Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has all the trappings of a typical summer event film: it’s a sequel in a well known franchise, boasts an abundance of expensive CGI effects, a sci-fi story line where the fate of mankind hangs in the balance, and why not, stars talking apes who ride horses and shoot guns.
But what separates director Matt Reeves’ darker middle chapter of this trilogy from the typical summer big screen noise is that it exudes ground breaking special effects, and a thinker’s story that boldly, if not surprisingly, presents the film as character driven first and foremost. Dawn succeeds on all the right levels that also made Captain America: The Winter Soldier a winner, making it the second sequel this year to improve over its predecessor by taking the dark cerebral route and hitting it straight out of the ball park.
2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a smart unexpected gem. Rupert Wyatt’s successful and critically acclaimed reboot of the series restarted it on the right track and jettisoned John Chambers’ iconic Academy Award winning prosthetic simian make-up designs. Andy Serkis, famous for providing movement for Gollum and King Kong, breathed jaw dropping new life into the big screen version of the apes legend Caesar and opened the door for a whole new exciting direction for potential follow-ups.
Dawn is set a decade after Rise, which concluded with Caesar leading an ape revolution in San Francisco and then taking to the woods to establish a new society away from humanity. In the years that passed, the pandemic known as the Simian Flu has wiped out a good portion of man. Human survivors on the outskirts of San Francisco who are genetically immune to the virus have three weeks of fuel remaining to power their fortified camp. If they can repair a nearby dormant dam to provide electricity, they have a chance to re-build and possibly once again thrive as a species.
It turns out Caesar, his family and all the ape followers have made their home near the dam. The simians, whose increased intelligence stem from exposure to a failed Alzheimer’s cure, communicate with sign language. Caesar has attained the ability to speak, and he sounds nothing like Roddy McDowall. When an excursion by a team of humans leads to the first encounter in two years between man and ape and results in the murder of one of Caesar’s friends, battle lines are once again inevitably drawn. Raised by humans, Caesar is not void of compassion for man’s plight, and offers to allow them access to the dam, which doesn’t sit well with all of the apes.
Dawn boasts a fine cast of flesh and blood humans that includes Gary Oldman (Dreyfus), Jason Clarke (Malcolm) and Keri Russell (Ellie), but hands down the show belongs to the apes. Andy Serkis, Hollywood’s go-to guru for performance capture, returns to the role of Caesar and once again delivers in giving heart and soul to the ape leader. Serkis brings the human element of the digital imaging process to an entirely new level of realism. You can’t help but become emotionally invested with the undeniable deep on-screen presence of the apes.
If Rise had ten stand-out sequences that possessed the weight to astound audiences, Dawn has 50 or more. Quiet conversation scenes where the apes communicate through sign language or basic English never come off as what can be described simply as talking apes. These characters look as real as you could imagine, sometimes as convincing as footage from a National Geographic documentary.
Our ape villain comes in the form of Koba (Toby Kebell), a former lab chimp who was tortured before being freed by Caesar near the end of Rise. His hatred and mistrust of humanity is not without warrant. In one of the more subtle scenes that say so much, Caesar orders him to stand down after protesting apes assisting humans with repairing the dam. Koba is told Malcolm and his team will leave if they are allowed to carry out their human work. Koba responds by pointing to his useless eye the numerous deep haunting scars all over his beaten body, calling it all “human work.” Caesar and Koba are at odds, and that internal struggle in their world tragically ropes in the humans as well.
Reeves hit the ground running with Cloverfield in 2008, but really impressed genre fans with the far better than it deserved to be horror remake Let Me In. Working from the dark layered screenplay by Mark Bomback, and returning writers Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, he takes this film to visual and character depths never thought possible, especially considering half of the lead characters are apes. The fact that none of the apes often thought provoking dialogue comes off as laughable is a testament to the amazing synergy from all departments involved in bringing this film to life.
Reeves maintains a relatively slow burn methodical pace throughout the over two hour running time of the film. It boldly delves deep, with documentary worthy details at times, into the simian society, and questions whether humans or apes are the better suited species to rule the earth. Even the intense action scenes don’t feel like they are there just to pick up the pace, break up character arcs or interrupt the larger story. It’s another aspect of how the film is a rare breed among studio summer fare.
Old school fans may be able to detect similar “fall of man” plot DNA in line with the fourth and fifth installments of the original series (Conquest of and Battle For). The “Ape Shall Not Kill Ape” edict does prominently factor in again, but overall the homages to the original films are subtle (i.e. the names Caesar, Blue Eyes, Cornelia and Maurice). Additionally all the obligatory throw away lines and imagery were taken care of in Rise. Even the ape society caste system well established in the original series is (for now) being withheld. Dawn presents Caesar and his chimpanzees as top bananas among the apes. Wherin the originals had chimps as the scientists, orangutans were the scholars, and gorillas were military. Maurice the orangutan (a homage to Maurice Evans who portrayed Dr. Zaius), is the deepest thinker and quiet voice of reason among the whole lot of apes.
We all know where the story is headed, the title of the film alone is a spoiler. But getting there is a thinker’s thrill ride on so many levels. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is anchored by the riveting tour de force performance by Andy Serkis, whose time has come for acknowledgement from the Academy, mind blowing visuals from Weta digital. Its easily among the must-see movies of the year. It will leave you both breathless and awestruck when the credits role, and brainstorming where the next chapter will take us.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens in 2D and RealD 3D on July 11th.
REVIEW RATING: ★★★★½★
Director: Matt Reeves
Starring: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, Judy Greer, Toby Kebbell and Kodi Smit-McPhee
Screenwriters: Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 127 minutes
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