Review 253: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar (Andy Serkis) is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.
The plot is excellent to the point that it boarders on heartbreaking. This is partially because this is psychological and philosophical struggle for both the humans and the apes. You see the two species hating one an other, you see the survivors pestering and begging their leaders to do something about the other group, which leads to one of the movies central themes: The fear of something unfamiliar, the hatred for another race or another group of people.
The fear of the unknown is not just about feeling afraid, it's about feeling threatened.
In this case, the humans blame the apes for the destruction of human civilisation because they are intelligent apes and know nothing about them and it inspires alot of prejudice towards them.
At the heart of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes there's the qustion of Should one species be more important than another? Should we have the right to say one kind of person is better than another kind of person? It ultimately becomes an excuse to look at who we are. Whose are the animal in this story, is it the humans or the apes? Over the course of the film, we see that it's both because each side is grappling with the different sides of ourselves and having to come to terms with the animal in all of us and to find a way to reconcile the different parts of our nature and the struggle to achive that.
Not only that but it also expertly tackles themes of Trust, Community and Betrayal.
Trust: The issue of trust runs deep on both sides of the conflict. Caeser has to be very careful about who he trusts in his ape community when the humans start knocking at their door as most of them want to start a war thinking that they cannot be trusted whereas the humans have massive trouble trusting the Apes due to seeing them as the source of the virus that whipped out humanity.
Community: At the start of the film, the Apes have set up their own civilisation and living quite peacefully and in the belief that the human race is no longer there to trouble them.
When they unexpectedly come across a group of virus resistant survivors, a lot of trigger happy tragedy results and the two groups are confronting each other and having to decide how, if at all, they will continue to live together.
Both communities are intelligently played out as mirror images: on both sides of the species divide, we have the war camp and the peace camp. Caesar, his wife Cornelia (Judy Greer) and their son Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) represent the peace camp in the Ape community whilst in the human peace camp is represented by Malcolm (Jason Clarke) (a man), his wife Ellie (Keri Russell) (a mother), their son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as a comparison; They both want peace.
At the same time, the war camp on both sides are represented by Koba (Toby Bebbell) for the apes whilst the human war camp is represented by Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) who co-leads the human community with Malcom. As a result of these two camps on both sides, there is a lot of infighting within each species and therefore the film follows this discussion about peace vs war and living separately or fighting for territory: Both species are trying to survive and move forward and the from there it becomes a question of Can they exist together or will one side have to destroy the other?
Betrayal: As the film progresses, the characters on both sides of the conflict experience betrayal from the most bigoted and vengeful members of their camps and those betrayals cause more problems for them in the long run as
Another thing highly enjoyable aspect of this film was the interactions between the humans and the apes: you see these two species as almost exact opposites because whereas the apes have a very comfortable lifestyle for themselves, the humans have been reduced to nothing more than a band of survivors who are in desperate need of restarting civilisation.
Because of these opposites the film clearly defines what they have in common. Are they bad people? Are they causers of mass destruction? No they just want to survive in this now fallen world. This set up makes for an incredibly intense, nail biting survival story.
Also, within the ape society, there are a few apes which you look at and think "something just isn't right here" and you can see a power struggle on between them with Caesar wanting to movie carefully and his close associate Koba who holds a big grudge against humans for mistreating him and wants them wiped out. The same thing goes to the humans because they have a lot of prejudice towards the apes as they see them as the cause of the apocalypse.
Director Mat Reeves' direction is brilliant, the cinematography is wonderful and captures the bleakness of the now haunting barren San Fran as well as the lush forest areas where the apes have made their safe haven. The special effects are marvellous (the motion capture work for the apes is just remarkable), the score by Michael Giacchino is fantastic, the scenery is breathtaking, the production design is stupendous (as well as creating a barren and almost uninhabitable Earth, the Apes have created their own civilisation/colony and it looks primitive yet also reflects their intelligence), the costumes are colourful, the make up is rich and precisely detailed, the action scenes are exciting, well choreographed and expertly staged, the locations are superbly bleak and the ending gives me goosebumps.
The acting is excellent, of course Andy Serkis steels the show as Caesar, his motion capture work is mesmirising, the amount of expression that reads through all that technology is almost overwhelming. When we meet him in this film, he is the leader of the apes, he has led them to sanctuary and has led apes t to this utopia. However when human survivors come to get power from an abandoned dam, this gives him a very tricky dilemma: Can he trust the humans or can't he? which makes his followers question whether he's right to let the humans carry on with their work.
Karin Konoval doesn't lag far behind as Maurice, Caesar's loyal friend and trusted advisor. Maurice is the ape that Caeser turns in desperate times like this for advice. He's the voice of reason in Caesar's, he always acts with great specificity, has a great sense of integrity and never acts rashly. Whilst Caeser makes up his own mind throughout the film, Maurice acts as that wise old man in the corner who observes from the shadows and decides when is the appropriate time to step in and as a result Caeser trusts him like he trusts nobody else.
Jason Clarke is really great in this film as Malcolm, the leader of the small band of humans who try to negotiate with Caesar to let his companions use the dam, he's just so likeable in this role and you can see in the emotion and expressions on his face that he wants no trouble and just wants to help his band of followers to survive and wants humans and apes to live in pace with one another.
Keri Russell delivers a powerfully moving performance as Ellie, Malcolm's wife. Prior to epidemic, Ellie worked as a nurse Her compassion and understating towards the Apes
Gary Oldman is also terrific as Dreyfus, Malcolm's fellow human leader, he has a lot of prejudice towards the apes as he sees them as the thing that caused the virus to wipe out humanity.
Despite this he gives Malcolm three days to get the dam up and running again so humanity can start over again.
Toby Kebbell is so scary as Koba, Caesar's second in command. He is almost the exact opposite to Caesar, whereas, Caesar is able to see the good side of humanity, Koba sees only the bad. Due to him being tortured by humans, he holds a big grudge against them, he loathes them, sees no good side to them and he's consumed by that hatred. He will also stop at nothing to see all humans wiped out.
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Alexander, Malcolm and Ellie's son
Nick Thurston as Blue Eyes, Caesar's son, Judy Geer as Cornelia, Caesar's wife, Kirk Acevedo as Carver, a former San Francisco Dam worker and member of Malcom's group and the main source of trouble for the humans as they desperately attempt to make peace with Caesar's colony.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a heartbreaking sequel and I very much look forward to the third film coming out in 2016, 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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