Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) was the very definition
of a pleasant surprise – a franchise made moribund by the terrible remake a
decade earlier, there was little clamor for a return to that narrative well,
especially in the service of the rarely justifiable prequel format. Director
Rupert Wyatt took material that could’ve proven laughable in other hands and
melded his story of scientific hubris alongside a prison break-style narrative
with the titular apes into a well-crafted bit of summer entertainment. Now
burdened by expectation, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes had
that much higher of a wall to scale in order to win over audiences. Happily, Dawn
is an improvement over its predecessor in just about every way. Be it
thematically or dramatically, visually or kinetically, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
also has it over just about every other summer blockbuster in recent memory.
Whereas the previous film was more interested in developing
the Caesar character (as played by Andy Serkis and augmented by extraordinary
special effects work) and making him the equal of any human performer, Matt
Reeves knows the audience is already on his side here and recalibrates
accordingly. Save for a table-setting prologue that explains why the apes shall
inherit the earth (a pandemic that humans reacted poorly to), we begin this
film fixated on Caesar and the thriving community he’s built in the Redwood
forests, and we stay with this burgeoning society throughout. And where the
special effects work in Rise was laudable, the work achieved
here by Weta digital is miraculous. Narratively, only a decade has passed since
the previous film, but we feel light years away from the previous depiction of
ape interaction. In a matter of minutes, you’re completely immersed in Caesar’s
world and forget that that we’re watching digitally-crafted creations instead
of flesh and blood performers. Much of this credit belongs to Serkis, who gives
every movement or subtle brow furrow gravitas and import lesser physical
performers couldn’t muster. He’s aided by an equally adept performance from Toby
Kebbell as Koba, his second-in-command whose mind frame is a bit more
aggressive. As an added bonus, the human element isn’t as wooden a presence
this time around, with Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Kodi-Smit McPhee and Jason
Clarke proving an aggregate improvement over James Franco, John Lithgow and
Freida Pinto, even given their more limited screentime.
Happily, the sci-fi staple of scientists meddling with the
nature is jettisoned this time out in favor of much more dramatically fertile
material, where men acting with the best of intentions move each other
inextricably through conflict. Those humans not yet wiped out by the so-called
‘simian flu’ are in desperate need of the hydroelectric power generated by a
dam ensconced firmly in the center of the apes’ habitat. But mistrust from both
sides – humans that hold the apes responsible for the man-made flu, apes who’ve
only ever known humans as the perpetrators of myriad inhumane experiments upon
them – threaten the fragile peace that Caesar and Malcolm (Jason Clarke) are
trying to maintain.
Two groups of people who see each other as irreconcilably
different despite their similarities that are butting heads over scarce
resources isn’t so far off from any given conflict taking place today (or ever,
really). The film never beats you over the head with historical antecedent or
heavy-handed allegory, instead trusting the drama to play out through these
characters we’ve grown to care for over the course of two films. It’s a tale of
male hubris and aggression through and through. Keri Russell is the only female
human in the picture and while Judy Greer plays Caesar’s wife Cornelia, no one
will be arguing that this film would pass the Bechdel Test or whatever the
simian equivalent would be (the Goodall Test?). Despite this inequality (women
probably don’t have a place in a film about bullheaded fools leading the world
into ruin though, to be honest), this is thrilling filmmaking regardless of
what season it was released in. From the initial hunt that kicks the film off
to the apocalyptic battle that closes the film out, director Matt Reeves
parcels the action out smartly, trusting the character drama to carry us
through from set to set. Smart without becoming esoteric, thrilling without
becoming mind-numbing, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is
exemplary sci-fi filmmaking.
