Movies: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Score:  **** out of ***** (B+)

Long Story Short:  Dawn kicks the story of humans vs. apes into high gear after 2011's slower but exquisite Rise.  Andy Serkis resumes his role as the actor behind Casear, who is now the leader of a colony of the super smart apes.  The apes collide violently with the boring remnants of human civilization led by Jason Clarke and Gary Oldman.  There's great action and solid moral themes, but a predictable plot and stale human characters keep it from greatness.


Back to the summer blockbuster genre!  Since May, I haven't been too impressed with the summer action releases (although I may catch some of them on Netflix).  The remainder of July doesn't look great, either, but there are at least a few in August I'm looking forward to.  As for Dawn, it was a pretty clear choice given that I was very impressed by 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its remarkable technological and emotional creation of Caesar the ape.  With an outstanding Rotten Tomatoes score (+90%), I was excited to head back to the theater.  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and stars Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, et. al.

A montage of news footage reveals that in the ten years since Rise, the simian virus has spread quickly and devastatingly across the world leaving only a handful of human survivors.  One such outpost of humanity lives in San Francisco, and an exploratory group in the woods encounters the colony of apes, led by Caesar, which escaped at the end of Rise.  Wary but not hostile to humans, Caesar demands that the group leave the forest, and that the two civilizations - the two species - leave each other alone.

Unfortunately, the humans in San Francisco are running short on fuel.  Their only chance to keep the lights on is to make use of a hydroelectric dam - in ape territory.  While individuals on both sides loudly call for war, it is up to just a few others to try to prevent calamity for both human and ape.

Dawn is quite similar to its predecessor Rise in that its ape characters steal the show completely from their dull human counterparts.  Thanks to outstanding visual effects work in both films, the film allows human actors to bring ape characters to startlingly realistic life.  Leading the acting effort once again is the motion-capture king, Andy Serkis as Caesar.  Where Rise showed Caesar's development as a sentient, non-human person, Dawn moves him on to the role of leader of a tribe, a tribe of what might be "primitive" humans if not for their ape bodies.  Serkis and the effects people work in beautiful harmony to produce subtle, human-like expressions of anger, frustration, pain, and many more complex emotions.  The other apes see significantly increased screen time, including Rise apes Koba, a scarred, angry former lab ape, and Maurice, a wise old former circus orangutan.  Other individual apes are introduced, including members of Caesar's family.

I'll briefly mention the human characters, secondary to the apes.  Jason Clarke is the brave, empathetic leader of a small band of the survivors.  He does fine, but his character Malcolm is more important to the plot than as an individual.  Keri Russell is the lone woman, playing the exasperatingly cliche role of former CDC medic.  She and Kodi-Smit McPhee (?), playing Malcolm's son, make emotional connections with some of the apes - a touching but also fleeting part of the film.  Gary Oldman is entirely wasted as the leader of the humans; with just a few minutes of screen time, could have easily been replaced by someone else.  And Kirk Acevedo, so likable in his role on Fringe, plays a very dislikable asshole (on purpose) here.

With Rise having set the stage for why the apes are so smart and why human civilization is brought to its knees, Dawn is the first of presumably at least a few films depicting the direct conflict between the two sides.  Even if you're not an Apes (I'm not) or film buff in general, you'll likely pick out the clash-of-civilizations theme quite quickly, which anchors the film.  This serves as both the film's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness.  For the good, Dawn takes a complex viewpoint of neither apes or humans being "good guys" - there are good and bad on each side.  Even at that level, there's no knight in shining armor nor devil; the bad are driven by experience and self-interest, while the good are tempered by mistrust and uncertainty.  The bad part is, the plot is pretty predictable.  Once you see where it's going, it's pretty easy to see the journey from point A to point B, if not all the details.  Dawn is also a much, much more action-packed film than Rise (featuring a thrilling centerpiece gun-enabled ape assault on the humans), although it also maintains a nice level of tension most of the way through.  And of course the visual effects, led by the CGI apes themselves, are very impressive.

***

While I think Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a very good film, I'm not as enthusiastic as the overall critical praise (i.e.: RT score) indicates.  I'm in the minority in preferring Rise to Dawn.  Origins films are hardly, well, original, these days, but I felt that Rise actually was.  By concentrating on the development of a creature (an admittedly advanced one) into a non-human person, making use of astounding visual effects and physical acting, Rise set itself apart (and also incorporated enough supporting elements to keep it lively).  Considering we get even more of the CGI ape wizardry in Dawn, it's amazing how much more conventional the new film is.  Don't get me wrong, the themes (clash-of-civilization, good and bad on both sides) and the action/effects are strong and better done than most others.  But it also didn't really try anything particularly new or daring, not to mention its predictable plot and throwaway human characters.  This franchise still has potential to grow past a very solid base, here, and I look forward to Caesar's next adventure.  Recommended (if you want a July blockbuster, this is likely your best best).