Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has been a commercial success ($73 million the opening weekend) as well as a critical success (91% critics approval at Rotten Tomatoes and 79% at Metacritic). I will leave it to others to highlight the acting, directing, special effects, and overall plot. I am going to focus on why this story resonates with us.
Think of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as a modern allegory similar to District 9. D9 used aliens and humans to tell a story about apartheid; Dawn uses apes and humans to tell a story about how fear and hate lead to war (think of the troubles in Northern Ireland, or how the Arab/Israeli conflict is escalating again as I write this). The story is clearly fiction, but the situations are all too real.*
Everyone had a logical reason
for his or her actions. Koba spent his life being tortured by humans. When Caesar
tells him he wants to wait for the “human work” to finish (in this case, fixing
the dam), Koba points at scars on his body and growls, “Human work.” Humanity has certainly earned his wrath and
distrust.
From the human
perspective, the simian flu brought humanity to the edge of extinction. Their
fear of the apes is justified as well. One man noted he couldn't look at an ape
without getting physically ill. His hatred was illogical, of course. Humans created the virus that the apes spread. But fear and
hatred blind people to the truth; the mind will justify what the heart desires.
