As long as I have been a film critic, I have been completely against the idea of the remake, be it a formal readaptation of a previous work, or a sequel/prequel made years after the original.  Remakes have always struck me as a lazy way for Hollywood to make a quick buck, by cashing in on the popularity of an original work and simply reshaping it to make it a “new” movie.  This doesn’t necessarily mean all remakes are bad, but it shows the kind of mindset I have going into a movie like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to a prequel of the classic Planet of the Apes.  It may be an unfair mentality to hold, I digress, but the sheer concept of a movie like this puts me in a less than delighted mood.

That being said, this film fares better than the first prequel to the classic sci-fi movie, acting as more of a post-apocalyptic action film than a science fiction movie.  With the substance that caused the apes to become intelligent developing into a deadly virus, the majority of the human race has become extinct, leaving room for more scenes of solely apes.  And this movie makes a leap in that front, delivering apes with more character and emotion behind them than what we had seen in the original.  In fact, the ape characters offer more emotion and better performances than their human counterparts, who offer bland and lifeless characters.  Only Gary Oldman fares well, but that has little to do with the writing, and more to do with Oldman’s talent as an actor.

Conflict arises when the humans need to cut through the apes land, as there is a dam on the other side that they need to generate power for the ruined San Francisco.  Thus, there is unrest in both the ape and human communities, with some of each side being acceptant of the other, and the others not trusting each side.  Mishaps occur, and all out war ensues.  Though the trailers seem to make out Oldman to be the main villain, I felt all of his choices were justified with the information he was presented.  Our movie’s main antagonist is actually Caesar’s ( the head ape with motion capture work by Andy Serkis)  right-hand ape, Kobe, who hates the humans by principle and causes the war.  The plot is as basic as it sounds, with nothing that will catch you off-guard if you know this kind of story.

Only the CGI leaves a significant impact, which does an impressive job of demonstrating the power of computer generated effects.  When there is an entire army of apes attacking the human base, the effects are convincing enough to make it seem real.  The action is pretty great too, especially when you get to see the ridiculousness off apes firing guns haphazardly, and yet somehow they manage to hit their targets.  It manages better than the first movie at holding an audience members attention throughout the movie, but don’t expect to remember much about the movie, aside from its great effects.  Unfortunately, the movie isn’t good enough to avoid the inevitable statement that come from most remakes;  this didn’t need to be made.