Dawn of the Planet of the Apes review

Director: Matt Reeves

Starring: Andy Serkis, Toby Kebbell, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Karin Konoval, Nick Thurston, Judy Greer

It’s been almost fifty years since the first release of Planet of the Apes and, mainly due to its horrifying twist, has remained an iconic classic to this day but, while they may have the rare supporter, the quartet of ensuing sequels are no where near as rememberable while enough has been said on the disastrous Burton remake. In 2011, the franchise got a second chance with the unexpected delight of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The next chapter of Caesar’s story follows the ape into apocalyptic territory in hopes of becoming the sequel we’ve dreamed of.

Ten years after the global pandemic of Simian Flu, a small community of surviving humans shelter in the remains of San Francisco. Their leader, Dreyfus (Oldman), is quickly losing control of his power-deprived people and so dispatches a group lead by family man Malcolm (Clarke) to recover a nearby electric dam. However the dam is on the territory of the protective super-smart ape Caesar (Serkis) who guides a developing civilisation of his kind. When a chance at a coalition arises, conspiring members of both sides threaten to ruin the promise of cohabitation.

Inevitably the key talking point is Weta’s work on the special effects and they are stunning. It may not have the scope of Avatar but this is truly groundbreaking in its use of hoards of motion capture apes in real world locations for the first half of the film. Maybe the odd the background ape isn’t up to scratch but the detail and intricacy put into the wet fur in the opening sequence is a milestone achievement.

Effects focused films are generally quick to please on their initial views but a decade down the line it’ll becoming a gimicky mess without charm and story – that’s what divides Superman and Star Wars for met. It’d be easy to let the special effects become the USP here but thankfully DOTPOTA has the substance required.

The narrative, crafted by future Avatar scribes Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, is excellently done. Not dissimilar to a Shakespearean tragedy, it depicts friendship, mistrust and betrayal as well as the franchise’s defining themes of power play and race, even if they’re spelt out letter for letter this time around. It fantastically portrays the sense of mutual fear on both sides growing into aggression. The dialogue is good, not quite great, although ape actors can fully carry the story with their fantastic expression – the sign language subtitles may not have been necessary.

Despite the effects and writing, the real most valuable player is Andy Serkis in what could be his greatest performance. We may have seen the body language and genuinely ape-like presence before but the addition over Rise this time is the fantastic raw power of Serkis’ malleable voice. A second Academy overlook in his career (after The Two Towers) is inevitable but it won’t be any less frustrating; there’s no real excuse for mainstream prejudice now. Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight), Sigourney Weaver (Aliens), Johnny Depp (Pirates) and Alec Guinness (Star Wars) have become wildcard nods in the past and Serkis deserves it more than any.

The other standout performance is of Toby Kebbell, finally giving us a reason to get excited about the new Doctor Doom. He brilliantly plays Koba, an ape who despises Caesar’s sympathy for the humans who once tortured him. I’d deem him the best villain of the year so far and by far the most menacing. When these two acting powerhouses collide the result is the most tense action sequences since Captain Phillips.

Less admirable however are the occasionally clunky human counterparts. At the centre of this is The Great Gatsby star Jason Clarke who puts great effort into a fairly nondescript good-guy role. He’s a cut above James Franco’s scientist Will from Rise but inferior to Heston’s iconic mix of sickened and terrified as Taylor in the original.

Young star Kodi Smit-McPhee is fairly good as Malcom’s teen son Alexander although it is a hugely undeveloped role. A more laudable performance would be screen legend Gary Oldman, in far better form than in RoboCop earlier this year. He portrays Dreyfus, the surviving humans’ panicked leader, and perfectly conveys the sense of control slipping away bit by bit.

The film’s principal female characters, Keri Russell’s Ellie and Judy Greer’s Cornelia, are frustratingly relegated to dull mothering roles and barely get to influence the plot. The film draws up human/ape counterparts with Caesar/Malcolm, Blue Eyes (Nick Thurstan as Caesar’s rebellious son)/Alexander and Koba/Dreyfus but no such parallels are provided between these two. Of coarse this is never as exploitative as earlier action cinema but it’s disappointing to see this when plenty of others are getting it right.

Of coarse this naturally flows into an action packed finale and it begins stunningly. Trying as hard as I can to not give anything away in the slightest, a truly terrifying raid sequence kicks things off and it’ll be easy to spot Zulu as an obvious inspiration. The brutality of the combat, the fantastic use of slo-mo and (less dramatically) the fur all combine for a brilliantly earth-shaking scene and Reeves’ spiralling work on, what (for spoilery reasons) we shall now refer to as, “the tank shot” is simply incredible.

What ensues is a one-on-one duel between two characters audiences will come to love dearly and it defiantly ramps up the tension. While it’s leaps and bounds over its puny competition, the fight seems greatly overshadowed by the astonishing set piece it follows and perhaps a little generic for an esteemed franchise such as this.

Of coarse the work of Reeves, Jaffa, Silver, Serkis, Kebbell and co is excellent but musical maestro Michael Giacchino steals the show at every turn. Not only has he crafted some excellent monkey puns on the tracklist (The Apes of Wrath, Gorilla Warfare, Aped Crusaders, How Bonobo Can You Go, Close Encounters of the Furred Kinds…) but boldly gone into the rare territory of bombastically unnerving scores to accompany his traditional sweeping strings. It might not compare to his work on Star Trek, Up or Super 8 but beautifully homages composing of a very different era.

Faultless it is not, conforming female roles a plenty, but I’d strongly support the case that Dawn is the best Planet of the Apes yet. It’ll be nightmare picking a standout star: Gary Oldman is superb; Toby Kebbell will undoubtedly become a huge star; Matt Reeves, Weta and Giacchino have produced sterling work but Andy Serkis, a paragon to all hoping to spark a revolution in performance, is the man who’ll take his delayed position at the throne of Hollywood.

9/10

“Apes do not want war but will fight if we must! Ape…home. Human…home. Do not come back!”