The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical Records and Fox Music on July 7, 2014, and received polarising reviews with praise over the score's integration and criticism directed on the album length and lack of significant themes, with some comparing it as inferior to Giacchino's compositions.

James Southall of Movie Wave wrote "The score falls down in two ways – firstly for being so close to the Lost world and consequently losing a little of its impact; secondly from the album presentation, which is just far too long.

It would be churlish to focus on that, though, when there’s undoubtedly plenty of quality to be found – the atmosphere is carefully constructed, the core material is very strong, so with a better album production it could have really shone.

"[6] Jonathan Broxton wrote "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is one of those rare scores where it works really well in the film, but suffers slightly when removed from its visual inspiration.

"[9] Movie Music Mania wrote "Michael Giacchino's score bears little resemblance to that of its predecessor, but the film itself is such a departure from Rise of the Planet of the Apes that this change seems warranted.

The score has a lot of worthwhile material, but it's also one that, save for the propulsive action music, is quite slow paced and (in a rainy-day sort of way) oddly soothing.

Its darker moments boast references to Goldsmith's Apes, as well as frequent quotations of Ligeti's dissonant choral work (which, considering Desplat's Godzilla, seems to be all the rage this year), but this is a Giacchino score through and through.