Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Review
(Picture from 20th Century Fox)
Nothing screams ‘summer action blockbuster’ better than an angry chimpanzee riding horseback through fire while blazing two machine guns. Not even an equally crazed chimp leaping in slow-mo in the final fight sequence tops that – although it’s a close second. It is worth mentioning however, that both these scenes feature in the trailer, leaving little else to get excited about in this hugely anticipated sequel.
Set 10 years after the first film, the humans have almost entirely been wiped out by the Simian Flu. Genetically enhanced apes are gradually becoming the more dominant species and they are even starting to develop some human traits. Unfortunately for mankind, those traits do not consist of knitting or any other harmless activity. Instead, they’ve adopted our apparent thirst for conquering and killing, much to the disgust of alpha-chimp Caesar (Andy Serkis).
“Apes do not want war,” bellows Caesar, which is this film’s equivalent to Rodney King’s “Can we all get along?” His human counterpart Malcolm (Jason Clarke) feels the same way, but despite their attempts to find a peaceful solution, all-out war is inevitable.
They might have succeeded if it weren’t for Koba – Caesar’s understudy – who hates humans (for good reason). Every film has its antagonist, but this is one badass chimp that might go down as one of the most menacing villains in cinema history. He burns down his own home just so the apes have an excuse to fight.
“Always thought apes were better than humans,” says Caesar to his confused son Blue Eyes. “But I see now how much like them we are.” This is the message director Matt Reeves wants to draw attention to, and he does so by mirroring the two species. Each ape even has their own human counterpart, which is intriguing considering they communicate primarily through sign language and broken English. The apes don’t even use pronouns, but their lines are still more interesting.
Like most films where half the cast are CGI, the apes are completely interchangeable with humans. All we have here is two different sides and yet another hastily construed war on terror metaphor. The charm of the first film is completely absent (due the lack of James Franco) and without a monumental event, it’s not unreasonable to ponder the point of this sequel.
It is refreshing however, to see the apes attack first and not have the humans painted as completely soulless morons. Reeves also has an eye for the grand stage, as he demonstrates with various apocalyptic settings and a monolith of a structure that plays home to a dramatic finale. But of course, the biggest success here is Andy Serkis’s motion-capture performance. If only they’d made better use of Gary Oldman, this could have been something worthwhile.
Chris Edwards - CynicalCME
