Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Movie Review Summary

The movie begins with Caesar (Played by Andy Serkis), his son Blue Eyes (Played by Nick Thurston), his friend Koba (Played by Toby Kebbell), and others on a hunting party, where they are resorting to eating animals for food. During this hunt, Blue Eyes is hurt by a Bear, and despite Caesar' gentle reproof, Blue Eyes refuses to take it. Koba encourages him by saying that "Scars make you stronger.” which he receives. AS they come back to their home, Caesar is informed that his wife is giving birth, and he witnesses the birth of another son, which gives his joy. There is a class room where Maurice, (Played by Karen Konoval) an Orangutan teaches other young apes, and on the rock, there is a law, “Ape Shall Never Kill Ape.” Later on, Caesar and Maurice discuss the issue of not having seen any humans in 10 years, and it leads them both to believe there are no more around. Little do they know how wrong they are.

Not long after, a group of humans who are searching for an alternative power source (water power) for electricity in their community, have an encounter with the apes, and in the melee, one of the apes gets shot. In an attempt to keep peace, yet also show strength as apes, Caesar leads a large group of Simians to the human's community. There he makes it clear that he wants a peaceful co-existence, and the only way this will happen, is if they stay away from each other. The apes then leave, and Dreyfus (Played by Gary Oldman) stirs the crowd into a frenzy promising them that they WILL get the alternative source of energy regardless of whether or not they encounter the apes. He then has a private talk with Malcom (Played by Jason Clark), who asks Dreyfus to give him 3 days to get hits energy source. Dreyfus agrees, but because of his paranoia, he begins to devise something very evil. Dreyfus goes on to one of the other human survivors, and orders him to get every last bit of weaponry out, because he believes it will be needed for an upcoming battle with the apes.   

Malcom then gets his group of people together which includes his wife Ellie (Played by Kerri Russell) and his son Alexander (Played by Kodi Smit-McPhee), to go find this power source, only to encounter the apes again. This time, Malcom gets to speak with Caesar, and explains their situation, so Caesar agrees to let the humans go after their power source, which is a dam that is malfunctioning. Caesar does this on ONE condition, and that is NO GUNS. Unfortunately one of the crew violates this, when his weapon is discovered by Caesar's newborn son. Upon seeing this occur, Caesar angrily orders the humans to leave, but this is quickly taken back, when Ellie saves the life of Caesar's wife, who has become ill. He then allows the humans to stay one more day only, and the apes proceed to help the humans obtain and operate the dam so they can have electricity. During this Alexander and Maurice become friends over a book Alexander has been reading.

In the meantime, Koba, who has become paranoid himself, leads a group of apes to the human city, where they see the stockpile of weapons. Koba, is caught by the humans in the community, but gets away, by pretending to be a simple chimp. Koba now believing that ALL humans are evil, believes that Caesar needs to see how evil they are, but Caesar chooses to trust them. Koba then gets the idea to take over the Apes, but in order to do this, he will need to eliminate Caesar. He goes back to the human city, where he encounters two men, who are guarding the weapons, kills them, and takes as much of the weapons as he can with the others with him. He even goes so far as to convince his son, Blue Eyes to join him in this venture. At a crucial point, Koba proceeds to betray Caesar, by shooting him, leaving him to die. Malcom, Ellie and Alex discover Caesar badly wounded, and they make their way into the city, where they stop off at an old familiar place; Caesar's old home! Malcom goes back into the city to retrieve medical equipment where he meets up with Blue Eyes, who now sees through Koba, and helps Malcom get away. Upon Malcom and Blue Eyes arrival, they perform surgery to remove the bullet, and they learn that the place they are at was the home of the very scientist who discovered the Alzheimer's treatment that turned into the deadly Simian flu Virus. In the meantime, Koba leads the apes and gorillas into the human's city, where they capture them. In the course of this, Koba kills another ape named Rocket, for refusing to kill humans. He even goes do far as to lock up ANY ape, including Maurice who refuses to assist him. Upon reuniting with his father, Blue Eyes successfully breaks out all the imprisoned apes, and the humans, and thus the revolution begins!

Meanwhile Dreyfus and others plan to blow up an important structure in the human city, so the apes cannot succeed in their attempt to take over. Malcom discovers this, and tries unsuccessfully to prevent this. Up above Caesar and Koba have one final battle, in which once the tower they are on explodes, Koba is hanging on a jagged beam. Upon seeing this, he hears Koba beg saying “Ape must never kill ape.”, to which Caesar replies that Koba is no longer an ape, and casts him off the beam into the fiery depths below. When all is calmed down, Malcom warns Caesar that more humans will come, and that he Ellie, and the rest of the humans are leaving, so a war can be prevented. Caesar understands, but tells Malcom that the war has just started.

Best part of story, including ending: I love how Malcom and Caesar truly try to get along and succeed even in the midst of others trying to do the opposite.

Best scene in story: 1. Where Maurice and Alexander get to know each other over a book the Alexander is reading.
2. When Caesar and the family discover his childhood home.

Opinion about the main character: I really applaud how Caesar genuinely tries to make friends with the humans, and eventually makes a new friend with Malcolm and his family.