REVIEW: DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Anyone who knows me or has read this blog knows I'm a big James Franco fan, but I don't worship the guy. I love his zany performances in Spring Breakers and Pineapple Express, respect his more serious work in excellent dramas like the first two Spider-Man movies and especially 127 Hours. But here's the weird thing I noted in my Oz the Great and Powerful review: he's been upstaged by primates: twice. The first came courtesy in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, where Franco had the spotlight easily taken from him by Andy Serkis' masterful creation: Caesar. The other problem with the 2011 prequel to the superior 1968 original was, though it was building up to it, it still focused too much on humans when all we want to see were the apes. I am very happy to say this film took note of our laments, and corrected them.
Caesar is a father now, his wife just giving birth to another baby boy, along with his other son, Blue Eyes. It's been a decade since humans have approached the ape-topia that Caesar and his followers (an accurate assessment and probably accurate in the real world; Caesar is the Alpha Ape among this crop of primates). That is until a team of survivors who are immune to the disease that has spread across the world stumbles upon their territory...and it's all downhill from there.
Taking a severely darker tone than Rise, it's hard to imagine this even being in the same franchise as the last. The film is visually darker, most of what you see is the withered, sometimes human-inflicted sable fur as the apes try to live in their own world. You're almost disappointed to see humans, and I expect to see less in the forthcoming sequel. What makes this movie such a triumph is the character development of the apes. Franco's character was a great father to Caesar in the original, and this helps him see past the prejudice his fellow apes have against the human race: a perfect parable of racism and xenophobia nowadays. And honestly...why trust the humans? And to the humans: why trust the apes? As is revealed in this film, with the primates becoming genetically smarter...apes are becoming more like us. They suffer the conflict and hardships and love and betrayal that comes with the burden of being like man. It's the price to pay for their rebellion, and it's shown brilliantly in the movie. I thought all these thoughts after the film of course...you're too mesmerized by the uncannily realistic effects to ponder anything else at the moment.
Nitpicking the film is just a movie reviewer's way of not admitting they had a great time watching apes with guns on horses. What a ballistic visual that was; I predict that'll be seared in the imaginations of future visual effects artists to come. The unbroken take where Koba, (an Oscar-worthy Toby Kebbell) the main antagonist to Serkis' more human-friendly Caesar, kills a man, tosses him aside like trash and hops into the vehicle is highly notable. When Caesar is about to seriously hurt Koba after Koba questions his authority, you see the conflict register on his face...you forget this is a CGI animal and become enthralled in the story. Along with X-Men: Days of Future Past, which I didn't review because I was so late to seeing it, this is a fine example of how Summer '14 will go down in the history books.
Rating: 3.5/4 stars
Caesar is a father now, his wife just giving birth to another baby boy, along with his other son, Blue Eyes. It's been a decade since humans have approached the ape-topia that Caesar and his followers (an accurate assessment and probably accurate in the real world; Caesar is the Alpha Ape among this crop of primates). That is until a team of survivors who are immune to the disease that has spread across the world stumbles upon their territory...and it's all downhill from there.Taking a severely darker tone than Rise, it's hard to imagine this even being in the same franchise as the last. The film is visually darker, most of what you see is the withered, sometimes human-inflicted sable fur as the apes try to live in their own world. You're almost disappointed to see humans, and I expect to see less in the forthcoming sequel. What makes this movie such a triumph is the character development of the apes. Franco's character was a great father to Caesar in the original, and this helps him see past the prejudice his fellow apes have against the human race: a perfect parable of racism and xenophobia nowadays. And honestly...why trust the humans? And to the humans: why trust the apes? As is revealed in this film, with the primates becoming genetically smarter...apes are becoming more like us. They suffer the conflict and hardships and love and betrayal that comes with the burden of being like man. It's the price to pay for their rebellion, and it's shown brilliantly in the movie. I thought all these thoughts after the film of course...you're too mesmerized by the uncannily realistic effects to ponder anything else at the moment.
Nitpicking the film is just a movie reviewer's way of not admitting they had a great time watching apes with guns on horses. What a ballistic visual that was; I predict that'll be seared in the imaginations of future visual effects artists to come. The unbroken take where Koba, (an Oscar-worthy Toby Kebbell) the main antagonist to Serkis' more human-friendly Caesar, kills a man, tosses him aside like trash and hops into the vehicle is highly notable. When Caesar is about to seriously hurt Koba after Koba questions his authority, you see the conflict register on his face...you forget this is a CGI animal and become enthralled in the story. Along with X-Men: Days of Future Past, which I didn't review because I was so late to seeing it, this is a fine example of how Summer '14 will go down in the history books.Rating: 3.5/4 stars
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