Rave Reviews For Matt Reeves’ DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES; Plus Global Premiere Photos

In the week that was DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, fans of the franchise were able to get their fill of all things ape with the global premiere in San Francisco, a Live Google+ Hangout chat which included the film’s cast and director, a new clip and featurette, and Andy Serkis improvising a Gollum/Caesar conversation during a visit to Conan O’Brien.

The early and overwhelmingly positive reviews for the film came in Saturday morning:

Guy Lodge  (Variety) – “‘Cloverfield’ director Matt Reeves helms a bleak but spectacular sequel to the 2011 man-vs.-monkey hit.”

Steve Weintraub (Collider) – “Reeves has hit a massive home-run with this film and I truly hope audiences and critics embrace this special movie.”

Drew McWeeny (HitFix) – “Heartbreaking and harrowing, “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” is as good as big-budget science-fiction gets, technically dazzling and emotionally demanding.”

Todd McCarthy (THR) – “There is no question that Andy Serkis gives the most expressive, soulful, deeply felt performance of a non-human character the big screen has ever offered as the mature Caesar.”

In DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES a growing nation of genetically evolved apes, led by Caesar, are threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier.

They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.

Google+ Hangout

Andy Serkis visits Conan O’Brien

At one time the concept of successfully rebooting the PLANET OF THE APES series into a viable new franchise seemed impossible. But 2011’s RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, along with the majestic performance of Andy Serkis and groundbreaking visual effects from Weta Digital, did indeed launch a new franchise. The film became a global hit, grossing nearly $500 million and receiving critical and audience acclaim. It was the first live-action motion picture to star and be told from the point of view of a sentient animal — a character with human qualities and with whom moviegoers experienced a real emotional bond.

Rise was an emotionally arresting story, which the filmmakers wanted to carry forward in DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Rise of the Planet of the Apes concluded with the apes breaking free from their human captors – just as a deadly human-created virus spread globally. Caesar, the benevolent ape leader, leads the apes to Muir Woods, a haven outside of San Francisco, where Caesar, then a young chimpanzee, was taken by his human friend Will to escape the confines of the city.

Matt Reeves

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES director Matt Reeves wanted the continuity of his movie to fit into that timeline. “The story we are telling will lead to Planet of the Apes, and not Planet of the Humans and Apes, so it’s about how this film fits into that narrative.”

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES also explores how the apes evolved from the mostly mute but intelligent animals of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, into articulate, civilized beings that emerge as Earth’s dominant species within the canon of the Planet of the Apes franchise.

Reeves explains: “In Rise of the Planet of the Apes the apes said only a few words. With this film we show the apes at the dawn of their society, and learning to truly speak. Inevitably, the younger generation will be better with language than their parents, which leads to a very complicated portrait of the apes’ cultural order. This is the ape society that eventually evolves into what we see in the 1968 Planet of the Apes with an organized government, military and science.”

Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES co-screenwriter Mark Bomback says one of the script’s biggest challenges was to depict how the apes communicate with each other and how much the apes articulate verbally. “At the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes it’s shocking when Caesar speaks an entire sentence. In this film, we explore how much further the apes have advanced in their language skills.”

Producers and screenwriters Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa were at the San Francisco premiere and likened Caesar to a cross between Moses and Pinnochio. “He starts off wanting to be a real boy in RISE and by the end is leading his people to the Promise Land.”

20th Century Fox will release
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES in theaters
on July 11

Photos – Premiere presented by 20th Century Fox at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA on Thursday, June 26, 2014 (Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

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