Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Monkeys. With Guns. (ScreenRant) 

In this Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, the humans take a backseat as the primates take the screen. Nearly a decade following the events of the first film in this reboot of the Apes series, Caesar and his comrades are residing in the area once known as San Francisco. Signs are tilted and covered in vines, leaves and dirt cover where there roads existed, and the apes haven’t seen a sign of humans in years, assuming they all destroyed each other during the chaos surrounding the Simian flu.

Living with Caesar are his son, Blue Eyes, his wife, Cornelia, and his friend Rocket. Along with them are a clony of various species of primate, including Koba, an unstable ape who still holds resentment towards the humans for the treatment and experiments they subjected him to before the downfall of humanity. To the surprise of the entire ape community, a group of presumed dead humans stumbles upon the assembly in search of a new power supply. Hoping to restore a dam located near the apes’ home, Caesar gives the humans a few days to work in hopes that it will bring peace among the two groups.

Leading the humans into the apes’ territory is Malcolm (Jason Clarke). Accompanying him is his second wife Ellie (Keri Russell), his son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and others. Back at their desolate survival camp, run by ape-hating Dreyfus (played here by an underused Gary Oldman), the ape Koba shows up to sabotage the humans’ attempts to regain a power source and establish peace with the other species, leading to a violent feud rife jaw-dropping moments until the credits start to roll.

We’ve still got a few more years to go, but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes could end up bing revered as one of the best films of the decade. The movie takes risks, is action-packed, and gives us a new breed of protagonists to root for. The movie could have been better, mainly in the area of holding back on some of the human characters to give us these apes to the extent that we got them.

We knew which apes characters we were supposed to be hoping would make it to the end, but what about the film’s human characters? Was there a specific reason or incident that caused Gary Oldman’s character to be so bitter towards the apes? Could we have gotten to better understand Malcolm’s relationship with his new wife and his son, and perhaps know the details of his first marriage? Again, I realize why these human characters were the secondary focus of the film, but it’s still important to know who we’re dealing with in the realm of characters. I also commend the decision to give Andy Serkis top billing in the film. Caesar was the main character, and it’s nice to see that Hollywood is finally starting to give recognition to motion capture performers, and Serkis is the perfect poster child for this movement.

Dawn is a very good film, but I believe it would have worked better as a third entry in the rebooted franchise. The time jump takes us past the worldwide exposure to the Simian flu, and right into the depths of human disparity during the war’s aftermath. Seeing some human vs. ape or human vs. human battles immediately following the events of the first movie might have created a smoother bridge for this entry, and possibly given us a chance to know the human players in Dawn. Pending on the future success of this franchise (it might be hard to top chimpanzees riding into battle on horses with machine guns), I’d like to see filmmakers revisit this in-between time. But let’s see what follows the events of Dawn first.

Rating: 4/5