Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes finally gave us realistic apes, not humans in ape makeup like the series featured previously. The ape protagonist Caesar, created digitally through motion capture by the great Andy Serkis, was an impressive feat of visual effects. The movie around him, however, didn’t quite work. I can’t quite put a finger on one particular reason, but I think it’s because it seemed like a prologue to a bigger story needlessly stretched out to a full picture’s length. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes gets to the meat of the storyline, and the technical marvels are taken a step or two further. The result is not merely a superior sequel, but a film that finally deposes the original classic starring Charlton Heston as the best entry in the Apes saga (though let’s be honest: a few parts of the original were laughably silly). 

Dawn takes place a few years after a virus (the creation of which was depicted in Rise) has killed most of the humans on Earth. We then find out Caesar and other intelligent apes have formed a society in the woods of Northern California. After years of no contact with mankind, a few human survivors stumble upon the apes’ home. Their aim is to reactivate an old dam nearby to provide power for a community of remaining humans in the ruins of San Francisco. Caesar, the leader of the apes, cautiously tries to help them and maintain peace between the two races. But one of Caesar’s lieutenants (Toby Kebbell) has a strong hatred for humans, and tries to incite a war between man and ape.

The scope doesn’t quite yet encapsulate the entire planet, opting instead for just a small part of it (more like Region of the Apes). But keeping things on a smaller scale allows more time for character moments. Specifically, the apes. Famous faces like Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, and Gary Oldman are adequate enough, but the humans exist mostly as plot impetuses. The real stars of the picture are the apes, brought to vivid, compelling life by the best motion capture performances I’ve yet seen in a movie. You might recall that Serkis’ performance as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings ignited a debate about whether or not such performances should be considered “real” acting (and awarded as such). The work by Serkis and the ensemble of ape portrayers in this film settles the debate: absolutely they deserve recognition. Their broad movements and simian acrobatics are as convincing as the real thing, but small, simple things like facial tics and movements exhibit a whole range of human emotions. And therein lies the hearty science fiction content.

The picture has typical summer movie action (decently done instead of overly flashy and incoherent, too), but its brainier stuff is what’s most compelling. Nearly silent opening exposition scenes of the society the apes built recall the beginning of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, only the apes are further along in the evolutionary chain. They’re becoming more human. But attaining humanity means, along with the higher intellect, they also gain all the human race’s negative qualities, like emotions, fears, and prejudices. This tragic irony plays out to an uncertain conclusion, perched between grim and hopeful, as real human conflicts often are.

The action elements never overshadow the scientific elements, though in a few cases, they do seem to rush them along a little too much. And things become a little less plausible as the apes go from communicating mostly nonverbally with only a few spoken words to quite chatty by the end (not to mention that action movie one-liners and Hollywood schmaltz are no less corny in the apes’ broken English). These are minor, forgivable flaws, however, compared to what the film has in its favor. It’s a smart blockbuster, and one of the few reboots that takes full advantage of its clean slate and comes up with great new ideas.