Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Animal instinct or human nature?

Have you ever seen a monkey riding a horse waving two semi-automatic weapons in the air?  No, it's not the circus, it's part of the plot in the newest instillation to the Planet of the Apes series, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  I know that a horse riding monkey seems quite comical, but honestly there was nothing funny about a massive amount of apes coming at you by trees, by feet, or by horse.  Caesar was one intimidating talking monkey on horse or not.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes picks up ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Caesar (a monkey from the previous movie who learned a lot of human traits by living with a human) and his monkey crew have gone into the woods and developed a life together while the human population has dwindled away due to the simeon flu.  We find that because of Caesar's intelligence, he's taught his pack to live a lot like humans in make-shift and somewhat elaborate homes, how to read, write, and speak.  A small group of humans looking for a dam that will help them survive, accidentally find the apes and war between humans and apes is on the verge of starting because of the actions and emotions of both humans and apes.

Watching this movie, a feel like a question has been posed, "are our emotions animalistic or human nature?"  Apes show many emotions in the movie: anger, compassion, love, hate, etc.  Hate and anger lead to war, while compassion and love try to stop the war.  Does that mean that we are more animal-like than we would like to admit?  I know a lot of humans believe what sets us apart from animals is our ability to control our emotions and make decisions, but what if how we feel is apart of our natural animal-instincts? Caesar and his group of apes live by the motto, Ape shall not kill Ape, and humans have been trying to live by a similar value since the beginning of time and failing miserably.  What does that say about our human-nature?

I'm not so sure if the writers of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were trying to make the movie so thought provoking, but I found it to be.  With all the heart-pounding action, ape-tastical violence, ferocious fight scenes (ape vs human, ape vs ape, human vs human), and gut-wrenching emotion, I'm sure we were just supposed to be entertained by what is on the screen, and I was, but I couldn't helping thinking were the apes using their animal instincts or what they learned from humans to fuel their emotions?  Either way, I enjoyed the movie and can't wait to see where the next movie takes us because I'm sure there will be another Planet of the Apes movie after this.