story and these characters would ever be more human than in other films. It's incredible from start to finish, enough tension and suspension to satisfy anyone.
