“Dawn of the Planet of The Apes” is a daring film!

It is a great summer blockbuster, with great cinematography and captivating stunts that are similar to “Rise of the Planet of The Apes.” The technical aspects fits it. Cinematography: done by Michael Seresin (who did cinematography for “Midnight Express” (1978), and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004)). Editing: done by William Hoy (who did the editing for “I Robot” (2004), “300” (2007), and “Watchmen” (2009)) and is also done by Stan Stalfas (who did the editing for “Chernoby Diareis” (2012), and basically edited a bunch of TV shows).

Director Matt Reeves does a perfect continuation after “Rise of The Planet of the Apes” which released in 2011. in the beginning, the opening drags a little. It opens more with us viewers getting an idea of how the apes live their lives and the sign language they use to get around, given that most of them do not quite talk yet except Caesar (their leader and played by Andy Serkis who was brilliant as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy).

The opening introduces us to the corrupt world of human-life and how the apes live in it. Malcolm (Jason Clarke) is a man trying to generate electricity in New Orleans, Louisiana (the city where everyone is in). The problem is the growing nation has been evolved by apes and led by Caesar. The apes feel that human survivors are a threat of the devastating virus (unexplained) that was released a decade before everything turned to a disaster.

Flash forward with the friendship between Caesar and Koba (Toby Kebbell), where Caesar helped Koba break-free from the prison they were held in, in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” As Caesar starts to get along with the humans, Koba despises humans and begins to hate Caesar for it. For Koba to get his way and put humans at harm (which is what he enjoys doing), he gets acquainted with humans negatively to learn how to use their weaponry and kill them. This builds tension and soon builds a war between humans and apes, and apes who have been betrayed by other apes.

“Apes don’t want war!” Apparently, that statement is what causes anarchy between Koba and Caesar. As I watched “Planet of the Apes” this statement was what had me captivated, because most of the time in end-of-the-world films, it is started out with a conflict happening, and then boom war. With Caesar and Koba, Koba corrupts their friendship as he says, “Caesar loves humans more than apes,” and that is not all entirely true, but Caesar is quite aware that humans can also do good for the world and provide a proper home if everyone gets along.

This film is by far…a great summer blast. has its moments that dragged a bit but at moments of action it definitely blows you out of the water with apes flying everywhere and shooting machine guns. Literally…it is the whole bam, bam, bam, concept that you do not want to end. Three stars.