“Ape not kill ape” in new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Trailer

The bad thing about the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes is that director Rupert Wyatt is not returning to direct the sequel. The good thing about this new trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (those titles for sure do run long) seems to follow in Wyatt’s footsteps of making these movies more about the apes as fully fleshed characters instead of villains for CGI battles:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeR34YWdg6s]

For some thoughts hit the jump:

Directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let me In) the trailers references a lot of themes from the long running franchise such as the rule that apes should not kill each other. In the original movies the apes came up with this rule to distinguish themselves from the “uncivilized humans” and it might go in the same direction with this movie.

While James Franco isn’t returning Gary Oldman and Jason Clarke are the new main human faces and Andy Serkis is again playing the chimpanzee-leader Caeser from the first part.

Overall I must say that this trailer got me a bit excited for the upcoming movie since it seems to be treating both humans and apes as people and not turn one side into the antagonist. From the trailer it looks as if there really is no reason for war and both cultures could theoretically co-exist. Which sounds intriguing but also has my alarm bells going:

I just hope that Gary Oldman isn’t the sort of character who just wants to go to war with the apes because the plot needs a big action sequence. One of the best thing about Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the fact that the action – while spectactular – naturally evolved out of the plot and progressed the characters. The final setpiece wasn’t the moment to switch your brains off but instead engaged the audience because they were unsure on which side they were on. Furthermore all decisions leading to the final battle came logically from the characters and their battle was not built upon a misunderstanding. The final  battle in the first movie juxtaposed the entire emotional conflict.

And right now I have the fear that there will be an evil human (Oldman) who goes to war who needs to be stopped/killed so that Caesar and Jason Clarke’s character can stop this “misunderstanding”.

But I am still hoping for the best and that this sequel has the same strength as the surprisingly great reboot did in 2011.