Hmm...you know this film is interesting for a few reasons. Naturally you'd want me to go into how that is the case less than you actually want me to tell you what I think of the film but to be honest I really have to bring this one point up. Asethetically and in terms of characters, setting and background, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is considerably different to the 2011 prequel to the Planet of the Apes franchise Rise of the Planet of the Apes. However, in a large sense, there is another fundamental way in which this particular prequel is different from its 2011 predecesor in that it is quintisentially a different type of movie despite still largley focusing on the plight and moral as well as intellectual development of the apes such as Maurice, Koba and Caesar from the last film. what I'm essentially getting at here is that whereas the first film back in 2011 had an action packed finale centring around freedom of spirit and independence in regards to the quintisential apes of hte movie while the rest of the film focused on the dangers of modern science and hte politics therein, this new film focuses on struggling forces of survival throughout with a more indivudally emotional finale focusing on the personal motivations of hte film's characters with the last scence focused more on character development than sequel/prequel-building as was the case with Rise.
What this means is that while Dawn is inexricably linked to the 2011 film, both are comparativley and fundamentally different from one another on a very fundamental and both basic and philosophical level. Therefore I feel pleased at least in my own twisted, narcissistic and odd manner and personality that while I will have to compare the two films, they are both different in almost every way apart from characters, cast members and the truly astounding and noteworthy technology used to animate the apes in this film. Oh yeah, by the way, if you don't want to see this film for any discernable reason other than you have to, at least see this film for the amazing special effects making use of both actors, model animation and CGI. Seriously, I would say that its even worth seeing the film on that basis alone. Now naturally the film has been out for a while like say a week or so but seeing as how I haven't done a blog or review in a while since my review late last year of the severly underrated Gravity I thought that now would be as good a time to do a new film review as any.
So what do I think of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes? Not as good as the first film in a few areas but certainly good enough to be on par with the original 2011 prequel to the original 1968-1970's film series so much so that I would say that overall it is just as good in some areas and better in others. But first lets get into the bed of rice at the base of this delicious visionary film moussaka. The film picks up 10 or so years after the simian flu killed off most of earth's human population at the end of Rise and focuses on the struggles over a week or so between a colony of apes pining for peaceful and indipendent existence in the woods outside los angeles led by Ceasear the chimp played by Andy Serkis and a colony of militarised humans desperatley searching for a hydroenergy dam led by Dreyfus played by the ever-entertaining Gary Oldman. After the son of one of the apes, Rocket played by Terry Notary, is killed on the border between the ape and human colonies, the whole situation comes down to a tense and terse understanding and peace between Ceasar's camp and Dreyfus' colony as the humans attempt to opperate the vital dam located deep within Ceasar's land. However, while the intentions of the humans is simply to coexist with the apes and survive, Caesar's millitaristic and vengeful subordinate General Koba played by Toby Kebbel seeks to destroy as many humans as he can for being operated and tested on in a lab in the last film. After several mishaps involving the arming of the humans with a buried arsenal of weapons, Koba's facist hatred of humans and the token-human-im-an-asshole-so-naturally-I-have-no-real-reason-to-screw-up-the-treaty of Enrique Murciano's character part way through the film, we then are treated to a srawling and action-as-well-as-twist-filled finale.
All in all, this is kind of the same kind of set up in terms of overall story-structure as the 2011 film but perhaps the most important feature that one should take notice of is that despite the primive capabilities of their fighting forces, the apes are more than capable of defeating the humans this time round even though they had a good dust-up on the golden gate bridge at the end of the first film. I'm gonna admit that I was expecting the entire cast this time to suplement the story as well as was seen in the 2011 film but unfortunatley that just damn aint the case this time round. Whereas the human charsacters last time were film steryotypes that were well-acted and fitted into the story at appropriate points, the humans this time round are just film steryotypes with little to no purpose outside of Gary Oldman's character and the main human good-guy Malcolm played suprisingly one-note by usually-not-bad actor Jason Clarke who takes the place of James Franco this time round as the main, good and sympathetic human character. Naturally, seeing as how Franco's character likley died of the simian flu in the last film it was unlikley that he would come back but then one must also the consider the recent controversy of Franco himself texting an underage girl in less-than-appropriate ways was probably a big factor that his only role in the film is a flashback on a video-camera. However, that's another, more serious matter for another time perhaps maybe if I start doing news blogs again like I did that one time during the 2011 London Riots.
But on the note of the human characters, it must be noted that apart from Oldman's Dreyfus, there is a considerable lack of charisma in virtually every sense in comparison to the last film where actos like Franco or David Oyelowo ate up the screen with characteristical traits like understandable and misguided sympathy and downright deceptive corporate selfishnes respectivley. In general, the acting last time on the part of the actors playing the humans was just all round better which is in part thanks to the direction of Rupert Wyatt but seeing as how I mentioned earlier that Dawn is equally as good overall in part most likley thanks to this time director Matt Reeves, directorial issues are probably not the case. Admittedly we have seen good actors bomb spectacularly such as with George Clooney in Batman & Robin (1997) or Sir Ben Kingsley, Michael Manson and Billy Zane in Bloodrayne (2005) both films of which had terrible directors (addmittedly less so with Joel Schumacher on Batman and Robin). Therefore, it could just be down to mild inexpereince and the lack of any noteworthy actors in the human camp this time round besides Gary Oldman who has been consistently pleasing fiml audiences since the 1980s and particularly with 1990's hits like Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) or Leon the Professional (1994) and has shown recently that he can play likeable good guys with his turn as Commissioner Gordon in the recent Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy (2005, 2008 & 2012). Perhaps the worst actor this time round is Enrique Murciano who I'm sure isn't really a bad actor in anything else but here comes across as the most token and forgettable asshole-who-screws-everything-up-with-one-unexplained-act-of-idiocy. Needless to say, I think that the film could've done much better without him seeing as how the main source of initating an inevitable conflict between the apes and humans came from Toby Kebbell this time taking over as Koba from Christopher Gordon in the last film.
