Critically Praised "Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes" Dives Deep Into The Psychology Of Violence, Say Creators

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year, both by fans and industry insiders – the latter are counting on it to revive a box office, left inexplicably dead after 4^th of July weekend. But unlike its 2011 predecessor, Dawn is under new management. So the challenge for newly appointed screenwriter Mark Bomback and director Matt Reeves is now to prove that they can sustain the franchise, while still releasing a movie that can stand on its own too feet (like its ape characters, get it?)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Early reviews of Dawn have been largely favorable.

For his part, Bomback reckons they’ve done just that. In this film, the previously mild-mannered ape leader Caesar must navigate a delicate treaty with the humans, while still keeping his restless advisor, the scarred chimp Koba, happy. But Koba doesn’t want to sit still and neither do the humans, who have been pushed to the brink of extinction by the virus unleashed in the last film. "We wanted to keep the same quality as 'Rise,' but there's also this larger franchise that it's a part of," says Bomback ("Unstoppable") for the New York Daily News.

Watch the trailer for Dawn below.

"At the end of 'Rise,' you see the flavors mixing together to give you [what will be] the larger 'Apes' film world. Our challenge was making 'Dawn' a bridge between the larger franchise and the reboot that rise was, and yet feel like its own story unto itself.

Beyond the technical elements of the story, Bomback says Dawn is a great film, because of the themes it delves into.

"I saw this as the moment when we could explore the question of, 'Why didn't the earth become 'Planet of the Humans and the Apes'?" says Reeves.

"We wanted to make it an anatomy of violence, a look at our own nature, which to me is what the best of the 'Planet of the Apes' movies do."