As I grew older I did find out about the original films. But I really didn't have much drive to go back and see them. Then, out of nowhere, Rise of the Planet of the Apes came to theatres. I was really interested in this movie. It looked like it was taking the franchise to a serious tone and making the big twist with the original films plausible. Sort of like a reboot/origin story. While I never saw the original Apes movie, the twist ending I already knew. Being a huge fan of film I was exposed to a few spoilers from many old films before I got a chance to see them, including: Planet of the Apes, The Crying Game, Soylent Green, Psycho, and most unfortunately, The Usual Suspects.
However, I never ended up seeing Rise, even though I was doing movie reviews at the time it came out. I went on a family trip, missed the showing, and somehow never got around to sitting down and watching it. I did work as a projectionist at the time, so I did watch it in segments from the projection booth throughout my days during its running. And I got the gist of the movie by watching practically the entire thing as if Tarantino directed it. For those of you that don't get that joke... moving on.
What's really nice about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is you don't need to have any knowledge of any other Apes movies. The opening credits do a quick rundown of everything you need to know. A test virus for Alzheimer's was accidentally spread to apes giving them enhanced intelligence, subsequently a flu virus called the simian flu ends up wiping out almost all of humanity with a 1-500 survival rate for the virus. 10 years later, humanity is pretty much close to extinct.
Matt Reeves (Cloverfield and Let Me In) does an incredible job with visual story telling. While the apes have had a lot of time to build their society and become more intelligent, they're still not quite on the level of humans. They speak mostly in sign language so we have to read subtitles and watch the emotions on the apes' faces. The first couple sequence after the credits do a fantastic job building up this world the apes have made their home. In a matter of 10 or 15 minutes, we see how they live their lives, how they hunt, the relationships between all the apes, how the families are handled, their politics. It's a great example of exposition through action. There are some less involving information dumps here and there, but almost all of them are handled in a way that doesn't feel contrived. It doesn't treat the audience like the dumb kid who the teacher keeps needing to stop class for in order for that kid to catch up to the rest of the class. Plus there's a fantastic one-shot sequence near the climax of the film which really shows off Matt Reeve's creativity with action set pieces (See also one of the best car crashes ever put on film in Reeve's Let Me In).
The motion capture is phenomenal. The apes look and feel real. Every detail is accounted for. Most lot of apes look the same. But the main ones to follow all have their special visual markings that make them stand out. Caesar doesn't have much to make him stand out, but for some reason you can always tell who he is. Caesar's son, Blue Eyes, is attacked by a bear in the opening sequence, so he has claw marks across his chest and face. Koba, Caesar's right-hand
What really hit me with Dawn were the gut-wrenching dramatic moments. There is a lot of spectacle throughout the film. But the drama is what drives this movie. Moments like when the first time apes and humans come into contact with each other after 2 years had my palms sweating. Dawn portrays both the humans and the ape societies as almost mirrors of each other as far as how they fear each other.
The fact that one person or one ape can take two societies who are so close to the brink of destroying each other can screw it up for everyone. It's scary because both the ape-hating humans and the human-hating apes are realistic with their fear and hate. It is almost blind hatred, but it's a blind hatred that you can understand how it got there. Seeing your entire family be killed by a virus called the "simian (simian definition: higher primates. i.e. apes) flu." Recognizing that if they wanted to, they could wipe out what's left of humanity. And as an ape, being a test subject for humans for your entire life. Or having the first contact with humans almost kill your best friend. These scenes where you know if one person does the wrong thing at the wrong time, all hell is going to break loose.
The truly heart breaking thing is the fact that we do see that both the apes and humans have the capacity to become friends and trust each other. We see an up-and-down relationship between Caesar and Malcom (Jason Clarke), the leader of the group of humans who make initial contact with the apes. It's rocky and full of fear and mistrust. But Malcom is fascinated by Caesar and the apes by their intelligence, while Caesar is reminded of his human friends back before he was forced to flee with the other apes out of the San Francisco. We get a glimmer of hope of these two, man and ape, being able to overcome their differences and live in peace, maybe even as friends. But the actions of a few, and the inherent nature of intelligent societies, war ends up being what truly ties both the apes and humans together.
Caesar and Malcom , the main character from the human group, try all they can to keep peace between apes and humans. Watching them struggle to maintain this peace is emotional. I found myself getting angry with the characters that screw everything up. You do get a sense that it's inevitable that the two sides are going to clash. But that didn't stop me from hoping that in some way things won't go to absolute shit.
Dawn does take itself seriously. My cousin told me the original films were more on the campy level, and Tim Burton's version is just plain silly. There are a few things that don't quite make sense. Like the tribal face paint and feathers that the apes wear. I guess it's to make them more of an indians/native american type group to make their stage of human-like societal evolution (so to speak) more visually understandable. But why do they do it? What purpose does it serve? Where did they learn these practices? The movie does a great job at making the ape society believable in almost every aspect. But that was just kind of silly and felt out of place. And sometimes some character's blind hatred just seems a little too powerful. I guess I want to see the better side of people, and in this case apes as well, so having the typical "They can't be trusted" cliché is frustrating. It's supposed to cause an emotional response, but supposed to make you angry at those people and not frustrated with the movie. As much as I love Gary Oldman, his character isn't given enough to do, along with several other human characters, to really flesh out and become more than just plot devices.
Nitpicking aside, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a powerful and poignant film. There's enough action set pieces to keep the summer popcorn fans happy with enough heart and real drama to keep it nutritious. It also gives a depressing notion that intelligent societies are naturally driven to war. As much as we try to avoid it and seek peace, all it takes is one small thing to drive us to war. And now it's not just humans. It really is as dark as it sounds. It's unsettling. But it's compelling enough to probably make it one of my best movies of the year.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
(So far all but Transformers have been HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Hopefully we'll have a mediocre movie come along just to prove that I don't just love or hate movies.)
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