Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014, Matt Reeves)

I'd safely say it's been well over a year since I've visited a movie theater and recently I got an invite and took it because, despite my lack of interest in any big releases coming out these days, I still tend to enjoy the theatrical experience. So I checked out "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" (in 2D cuz I was too hung over for the glasses) which, in all honesty, I had very little interest in, but having somewhat enjoyed the previous entry in the recently revived ape saga, I went at it with a relatively open mind and actually dug it, overall.

My recollection of "Rise" is pretty hazy, but since then the ape civilization is residing in the woods while what's left of the humans is left - scarce of resources - in the remnants of San Francisco for a decade. Since their fuel is running dry, they sent some people out into ape territory to make some fixes to a dam and generate some power for lighting and heat. Without getting too in depth, there's some much expected friction and trust issues between humans and genetically altered, super-smart apes which leads to ape-on-ape, as well as human-on-human and some ape-on-human backstabbing and, eventually, an all-out war...

There's a whole lot going on in this flick, story wise, but that's basically all ya need to know on it. Because of this, the runtime of over 2 hours moves incredibly quick. The CG primates look fucking terrific. As much shit as I talk about the over-use of CGI, I WILL say that they have just about perfected monkeys when it comes to this technology. It's pretty impressive. I could never get past those rubber Halloween masks from the 60s, so I'd call this a tremendous enhancement. And unlike "Rise", this one provides the 'goods' in terms of ape violence. There's very little cutsie bullshit human/ape bonding or whimsy - but a much more dark, apocalyptic tone and vicious ape carnage. Nothing real bloody or anything - cuz we're talking PG-13, obviously - but I'm not about to complain about hordes of angry monkeys on horseback, firing machine guns.

Typically, big action flicks really aren't my 'thing', but I'll hand it to "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" for keeping it serious, dark and fast-paced. Notable CG effects for the most part and no 'comic relief' bullshit. For a much more "mainstream" film, I gotta say it's an entertaining flick.