Twentieth Century Fox
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The arrival of Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a watershed moment for computer-generated visual effects and for motion capture technology specifically. While it did not boast the most convincing or cutting-edge effects of 2011, Rise demonstrated that digitally captured actors could be more engaging than their flesh-and-blood counterparts. This was partly due to a riveting turn from motion capture mainstay Andy Serkis as chimpanzee revolutionary Caesar. It was also attributable to the often clunky-to-laughable dialogue foisted on the film’s human characters by the producer-writer team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.
Fortunately, the latest chapter, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, smoothes out the worst offenses of its predecessor. The dialogue is more polished, the pathos more credible, and the sci-fi gobbledygook kept to a minimum. Caesar and his kin are the only returning characters, suggesting a tacit acknowledgement from Jaffa and Silver (and third co-scripter Mark Bomback) that the apes were the highlight of Rise. It's been ten years since a Bay Area biotech firm's imprudent tinkering unleashed both hyper-intelligent apes and a human-killing virus. The apes have settled comfortably into the lush sanctuary of Muir Woods, while the humans of San Francisco have been reduced to a desperate remnant that is genetically immune to the “simian flu.” Cut off from other survivors, the humans lack electrical power, and only a dwindling cache of fuel and weapons stands between them and a second Dark Age.
The apes, meanwhile, are thriving. Caesar and his compatriots—including his son Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston), embittered bonobo Koba (Toby Kebbell), and sagacious orangutan Maurice (Karin Konoval)—have built a multi-species Stone Age society amid the redwoods. Unfortunately, they run headlong into an armed human party intent on restarting a nearby hydroelectric dam. De facto leader Malcom (Jason Clarke) defuses the situation, and later he returns to the woods with girlfriend Ellie (Keri Russell) and son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to negotiate with Caesar. Unfortunately, the worst elements on both sides sabotage the human-ape détente, and before long it all comes crashing down under an avalanche of lies and misunderstandings. This fits right in with the plans of both the bloodthirsty Koba and ruthless human survivalist Dreyfus (Gary Oldman).
Whereas Rise was an occasionally intriguing science-fiction tale plagued by strained melodrama, Dawn is a foremost a crackerjack action-thriller, albeit a disquietingly grave and vicious one. It functions quite well as a standalone story, and viewers who missed the previous film will get their bearings quickly. At its core, Dawn’s tale is elemental: two neighboring groups with disparate cultures come into contact with one another, and conflict ensues. Dawn’s narrative might be simplistic and predictable, but it's also a lean, morally fraught vision of social upheaval. Director Matt Reeves presents the film as a classical tragedy, a downward spiral of squandered potential and violent treachery that only has one possible outcome.
It’s a bit daring to saturate a popcorn flick with such fatalistic despair, but the broad outlines of this tale are familiar. The human-vs.-ape warfare rather unsubtly evokes historical clashes between colonists and indigenous peoples, recalling films such as The Mission, Dances with Wolves, The New World, and the Australian documentaries First Contact and Black Harvest. Like its ancestor franchise, Dawn also raises thorny questions about anthropomorphism and the fuzzy boundaries of sentience. (It would make for an intriguing triple bill with Never Cry Wolf and Grizzly Man.) Like many successful genre thrill rides, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes flourishes because it allows such concerns to simmer gently but steadily underneath its character-driven struggles and superb action sequences.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens in wide release on Friday, July 11.
