This film follows the return of Caesar after a virus caused by the apes has wiped out human existence on the planet. Caesar is essentially the "monkey king" and has built a home for his family and hundreds of other monkey's whom have been previously affected by the virus. Thus these monkeys can all speak English, but often choose to speak in shrieks and "Whoo-HA-HA", which in 3D is freaking terrifying! the surround sound also added wonderfully to the whole terrifying introduction to the monkey's when angered, with occasional rustles behind your head and screeches coming from all corners of the screen room. At parts I would forget entirely that these creatures in front of me were just an animation, the fur, the eyes, every movement has been executed with perfection, kudos to the animators behind the film! I found myself with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye when the monkey's were sad, OH THE FEELS.The classical "fight scene" at the end was a nail biting, edge of seat affair. after following some quite brutal scenes of ape on human aggression, the good and the bad fight it out - Caesar vs the extremely evil looking monkey with scars all over him and a huge one over one blind eye (who just happens to be the bad guy). This evil monkey, "Koba" featured in the first film, and although he wasn't portrayed as a bad guy then, you could kinda guess due to his stereotypical scary deformities. Koba's fuel to his fire is his hatred for the humans, and I can safely say, the concept of a gigantic evil monkey, riding on a horse with a rifle in each hand is more terrifying than any horror film I have ever seen. I felt as though there should have been a video game created of the war scenes, especially with a game-like 1st person view of Koba as he drives the tank towards the gates, as the tank gun spins on the pivot, the camera moves with it showing the fighting and destruction around, with yet again, astounding graphics. The director's choice of keeping the Apes characteristics very different from the original films was a win for me, unclothed, still move like apes and behave like apes, this is a stark difference to the clothed and human-like apes from the originals.
Despite this film displaying brilliant direction and visuals, the story line could have been done more justice, unlike the first film which developed a more original narrative, I saw way too many similarities between the Lion King and this film! The characters include a Father who has a son who is next in line, a new born baby, a wife, a wise old monkey (Orangutan) who offers wisdom and comfort to the son, and an evil (sort of) uncle who has a scar over one eye. When the wife gives birth they carry the child over the ledge of rock that overlooks the entire forest, this shot looks almost exactly like the opening to the "Lion King", I was almost tempted to start singing "Circle of life" from the back row. The shooting of Caesar mirrors that of Mufasa's death, (minus the stampede!) with Koba (scar) shooting then him falling of a cliff into the depths! However, the list of original and brilliant parts to this film definitely outweighs the lack of a new story line, perhaps just how bad ass Koba looked with a rifle won me over, everyone loves a good villain after all!
