Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Review

DIRECTED BY - Matt Reeves
WRITTEN BY - Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
STARRING - Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russel, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit-McPhee

*Some minor spoilers ahead, ye have been warned!*

Before I begin, lets just appreciate the sheer unlikelihood of this movie even existing. It's the sequel to a reboot of a prequel to a movie that was remade, but is a different remake than this one, based on a book. By all accounts this should not be as good as it was, and yet here it is. Maybe that's just a testament to how flexible the core concept is. The whole idea of an intelligent society of apes interacting with humans is an easy shorthand for such a wide variety of topics. The apes are essentially "different" than humans, but they share enough characteristics with us that we're still able to empathize with them on a fundamental level. The fact that they are "other" allows the audience observe the flaws of their society detached from the baggage of strict societal allegory, while still allowing us to detect the aspects that are familiar.

I've never understood how people are able to segregate sci-fi as something "lesser" than other forms of fiction. Among other things, science fiction has always had this ability to contextualize relevant modern day issues in a way that allows us to explore them without being inhibited by the limiting bounds of the modern day. If I sometimes have a problem with genre, it's when the story is more about the message than about...well...the story. The science fiction stories that work best for me are the ones that are able to blend high-concept ideas with good narrative and characters. The Planet of the Apes series is no stranger to exploring ideas, and not averse to being "about" something, but sometimes that lends itself to being focused on the world and themes rather than pushing for greater depth in its characters. Don't get me wrong, I love the original 1968 film, but its safe to say that the later entries haven't always lived up to that film's lofty standard.

In this entry, though, there's a much greater sense of clarity as to what it's "about" that sets it apart from the rest of the series' broader social commentary. What qualities make a good leader. Whether compromising your own morals is sometimes necessary in order to prevent greater loss of life. How people cling to the lives they once had or try to recreate them instead rather than move forward. How even when we try to move forward our past can still define who we are and how we react to others and the world around us. It shows how misunderstandings between different peoples can breed distrust, and distrust hostility. How that hostility can turn into all out war with just the slightest push. How even with the best intentions the desire for self-preservation can ultimately lead to one's own undoing.

In other words, it's a story about peace and the things that people do to f*ck it up.

Now this isn't exactly a new concept, especially for science fiction. As they say, though, it's not so much what it's about as it is how you go about it, and "Dawn" goes about it with style to spare. Through fantastic production design, cinematography, and direction, we have an apocalypse that's very different the usually wastelands we so often get. This film differs visually from "Rise" in that it has a far more stylized choice of color palette, using mellow blues and greens and dark oranges to evoke a greater sense of mood and atmosphere than its predecessor. Though we get the usual urban overgrowth setting, there's just something about it that feels more...alive, like it hasn't gone so far that there's no chance of going back. Ten years really isn't that long a time after all. Any glimpse we do get into the old world feels almost alien, which is weird because the old world is our world. In a literal sense, it's that feeling after a long power outage when the lights flicker suddenly back on, and while it's familiar you've gotten so used to the darkness that it still kind of feels foreign to you. It's a different visual approach that's woven into the story the film is trying to tell, and sets it apart from its bleaker cousins.

Another unorthodox visual choice for a summer blockbuster was the film's choice of the narrower 1:85:1 aspect ratio as opposed to the usual 2:35:1. Every other Apes film has gone with the latter, so that makes me wonder where the decision for this change may have come from. I'm not complaining, actually the opposite. I'm so sick of blockbusters using 2:35:1 and similar ratios to artificially make their movies seem more "epic" when really, they don't need all that extra space. The fact that this movie chose to go such a non-traditional route shows that the filmmakers were confident in their ability to create something visually enticing with less horizontal space. It shows that they valued intimacy and character over spectacle, because even with the stunning special effects it's clear that the real heart of this film comes from its characters

At the center of all of this is Caesar, who, no exaggeration, is one of the most fully formed, well conceived characters in any science fiction film. There's been some debate as to how much of the performance is Andy Serkis's motion capture and how much is the animators. Whatever it is, I'm sure it wouldn't have been possible without either, and the fact that special effects have gotten to the point where we can create computer generated characters with this kind of nuance, this level of expressiveness is just astounding. Our antagonist, too, is compelling even in his own right. It isn't Gary Oldman, as the trailers would have us believe, but Koba, Caesar's power hungry second in command. He elevates himself from his archetype by having a motivation that's both. His motivation is spelled out in one of the movies standout scenes, which I won't spoil, but it involves the repeated use of the phrase "human work".

If there's a weakness its that the human characters aren't nearly as compelling as the ape characters are. Malcolm, the movie's other protagonist, acts as a human counterpoint to Caesar. He's not as strong or inspiring as Caesar, but his desire for peace and a bright future forges a connection between the two that illustrates the surprising amount of optimism in a film with such a forgone conclusion. Ultimately, though, his character lacks the sense of inner conflict and moral shades of grey that would make him interesting in his own right.

Gary Oldman, underused as he is, is probably the most interesting of the human cast. He eschews the usual paranoid war-monger type character we're used to by framing all of his actions in a way that makes is reasoning seem completely rational from his own point of view. That's the thing about this movie, it frames all the conflicts in the movie as the product of rational decision-making from a certain point of view. It shows that looking past prejudice and your own strict sense of self-preservation that makes the possibility of peace even remotely tangible. Caesar knows this, Malcolm knows this, but the problem comes with convincing everyone else. It's particularly potent in this day and age where our greater interconnectedness brings cultural boundaries closer and closer together, forcing us to consider whether we all really can "just get along".

Like The Empire Strikes Back and The Dark Knight, this is a movie that does what any good sequel should do: act as an extension of the original rather than just a retread, push the themes and characters further instead of stagnating in repetition. It forgoes obvious references to the original 1968 film, which even "Rise" couldn't seem resist the temptation of doing, and forages its own narrative path. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes shows that sci-fi cinema doesn't have to sacrifice intelligence for the sake of emotion and thrills. It can stand on its own two feet (so to speak) and be its own thing while still honoring the legacy of the films that came before it. We've still got a few more big ones left to go, but at this point I'm willing to call it and say that this is definitely my pick for best blockbuster this summer. Guardians of the Galaxy's got a lot to prove now to top this.

So what did you all think? Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Are you somewhere in between? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.