Kurt Loder Reviews Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Kurt Loder reviews Dawn of the Planet of the
Apes and writes that the movie’s central effect—of narrative
balance and cohesion—is a distinctive accomplishment by director
Reeves, who demonstrated how much could be done with a very low
budget in the 2008 monster flick Cloverfield. Here,
most admirably, he never gets carried away by the boatloads of
money he’s been given. Even the setpiece action scenes—a hurtling
battle involving the apes Caesar and Koba, a ferocious assault on
the humans’ massively walled urban redoubt—are tightly controlled;
they never go on longer than they should. And they’re deftly
punctuated with flourishes of humor (what would happen if a warrior
ape got hold of a tank?). The movie’s blend of spectacular digital
effects and actual ideas is a stirring achievement, and Serkis’
career-best performance elevates the picture to a level of rare
emotional complexity. If only more big summer movies were this
smart.

View this article.