Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Director: Matt Reeves
Screenplay: Mark Bomback and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver)
Stars: Andy Serkis (Caesar), Jason Clarke (Malcolm), Gary Oldman (Dreyfus), Keri Russell (Ellie), Toby Kebbell (Koba), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Alexander), Kirk Acevedo (Carver), Nick Thurston (Blue Eyes), Terry Notary (Rocket), Karin Konoval (Maurice), Judy Greer (Cornelia), Jon Eyez (Foster), Enrique Murciano (Kemp)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Year of Release: 2014
Country: U.S.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Dawn of the Planet of the ApesWho would have thought that one of the best movies of the summer blockbuster season would feature the potentially ludicrous image of an ape riding full-gallop on horseback firing a pair of machine guns? Yet, that is precisely what Dawn of the Planet of the Apes delivers, and that galloping ape is but one of many moments that work much better than they should, perhaps because director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) treats the material with a respectable sense of philosophical and sociological sensitivity while still maintaining the pulpy pleasures of its post-apocalyptic sci-fi conceit. In other words, he takes it seriously, but not too seriously. Dawn builds smartly and confidently on the narrative set-up of 2011’s franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), which managed that same balance between the serious and the silly, while also expanding the scope of the narrative and paving the way for future sequels.

Unlike Rise, which took place in the recognizable present-day, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes unfolds 10 years in the future after a so-called “simian flu” has broken out all over the world and killed off virtually the entire human population. The genetically enhanced apes who escaped at the end of the first movie have been living quietly and peacefully in Muir Woods north of San Francisco while the human society that created them descends into chaos and eventual silence. The only people left on the planet are those who are genetically immune to the flu, including a well-meaning man named Malcolm (Jason Clarke), his girlfriend Ellie (Keri Russell), and Ellie’s teenage son Alexader (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who stumble across the ever-evolving ape society while scouting in the woods. They are part of a struggling group of survivors who have been trying to carve out a new life in a compound build inside an incomplete San Francisco skyscraper under the guidance of Dreyfus (Gary Oldman), a former soldier turned dictator. Their primary goal is to (hopefully) restore electricity to the city by repairing a hydroelectric dam that just so happens to be smack inside the apes’ territory.

The repair thus requires an uneasy alliance between the humans and the apes, the latter of whom are led by Caesar (Andy Serkis). Contrary to the implications of his name, though, Caesar is a thoughtful, benevolent leader who wants to maintain a peaceful society that avoids the traps of violence, paranoia, and betrayal that he saw in the human society that created him (remember that he was the primary ape subject of experimentation in Rise who exposed others to his genetic enhancement and led the initial ape revolt). This puts him at odds with Korba (Toby Kebbell), a burly primate whose torture at the hands of human scientists a decade ago have left him physically scarred but, more importantly, bitter and distrustful of humans. Because Caesar had a loving relationship with the scientist played by James Franco (who makes a brief appearance on a camcorder video), he is more willing to partner with the humans, especially as he works with Malcolm, who recognizes that the apes are not just animals, but rather self-aware creatures who should be treated as fundamentally human.

Unfortunately, the sense of mutual trust they are able to create is tenuous and ultimately doomed to failure as factions on both sides conspire to ensure that humans and apes end up locked in violent battle for supremacy, which is how we end up with the apes laying siege to the human compound. As with the previous film, the primate characters are ultimately more interesting than the human characters, and Andy Serkis again delivers an outstanding motion-capture performance that accentuates Caesar’s various emotional and ideological conflicts. He is in every sense the film’s true protagonist and heart (the film both begins and ends with extreme close-ups of his eyes and furrowed brow), as he wrestles with how to remain committed to the ape society while still maintaining attachments to humanity, as well. His wariness is understandable, and the tragedy of the story is that the eventual shedding of that wariness is the first step toward everything literally burning down around him. He and Koba, once allies, become diametrically opposed symbols of how power operates, and thus their climactic smack-down on a partially constructed building high above the streets of San Francisco bears genuine thematic weight, rather than just gee-whiz CGI thrills.

What is particularly impressive about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the way screenwriters Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver (the latter two of whom also wrote Rise) map the deficiencies of human society—particularly the thirst for power and control—onto the apes, which makes the overly familiarly politics of violence and warmongering feel sharper and more unnerving. If Rise of the Planet of the Apes was primarily about the cruelty and short-sightedness of humanity, then Dawn doubles down by extending those failures to the ape society, showing that, the more it approximates human society, the more violent and volatile it becomes (a nod, perhaps, to George Orwell’s Animal Farm?). Yet, the film is not all cynicism and despair, as Reeves carves out plenty of room for gray in the film’s ostensible villains, giving Oldman’s potentially despotic leader a tender moment with images of his long-lost family and ensuring that Koba, however deceitful, begins with a genuine sense of concern for his fellow apes before descending into a narcissistic power grab. The film is also particularly powerful in demonstrating how easily a single event can be manipulated by lies and subterfuge to rally the masses to bloodshed. While peace takes years of effort and toil, war is only a single gunshot away.

Copyright ©2014 James Kendrick

Thoughts? E-mail James Kendrick

All images copyright © 20th Century Fox

Overall Rating: (3.5)




James Kendrick

James Kendrick offers, exclusively on Qnetwork, over 2,500 reviews on a wide range of films. All films have a star rating and you can search in a variety of ways for the type of movie you want. If you're just looking for a good movie, then feel free to browse our library of Movie Reviews.


© 1998 - 2024 Qnetwork.com - All logos and trademarks in this site are the property of their respective owner.