Needless to say, as in the last film, the ape characters kick FUCKING ASS! I seriously cannot go into enough depth as to how much I sympathised more with the apes more than the humans (with exception again to Oldman) and how much more so that I recognised them despite being made out of animation and models. Koba steals the scenes that he inhabits as Caesar's main hunter/general-type advocate hell-bent on destroying the humans for more than understandable reasons as seen in the last film where he was inhumanely experimented on with a drug aiming to cure alzehimers'. This means that throughout the film as we see the cooperation between apes and humans strengthen we also see Koba turn into a Hamlet/Alexander the great-suicidal-tradgedy of sorts when its clear that his hatred for humans has overtaken his love for Ceaesar and the other apes. Ceasar in particular this time round again played by Andy Serkis seems to share many of the characteristic similarities of his real-life historical namesake in that this time round he seems allot more weary of the world in an intellectually sympathetic way but is also far more strong and confident not to mention fierce and imposing. A necessary trait in a leader of such a large group as the apes in this film and even more so considering how we go into looking at Caesar's brilliantly acted teenage and baby sons and his mate. aside from this character development between films, we see Caesar develop throughout Dawn into a more ideologically realist individual ready to finally accept that he may have to step up to the mantle of being a millitary as well as sociologiccal leader with the prospect of an even more titanic clash with the human military in the inevitable sequel.
Oh yeah, there is definetly going to be a sequel. Admittedly, Rise did this allot more subtly at the end of the movie leading myself and a few people I know to assume that this was a one-off prequel which relativley and somewhat neatley explained the regular references to Caesar in the original 1960s series. This time round however, the sequel-bait-style ending is more in your face, resonating and dramatic which isn't necessarily bad but its just that we've seen it done so many times and with no impact or real promise of a seuquel as seen in The Last Airbender (2010) or Masters of the Universe (1987). Just on a side note actually, why doesn't anyone talk about how bizarre it is that Dolph Lundgren's characters in films like Masters of the Universe , The Punisher (1989) and The Expendable's franchise (2010-2014) are all startlingly the same and yet asethetically different in every way? Seriously, Masters is a spunky and upbeat adventure whereas 1989 The Punisher is by far the most asthetically dark and depressing comic book movie ever made. Sorry, I went off on a tangent again didn't I? Well considering my humour is generally shit I thought that you guys might appreciate the odd look into my short attention-span-based psyche. But anyway, I am definetly looking forwards to the inevitable sequel to this magnificent prequel of a film and for once I'm excited by sequilitis bait at the end of a movie outside anything related to Star Wars, Marvel films or late 1990's-early 2000's animes like Dragonball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon.
This makes me more excited to see the directorial work of someone as good at adapting this source material as Wyatt or Reeves because both have done a stellar job so far by making the best sci-fi films in years with both Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and revitalising the franchise virtually to an beyond its original status in less than 3 years. On top of that, I'm fascinated in seeing where next they take the groundbreaking special effects and actor models used to project, act with and animate the apes as you are able to see the emotion on every ape's face from Maurice to Koba, Caesar and Caesar's son in this film and the last one meaning that you don't have to look confused as modern filmgoers do nowadays when looking back at the then-groundbreaking way of showcasing the humanoid apes in the original film and TV series. Oh yeah, they actually made a really weird but suprisingly endearing TV series out of the same basis as the orginal Charlton Heston film series. Oh and on another side note, if I hear any of you badmouth Heston, I will FIGHT YOU ON THE STREET!
So in conclusion, I would highly recommend going to see this film. It was the first time in months that I went to the cinema with my mum and she didn't fall asleep in the middle of the film meaning that you'll be more than entertianed and moved throghout by some excellent action, storytelling, facial acting, sequel-baiting and shocking moments and twist-turns. I won't ruin what twists come up at the end of act 2 in the film but trust me...you won't see it coming. So wether or not you're a new or old fan of the franchise, I would highly recommend this film, there is no telling what good this new extension of the franchise will do but even putting that aside, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a seriously good action film with some limited albeit punchy commentary about loyalty and social coexistence and discrimination put together by a stellar cast topped off by a good screenplay, special effects and director. However, if you're still not convinced by this review to go see this film I have six words for you...APES RIDING HORSES WIELDING ASSAULT RIFLES.
Plot: 8.75/10
Action: 9/10
Acting: 6/10
Direction: 8/10
Special effects/camerawork: 9/10
OVERALL: 40.75/50
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