re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Thoughts with Spoilers; Fricking fantastic)

Here are my thoughts on it. First, I liked it. I've been a fan of the Apes films since I was a kid back in the 70's.

There's little I can say in praise of the movie that hasn't already been said. It was as high quality as I was hoping for.

So I will just share my other thought, where I think the filmmakers may have missed an opportunity.

I think they should have killed Caesar. Here's why: When Caesar went down, the apes went on a rampage, and exhibited the kind of behavior we know from them in the original movies. They started rounding up humans in cages and elevated themselves above them by force. This could have been the whole setup as for when the Apes went off the rails, as we know them after the spaceship lands in "Planet of the Apes."

And it could have set up an interesting moral dilemma for audiences in the next film, who are sympathetic to the Apes. Can you continue to pull for the Apes even when they have clearly gone bad? Will your exposure to how Caesar wanted them to be alter your view of how they actually are, under new, more violent and fanatical leadership?

It would have also been more interesting to see the Ape castes a little more developed, in my opinion. You started to see some of it with the gorilla guards, orangutan teachers and chimpanzee medics, but I think this movie lacked an interesting gorilla character.

That's all I got. Overall, really good. I know better than to let my thoughts of how it "should" have been actually take away from what's there, and what's there is a solid follow up to the last movie.