“I always think… ape better than human. I see now… how much like them we are.”
The H-Bomb: Some ten years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the majority of the human race has been wiped out by a virus. A band of survivors, a few hundred or so, led by Dreyfus (Gary Oldman), are living in the ruins of what was once San Francisco. They are running low on supplies and power, and are desperate to reach the outside world. In order to do that, they’ll have to reactivate an old dam outside of the city.
Trouble is, that dam happens to be located deep in the forest where Caesar (Andy Serkis), James Franco’s trick monkey from Rise, and his legion of evolved apes have made their home. And these apes have come quite a ways in the last decade; they hunt with weapons, can ride horseback, and communicate with each other through sign language. A few of them can even speak aloud. All things considered, they’re about as smart as humans, and thusly they consider mankind a grave threat.
Naturally, Caesar is not so keen on letting a small cadre of humans into his territory to fix the dam, particularly since one of his own was shot and wounded in an earlier encounter. However, after meeting one on one with the party’s leader, Malcolm (Jason Clarke), who seems like a reasonably nice bloke, the great Caesar decides to let them in for one day to do their thing, so long as they check their guns at the gate.
Caesar and Malcolm appear to forge a trust, one that could lead to lasting peace between Man and Ape. Sadly, one exceptionally stupid human in Malcolm’s group has to go and fuck it up by sneaking a gun into the apes’ territory. This causes Caesar’s second in command, Koba (Toby Kebbell), to organize an assault against the human compound, which in turn could lead to all out war.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a fairly solid flick, but it didn’t exactly make me squirt my shorts, so I passed on Dawn in the theater. That is a mistake I will forever regret. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is without question one of the most visually stunning and viscerally exciting films I have seen this year, and it truly saddens me that I can only now imagine just how spectacular it must have looked on the big screen in 3D. The original Planet of the Apes may be a classic for the ages, but this one takes the concept to a whole new level.
The visuals alone make this an absolute must own on Blu-Ray. Director Matt Reeves, along with his cinematographer, Michael Seresin, and his visual effects team, have created some of the most beautiful post-apocalyptic landscapes I have ever feasted my eyes on. Calling a post-apocalyptic world beautiful may seem like an oxymoron, but it’s really the only apt description. The forests where the apes roam are lush and breathtaking, and the ruins of San Francisco are just haunting, and equally beautiful in their own sad way.
Reeves also flawlessly executes the film’s numerous action sequences, which are genuinely intense and thrilling, particularly a nighttime battle sequence, with an epic point-of-view shot on top of a tank that is indeed an awesome sight. What’s makes the action work, of course, is that it’s shot and edited in a way in which we can clearly see what’s happening… a damn rare thing these days (Ahem, Godzilla 2014). That Reeves is willing to show off all the technical wizardry on screen, instead of trying to hide it in shadowy photography and fast editing, demonstrates that he is a filmmaker who gets the genre, gets the material, and knows exactly how to make it entertaining.
As incredible as the action and cinematography are, they pale in comparison to the effects of the apes themselves, a true achievement that deserves to win every technical award of the year (and being that this is the year that brought us Interstellar, that is saying a lot). I know that every Goddamn monkey on screen has to be CGI… but I’ll be damned if I can tell. They look so bloody real, as if I could reach my hand through the screen and touch them. They’re apes, yet at the same time, not apes, as their eyes and facial expressions convey emotions beyond what any animal should be capable of.
That brings me to perhaps the picture’s greatest triumph, Serkis’s motion capture performance as Caesar. Known for over a decade as being the go-to motion capture actor, Serkis goes above and beyond anything he’s ever shown us before. Beyond Gollum, beyond King Kong, he gives an astonishingly complex performance. Caesar is a conflicted leader, who wants to peacefully coexist with mankind, yet knows just how dangerous they can be. Serkis conveys all of this through facial gestures, body language, and the few words he does speak. He is top billed here for a reason, this is his film, and dare I say, he has earned some serious award consideration in the coming months (Screw you, Golden Globes).
I only wish that the human characters were given anywhere near the depth and definition of Caesar. Sadly, this is where the writing falls a bit short. Clarke’s Malcolm is a decent guy who just wants to get along with his primate counterparts. That’s all there is to him. Kirk Acevedo’s Carver is a one-note asshole who ultimately causes human-monkey relations to go to shit. That’s all there is to him. Keri Russell gets to stand around and look concerned, while Kodi Smit-McPhee, who was so good in Reeves’ previous film, Let Me In, gets even less to do than that.
The only human character with any real complexity is Oldman’s Dreyfus. This may have a lot to do with the fact that Oldman will totally class up any role he’s given, but I did sense a genuine internal conflict going on with him. He’s not an antagonistic character by nature, it’s the impossible situation he’s in, and his fear and lack of understanding of the apes, that forces him to make some unfortunate decisions. Oldman gives the best performance of the human characters, it’s a crying shame his screen time is so limited.
The one dimensional human characters aside, I can’t think of a damn thing wrong with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It is undeniably one of the best films of the year, and one that, again, I am kicking myself in the ass for not seeing in the theater. It’s themes and ideas are every bit as intelligent as the ones of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes, and on a technical level, it is a marvel. Speaking as someone who was never a huge Apes fan, I can say without hesitation that I fucking loved this movie, and of all the films this 46-year-old franchise has given us, this one is easily the best.
