I’m not the biggest fan of reboots. I often think, “Why?” or “What’s the point?” or, “Can Hollywood not come up with an original idea?”. However, at the same time, I’m a big fan of origin stories. Usually, if the first movie in a franchise is good, I’ll keep watching the sequels until they start to stink. Once you lose me, though, you lose me, and I’m not coming back. So each subsequent movie in a franchise doesn’t necessarily need to be better than the starting movie (in fact, I don’t expect it to be), but it still better be pretty darn good. My favorite movies in the last decade include Batman Begins, Iron Man, and The Hangover. These three movies illustrate my point perfectly. The Dark Knight, unquestionably, and The Dark Knight Rises, probably, were both better than Batman Begins. In the Iron Man franchise, Iron Man was the best, Iron Man 2 was very good, but not great, and Iron Man 3 was still decent. With The Hangover, the first one was brilliant, The Hangover 2 one had me asking, “Why are they doing this again?” and the third one was so terrible that I will not pay another dollar if these franchises continue and has made me much less interested in ever watching the original one again.
I have not seen any of the Planet of the Apes movies from the 1960s, and I’m not sure I ever well. The luck is kind of cheesy. With that said, the movie’s premise is kind of cheesy. I did see the Mark Wahlberg 2001 Planet of the Apes and, despite some initial reservations, enjoyed it. This movie will likely be the forgotten one of the Apes movies since it’s a standalone and not part of a franchise. I thought the 2011 James Franco-led Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a very good movie. At the time, I didn’t know it would be a franchise. That was foolish thinking, though. Grossing $175 million in the United States alone, all but assured the series would continue. But I could care less about how much a movie makes. It was a good enough movie to excite me to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and all of the great reviews seemed to warrant my hype.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes takes place some ten years after the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The ALZ-113 virus has spread across the globe and wiped out most of the population. Those who have not died off have become immune to the virus. However, no problems have arisen. Humans are devoid of an adequate power supply. The Muir Woods has a dam in it that the humans, led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke – The Great Gatsby, Lawless) and Ellie (Keri Russell – Waitress, television’s The Americans), believe can provide a limited amount of power back to their small community in San Francisco. The Muir Woods, however, is home to a gigantic group of Apes who distrust humans. Caesar leads the apes (Andy Serkis – Rise of the Planet of the Apes, King Kong), the now adult, star of the first film. While Casear’s advisers, namely his lieutenant Koba (Toby Kebbell – The Counselor, The Conspirator), believe that all humans want to do is hunt them down and ruin their way of life, the leader isn’t quite so certain. More importantly, Caesar is aware that humans are still a threat and knows he needs to do whatever possible to protect the other apes. The Apes have evolved since the last movie. In addition to being able to communicate perfectly, they can also speak. Thus, they can hold conversations with the humans in which both parties know precisely the other’s intentions. Caesar, unlike many other apes, also has memories of humans that are not entirely negative. Yet he knows that they are dangerous. In the ten years between films, it’s implied that there were some early exchanges between the humans and the apes, believing that the apes needed to be extinguished to eliminate the threat of the spreading virus. We can also assume that the apes have been relatively alone for the last few years. So when Malcolm, Ellie, Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Road, Let Me In), Carver (Kirk Acevedo – Invincible, television’s Oz), and a small party of others enter the Muir Woods, they are asked to leave and not return rather than being killed on the spot by the hundreds upon hundreds of apes in the vicinity.
The following parts of the movie involve the various conflicts arising from the predicament. The humans intend to get to the dam and remove the blockage to restore power. They believe this is vital to the future of the race. The apes don’t trust the humans and don’t believe in the need to assist them in getting stronger. If they get stronger, the apes think they will again try to enter their home and eliminate them. The apes are very wary of the intentions of the humans and even more uncertain about the powerful weapons they possess. There is also conflict among the apes. For years, they have supported Caesar, but a few (like Koba) believe that his empathy towards humans inhibits him from seeing the entire picture. In reality, Caesar wants to prevent war. And if the humans need the dam to be fixed to continue their way of life, Caesar fears they will do whatever is necessary to accomplish this. And this could arise in war. So he decides to trust the humans, specifically Malcolm. He will allow a small group of humans into their homes, provided the humans leave their weapons behind.
That is enough of the story to tell. I hope it gets you interested. Not all will go as planned because this would make for an incredibly dull movie. However, it’s interesting to see it all play out by seeing who trusts and doesn’t trust, who has hidden agendas and who does not. The acting isn’t bad, but I thought the apes did better than humans. Extra props to Serkis, who brought Caesar to life and made him the most likable character in the movie. Clarke was good. He’s slowly gaining bigger and better roles as his career progresses. Russell was under-utilized. An actress of her stature didn’t need to play second fiddle in a movie such as this.
I was not too fond of this movie, mostly because I saw it in 3D. At my local cinema, almost all of the showings were in 3D. I thought Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was one of the worst uses of 3D technology to date. There were times when I took off the glasses to see the characters better. The glasses made the screen much too dark, and it made distinguishing between the different apes even more difficult than it would have already been. As of July 2014, there are still only two movies that I think 100% benefited from 3D. Those movies are Life of Pi and Gravity. Some will argue Avatar, but I didn’t think Avatar was a great movie, to begin with, so the 3D did nothing for me. I’m almost willing to put World War Z in the same category as Life of Pi and Gravity because that movie did it for me. But the more I think about it, the 3D (while awesome) didn’t make or break the film like it did the previous two. So long story short…let’s save the 3D for places where it enhances the movie-going experience.
If you liked Rise of the Planet of the Apes, then you will love Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. If you didn’t like the first one, I’d say the second one is better, but it’s probably not enough to recommend seeing the movie. If you didn’t see the first one, you don’t necessarily need to watch it before viewing the second one, but I would highly recommend you do that.
Plot 9/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 8.5/10
Screenplay 9/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 7/10 (absolutely zero need for this to be a 3D movie…the 3D experience hinders the film)
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 7/10 (this is pretty generous)
83.5%
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie
- World War Z
- Jurassic World
- War of the Planet of the Apes
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- I Am Legend