Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Watch the Latest Trailer Now!

Considering the slew of craptasticly needless remakes and reboots of classic films we get from Hollywood these days, Rise of the Planet of the Apes didn’t give me much hope of it being any better than the rest before I saw it. Ape oh ape, was I wrong!

Of course, the biggest thing going against it was the fact that expectations were high. The original Planet of the Apes, starring Charlton Heston, is revered by many as a sci-fi classic, even though its sequels (no matter what the most die hard fan says) increasingly diluted the once epic quality of the franchise. But here we are in 2014 and we’re getting a sequel to a reboot that’s also technically a second prequel to the original film. Yes, the original will also likely be remade down the line, should the critical acclaim and box office receipts warrant a continuation of the franchise, but the real surprise is that these new films are living up to the expectations of even the most hardcore fans. Of course, by the time they do remake the original, we won’t be surprised that they blew it up and it was Earth all along. Damn you all to hell.

The beauty of Rise of the Planet of the Apes is that it doesn’t try to retell the story we already know. It tells us how it all began. Why did apes become super-intelligent? Why did man fall beneath their heel? These are questions that have plagued fans for decades (please, don’t mention the sequels). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes continues that story with a devastated mankind scrambling to survive in a world where apes have seized control of the world. But it isn’t as simple as just one group being good and the other being evil. People/apes on both sides just want to live in peace. Many more think that piece can only be achieved by wiping out those that are different and whom they assume would do them harm. There are no straight ahead good guys in this film. And there are no clearly defined bad guys either. Caesar, played by Andy Serkis, is caught in the middle. He’s the catalyst that brought ape revolution to the world, but he’s also the only character still alive that has had both humans and apes in his life he considered family. And from the looks of this new trailer, as much as he doesn’t want war, if pushed, he will do what is necessary to tip the scales in favor of his new family.

What we get is a fantastic looking trailer with a palpable emotional component and more than a little to think about. How many other summer blockbusters, much less their trailers, can say that?

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes takes over theaters July 11th.

Image: 20th Century Fox