11) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

That rarest of beasts – a blockbuster with brains! – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is to its predecessor what The Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars. Thematically rich, undeniably epic, brilliantly directed and brought to life by some of the most talented actors in the game, it’s one of the most intellectually satisfying and emotionally potent popcorn pleasures in years.

The film is markedly different from most blockbuster fare at once, with a gorgeous, 20-minute opening sequence in which a community of intelligent apes, having flourished and developed civilization of their own in the absence of humanity (almost completely obliterated by a deadly disease), hunt deer in the Redwood forests outside San Francisco. Mostly silent and filled with close-ups on the faces of head ape Caesar (a mo-capped Andy Serkis, for whom the Oscar buzz is no joke) and his acolytes, it’s an engrossing first scene that’s indicative of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes‘ intentions as a whole.

Though it boasts some of the most thrilling action sequences of the year, this is not a film about war, or about conquest. It’s a very human parable about the cyclic nature of violence, and how that violence can derail the most promising of communities. Director Matt Reeves, a crack team of writers and the uniformly excellent cast keep the focus where it should be – on the tense relationship between apes and humans (and between apes and apes, for that matter), a crucial point in the franchise’s chronology that will decide which species will claim the Earth as their own. The answer is right there in the title. But despite that, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is still a grand, sweeping tragedy of staggering depth and impact.