Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Directed by Matt Reeves

130 minutes

Like Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Whatt 2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves 2014) is an immersive experience. If you haven’t already seen the previous film, you might be thrown in the deep end as the narrative lacks in exploring the subtext between the apes and humans, or why there is tension between the two. But if you’re seen the first, then you’ll be ok with the narrative jumping the gun.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes begins in the apes new homeland lead by Caesar (Andy Serkis), who now has a wife, son and baby. When a brawl takes place with a bear and Caesar’s son, the apes come to his aid and demonstrate they are tight. Adjacent to this, is the humans, the clear ‘bad’ guys of the narrative.  Centering their narrative is an unclear, virus outbreak. Their aim is getting the town’s power supply rebooted which is situated in the ape’s terrain. But when the deliberately annoying character Craver (kirk Acevedo), and his posse shoot an ape, it dulls their chance of obtaining their objective.  The apes are outraged and threaten the humans to leave. The humans report back to the ever so comical tyrant Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) who insists on going to war, but it’s the film’s weightier character Malcolm (Jason Clarke), who adds warmth to the narrative and wants both parties to work together. Of course, this doesn’t occur when human hating ape Koba (Toby Kebbell), manipulates the apes into war and turning against Caesar reign.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is definitely a roller coaster experience. At times, it uses Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993) techniques like sub narratives between characters and situations that are returned to later, to heighten its tension. It is also visually an awe factor, watching apes in the natural habitat is quite breathtaking and remarkable to say the least. However, some of the battle scenes seemed a little Lord of the Rings, became the film’s weaker point. Watching Koba declare war whilst on a horse with two guns was pretty unbelievable but at the same time did make me laugh. I mean, how did he learn to use a gun so quickly and accurately? This seemed to dumb down the subtext of the narrative and is quite farcical when you compare Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to its previous instalment and its nuances.

Koba the previous imprisoned lab experiment definitely has anger issues, but it would have seemed strange to the viewer if they had not seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes and understood why he didn’t trust humans. But in this film, his anger needed to be toned down, or at least shown conflict by going against Caesar and allowing fellow apes to be killed. It was also hard watching the usually good Gary Oldman and justifying why Dreyfus is so pro war. His character was on the same level as a Disney villain, flat.  Except, maybe that one scene when he looks at a photo album of two boys and starts crying, presuming that are or where his sons? It does matter, Dreyfus closes the album and is mean, again.

If, at any point during Dawn of the Planet of the Apes you come out of its world, and start to compare it to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, you may have a problem. However, if you are so immersed, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an enjoyable and breathtaking experience.  If that’s all you want, then you’ll be fine.