Saturday, April 25, 2015

Dawn Of the Planet of the Apes


RATING: A+


It's been ten years since the events of the last movie--Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was shockingly good--considering it was a reboot of movies that had been a little more corny at times. This new reboot was far from corny--it took a darker tone to the series that I appreciated.

Well, during this time Caesar has started a family and is just welcoming a newborn second son. Things are going quite well for his clan. And he's determined to keep out the violence that they knew previously--the phrase "Ape not kill ape" is etched upon the cliff wall for everybody to see.

As for the humans? Things aren't going so well. If you remember, it was shown that the drug ALZ-113 which made the apes so intelligent had a more disastrous effect on humans--in other words, killing them. This infection spread worldwide and all that's left of the humans now are the genetically immune. A lot of people who didn't die of the virus died due to fighting between the humans. Only in the last two years have things gotten better.

The humans' and apes' paths collide accidentally for the first time in those 10 years when humans led by Malcolm--yes, James Franco's character Will is gone--presumably dead of the virus--arrive trying to power up a fuel station and restore electricity to the city of San Francisco--or what's left of it, anyway.

After some brief skirmishes, Caesar allows the humans to stay for a short time to do their work. However, one of Caesar's right-hand apes called Koba goes rogue due to his mistreatment from humans and thus does not trust them. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon apes and humans are fighting each other. Well, what did you expect? The apes and humans shaking hands and calling it good?

The movies so far have been a cautionary tale of how our own creations can turn against us. The "simian flu," as it is called, was developed by scientists in a lab along with the genetically enhanced Caesar, who rebelled and freed the apes--even though the humans blame the apes for all their troubles.

This movie has more of a strict war feel to it--the first one is pretty slow in comparison. However, one thing that we do see a lot more of is communication between the apes. These scenes are absolutely brilliant. The CGI used for the apes which includes allowing them to speak and showing their emotions--some of which are quite strong--is absolutely incredible. Andy Serkis does brilliant as Caesar once again--and does a lot more speaking this time--and Toby Kebbell does pretty good as well as an insane Koba.

This movie shows marvelously that although both sides--apes and humans--seem to think that the other is demon spawn, it is shown over time and characters come to realize themselves that they're more alike than they realize. And while in the last movie we saw more cruel humans than anything--save for Will and Caroline--and also apes were depicted as the better species overall--here we see more equality. There are good and bad apes and good and bad humans. On the good side, you have Caesar of course, and the new human character Malcolm. Both of them want peace and to protect their respective families. On the bad side, you have Koba and the human Dreyfus (played by Gary Oldman) who both have distorted views of the other due to bad experiences. The parallels between the two races shown here is brilliant and creepy at the same time. 

This movie is brilliant, by the way, and has a fair argument for possibly being the best movie of 2014. T
hings are set up quite well for a third movie with a bit of a cliffhanger of sorts. It's already been confirmed will see the third movie in 2016, so keep your eyes peeled. This is a somewhat unexpectedly brilliant movie series that should not be missed. 

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