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I've never actually watched any of the original films from the Planet of the Apes (1968) franchise, only the remake Planet of the Apes (2001) so my knowledge about the films were limited. I rated Rise of the Planet of the Apes high as it was well made and had an excellent narrative so I had high hopes for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). I was right, it was brilliant from start to finish with only a few minor cons.
Okay, so it's 10 years later and no sign of James Franco (he didn't want to return to the franchise) or any other humans for that matter. We go to the forest which we were left with at the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. We are shown that the apes have developed hunting skills which assures the audience they have managed to survive the ALZ-113 virus. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes Caesar was lost and was just becoming independent whereas now Caesar is a leader who has developed all the human knowledge he needs to survive and defend his land, he is now a father which shows apes are capable of having a family. Caesar's development makes the audience relate to him more as he is human like, showing the same behaviours and showing he can care for a community.
The Motion Caption Technology used was breath taking, throughout the entire film it was like I was watching real animals. The detail on every single animal was unbelievable, I had to keep reminding myself they weren't real. When I looked back at the apes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes you could see the improvements which I couldn't believe they managed to do. Andy Serkis did a excellent job as Caesar, capturing all the behaviours and emotions of an ape.
A group of humans are found in the forest searching for a power station as we learn there are a community of humans which survived and have been living close by the apes. A human named Carver panics and shoots Ash, Rocket's son which immediately angers the apes therefore Caesar goes to the humans and demands that they stay in their own territory and the apes will stay in theirs. This all goes fine but then obviously it kicks off with betrayal, jealously, anger and war.
One of the only problems I had with the film was that there weren't really any character development with the humans. Usually I don't mind that but because they were all new characters I felt we needed to know some more about them. I was surprised that the character Dreyfus wasn't as bad as the trailers made out him to be. It was Carver who was the most cruel human. Some of the humans understood that it wasn't the apes fault that the virus spread but to some it's just easier to blame the apes and hate them. People always fear things that they don't understand. That's why it annoyed me when the humans just wanted to kill them without hearing what they had to say. This is when I didn't feel any emotion towards the humans, even when they were getting captured by the apes because humans would experiment on the apes without a care in the world. In films like this I think the humans are always portrayed in a bad way because in real life I think societies are ignorant to certain things, especially in politics. When the city gets power the first thing Dreyfus does is look at photographs of his family on his iPad. This made me feel sorry for him and it showed that all he wanted was to see his family again. This kind of gives hope back to the humans that they still have emotion. This also shows that humans can't rely on technology like in real life because you need power to survive and there are more important things than technology you have to think about.
Throughout the film I wanted the humans Malcolm, Ellie and Alex to survive, I think because they didn't hesitate when it came to helping and understanding the apes. They understood that the apes had built themselves a life and didn't want it destroyed. They saw they were trying to be equal to humans for example Maurice teaches the other apes how to read. They want to be accepted and treated in the same way.
Throughout the whole film it was emotional and tense especially between Caesar and Koba, two best friends who have been through an ordeal but have to stand for their own beliefs which conflicted with one another. I felt sorry for Koba because he was experimented on and he hated the humans for that, I don't blame him I just think his anger and hatred over took his thinking which led him to betray Caesar. The scene when he begins the war is heartbreaking as he is leading all the apes to their deaths. All the fire around makes the scene powerful, connoting the pain that everyone has felt since the virus spread and the pain the apes went through in the experiments. Unfortunately some of the apes were being burnt alive, this was actually hard to watch because it just seemed so real and if they knew the real reason for them fighting they wouldn't have gone in the first place. However they were scared and had to follow Koba out of fear, this is usually a human trait.
There were a few continuity moments which linked to Rise of the Planet of the Apes such as when Caesar went back to his old house and went to his old room where he found a video of him when he was younger. It was sad to watch because the audience knew how much he loved Will. It reminded us that Caesar still wants to help and be equal with humans. The only actors who returned for this film were Andy Serkis, Karin Konoval and Terry Notary. Some of the same characters returned such as Koba but they had changed actors. All the acting was good with all the characters however it was the apes which got all my attention.
I definitely recommend this film and I will be watching all the originals!
Please comment with your thoughts!
Cast
Andy Serkis as Caesar
Karin Konoval as Maurice
Jason Clarke as Malcolm
Keri Russell as Ellie
Toby Kebbell as Koba
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Alexander
Kirk Acevedo as Carver
Gary Oldman as Dreyfus
Nick Thurston as Blue Eyes
Terry Notary as Rocket
Judy Greer as Cornelia
Larramie Doc Shaw as Ash
Director
Matt Reeves
Screenplay
Amanda Silver
Mark Bomback
Scott Z. Burns
Rick Jaffa
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