Starring: Andy Serkis, Toby Kebbel, Nick Thurston, Terry Notary, Karin Konoval, Judy Greer, Doc Shaw.

With: Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit McPhee, Kirk Acevedo, Keir O’Donnell, Kevin Rankin

Directed By: Matt Reeves

Family.

This movie is about family. Caesar has a family, in a large sense, because he watches over a colony of apes. He also has a family. A son, a wife, and a newborn. His former foe Rocket also has a family. Jason Clarke has a family too. He has Keri Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee. He has a slightly larger family, which includes the other men who go out on runs with him. Then he has his human camp family, which consists of a few hundred survivors that have held up in the city.

It’s about what you would do to keep your family safe. Not just alive, but safe. Caesar understands that. Clarke understands that. Their families keep them grounded, and keep them thinking about safety first.

Koba does not have a family. Koba is evil.

Gary Oldman does not have a family. Gary Oldman is evil.

I mean, sure, they have the family in the larger sense. They have their community. But neither of them have a wife or children to ground them like the other characters. The film is sending a subtle message that not having a wife and kids will somehow cause you to slowly unravel, and become unstable. Koba moreso than Oldman. You could even call Oldman a situational villain. He’s a guy who is a villain by circumstance, and probably a rather nice guy the rest of the time.

It’s important to note that the other human identified as a “bad guy”, also never mentions a family. Rather, it is suggested that he lost his.

The humans are almost an after thought in this film. They are slightly underdeveloped, but I think it credits the strength of the Apes when you would rather see them on camera than actual actors. The plot of the film revolves around the spread of the Simian Flu (what Tyler Labine’s character, Franklin, had in the first film). It has spread worldwide. There were wars. Billions died. Now, a few survivors are held up in San Fransisco, trying to get the lights to come on.

Caesar has built a strong community. They even have a little camp, with huts and structures to keep themselves out of the rain. He’s teaching them to write, read, and talk. Caesar is not the only ape who talks in this movie, and he can now speak sentences, albeit sounding a bit like a caveman. I’m excited about the possibilities of the third film, and where they’ll take us.

Andy Serkis is brilliant as Caesar. Absolutely brilliant. You need to understand that he is actually standing there, where Caesar is standing, in every frame. He moves like Caesar, like an Ape. He did countless hours of research, watching apes interact with each other, in order to master this performance. Some actors get nominated for Oscars, and their performance was only a few minutes of work. Maybe a few days of shooting. Serkis doesn’t just deserve an Oscar, he demands an Oscar.

I understand how difficult it must be for the Academy to recognize this, so I’ve decided he should just get an honorary Oscar. I know he’s not deathly old, but he still deserves recognition for the body of work he has created as a motion-capture actor. And for what it’s worth, Toby Kebbel is pretty brilliant as Koba too. Sometimes, it’s easier to play crazy, and play the villain, than it is to be quiet, and just command the scene with silence. Often, Serkis has to act by commanding stillness, whereas Koba acts through a gruff growl, or a sneer. Koba is anything but still and quiet, he is treacherous and dangerous in every frame.

My favorite films of 2014 so far have all been summer releases. Dawn Of the Planet Of The Apes joins those ranks, and is quite possibly the best film of 2014 so far (that I’ve seen). My top 4 are all summer sequels. Dawn took the impossibly strong foundation in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, and built on it a more fully realized world, with even greater developed characters. Those characters… are apes. The fact that you can pull that much emotion out of computer generated imagery goes to show how great the motion capture talent is. Maybe one day, they’ll have their own Oscar category. For now, I just have to say Bravo, and hope Serkis gets his due.

FINAL GRADE: A