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In the new trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, our good pal Caesar is still working on his language development, and also working on that thing where he's amassed an army of his own kind that will end up ridding the planet of humans once and for all. At least, that's where we all assume this thing is headed. What with the "Planet of the Apes" in the title and all. For now, though, it looks like Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, and their band of simian-flu survivors are going to try their hand at making peace with the apes. Not if Gary Oldman has anything to say about it, of course.
2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a surprise box-office success, and an even bigger surprise when it went over quite well with the critics (to the tune of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes). One supposes it's easier to be a surprise hit when you're not so much living up to the cult legend that is the original Apes movies and instead the abhorrent Tim Burton remake.
If there was one area where Rise disappointed, however, it was in its finale. After a whole film full of well-played setup, wherein James Franco's heedless scientist (James Franco! Scientist!) raises a supersmart ape, ignorant of the havoc he will wreak upon mankind, the payoff—when the genetically-enhanced monkeys start wrecking shit and overtaking their oppressors—felt somewhat tame. Here was where the strictures of its mass-appeal PG-13 rating was felt most strongly. Where was the blood? The gore? The occasional smashed skull? After all that buildup, watching humans cage and mistreat and humiliate these proud, ever-more-humanlike apes, was it too much to ask to actually see some people get impaled by pieces of the Golden Gate bridge? Apparently, it was.