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"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" managed to do something essentially unheard of these days. In a market completely over-saturated with awful reboots/prequels/remakes/re-imaginings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a refreshing, engaging reboot/prequel/re-imagining. It had the belief in itself to make a CGI Ape the main character instead of a mundane human that audiences really don't care about all that much. The character of Caeser is a complete cinematic achievement. We've seen Andy Serkis own the screen before playing Gollum/Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit franchise, but that was in a supporting role. With all due respect to Jason Clarke, Caeser is undoubtedly the main character in this film.
It was a very nice surprise to see where Caeser is at to begin this film. He is a father, a husband, and a leader. His hard work has seemingly paid off as he has built and sustained a beautiful ape colony deep in the redwood forest without conflict from the human race for the past 10 years. The apes have all learned to sign, and many of them are now capable of producing limited speech. The strength of this film is it's realism. The way Caeser and the apes talk is not fluent or effortless. They are still clearly learning and their speech pattern is rough, choppy, and in a sense almost sounds a little bit painful at times. It was such a smart move to take time with their development instead of having the apes mirror the apes in the original 1968 version "Planet of the Apes".
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| Don't you just want to give him a hug? |
The audience gets to know a few additional apes and their personalities right away. Returning from "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" are Koba and Maurice. Maurice is the former circus ape who had a higher intelligence than any other ape prior to being exposed to the virus. He is the right hand man if you will, the loyal sidekick who would do anything for Caeser and the community that they've built.
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| I would shit my pants if I saw him |
It was so important to flesh out these characters because it shows the progression of the ape's journey. Becoming a more dominant species isn't an easy road, there are going to be obstacles along the way, both within your own ranks, and from the opposing humans. The movie did such a nice job with the dynamic between the humans and the apes. The filmmakers could have easily made this movie a mindless action movie where humans are afraid of apes and want to kill them for no reason. There is brilliant parallelism between the two species. The humans need access to a dam within the apes colony in order to restore power to the small community they've established in the city. They are few in numbers as most of the human race was wiped out from the simian flu epidemic. The apes all know what humans are capable of. They have a hard time maintaining peace when the humans possess such destructive firepower. Jason Clarke is the advocate for peace on the human side, while Caeser is the advocate for peace on the ape side. Their relationship was so compelling to watch. Both leaders understood that peace was the only thing that could save their people without absolute destruction. Neither side wanted heavy casualties after they have worked unimaginably hard to create a new life. Koba represents the opposing anti-human view among the apes, while Gary Oldman's character represents the opposing anti-ape view among the humans. Ultimately when two species are desperate and scared, war is inevitable and casualties are imminent.
The visual effects in this movie are quite honestly the best I've ever seen. When you combine brilliant motion capture performances from Andy Serkis (Toby Kebbell was great as Koba as well) with top notch effects, it's a winning combination. All the apes in this film look so unbelievably good. From their facial expressions to their fur, to the way the move, it's incredible. Maurice in particular looks so real that you swear it's a real ape that is trained really well. Whether it was a quiet moment or an explosive action scene, the effects were off the charts good. What makes effects so good is when they are seamlessly blended into a really compelling story. Avatar was a cinematic achievement, but the weak Pochahontas/Dances with Wolves rip-off story brought down how good the effects were because you are taken out of it if the characters aren't engaging you.
From the opening scene to the end credits you will be fully immersed in this world and it's characters. Caeser is one of the best characters in the past decade, not just CGI characters, best characters period. You are so invested in his journey and this movie takes unexpected turns every time you think you might know how the story will play out.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes did what very few movies have ever done. Just like the Empire Strikes Back or the Dark Knight did, this sequel completely surpassed it's predecessor in every way. The acting, action, story, effects, characters, score, etc. were all great. This movie is filled with heavy emotion throughout because of it's carefully crafted story and the strength of an amazing character in Caeser played flawlessly by the legend Andy Serkis (playing a motion capture character in Star Wars Episode 7!). Apes is proof that a summer blockbuster doesn't have to be mindless action without context, making mass audiences dumber. Explosive action scenes can be blended into an engaging story filled with strong themes and characters that make the audience genuinely invested and engaged.
Don't melt your brain and see Transformers: Age of ExSTINKtion, see the epic tale that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is.
The Verdict = 10/10
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes! For a video review visit my channel on youtube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtwIit68IrY&feature=youtu.be
