Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Apes on horseback with machine guns. Nuff' said.

We start off with human kind being brought close to extinction by a virus brought on by the chemical that gave the apes intelligence in the last movie. The apes live in peace in a community they have built within the woods to escape any trace of humanity. Caesar (Andy Serkis) is still the leader of the ultra intelligent apes, and has kept them in a good standing despite everything that has gone on around them, he has even built himself a family. He has a young son that he is training to be a warrior and a newborn son, along with a wife. All seems to be going well for them since they haven't seen any humans for over 10 years; until, (chance would have it) a group of human survivors stumbles upon them while looking for a dam to supply power to their town. After an accident involving one of the humans shooting the son of Caesar's good friend the humans are sent off and told never to return. The human leader, Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) instructs one of the people who found the apes, Malcolm (Jason Clarke) to go try reasoning with the apes in order for them to get power or the humans will attack them and take it.  This seems like as good a place as any to stop the synopsis without giving the farm away... and no I don't think any of this was "spoiler warning" worthy since you saw most of what I said in the previews. So there.

You know the great part of this entire movie? The character development. I found myself caught between caring for the apes and my care for the humans. Gary Oldman's character SEEMED like a prime candidate for "the bad guy of the film," but he really didn't fit the bill. Yes, he said if they won't let us in we will have to take it by force; but, I can't fault him for that since he had to provide for hundreds of people. Yes, there were some other questionable things in the movie that would make him seem like the bad guy (that will require a spoiler warning, so I won't say it), but he finds a way to make himself just seem like any other person put in his situation. There is even a scene (that is obviously an advertisement for Apple) that makes him seem like a good man under other circumstances. He isn't the only character that is given an ocean of depth in this movie, just the best example. Koba (Caesar's right hand ape) is another great character. In fact the two people that aren't really expounded upon are the main humans trying to win the ape's affection; but, even then you can tell there is so much beneath the surface with them that their lack of actual back story seems to bounce off the page. The last movie was great, but made us only care for the apes. The original movie was great, but only made us care for the humans (kind of). This movie is like some weird amazing hybrid between the two, and comes out looking (I dare say) even more amazing than both of them.

What can I really say about this movie's story line? This is the eighth film about apes taking over the world sporting "Planet of the Apes" in its title. You know by now what you are here for. Apes taking over the world while riding horses and carrying guns, cursing the existence of human beings in English. Is the story line good? Yes. Of course it is good. The title of this movie is "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" not "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" so I expected it to be a good story line. I like that a virus killed off the humans and violence towards one another finished off all but a hand full, and that the once scorned apes now have the advantage. I like that Caesar doesn't want war, but his story shows us that it isn't always what you want that is going to happen (again no spoiler warning, you know the apes go to war in the trailers). I like that it comments on us being able to see shades of good and evil everywhere, and it isn't people as a whole but the person who is at fault. There are tons of great messages in this movie, and I think that since this movie has very limited amounts of blood it would be a great film to take your kids to, so they can learn some valuable lessons.

With all of this good stuff I am writing about the movie, surely the acting must have been shit, right? Surely, this movie wasn't perfect, right? Well actually this movie came as close to perfect as I have seen from this franchise, and that is saying a lot. The voices provided to the apes were powerful and commanding, just like they should be given the species they are trying to represent. They are the greatest representation of the acting since most of the movie is spent following them. I didn't mind Jason Clarke in this, he seems to have put a lot of heart in becoming the replacement for James Franco and I give him all the respect in the world for givng us a great performance regardless of if he actually did better or not. My one gripe is that Gary Oldman didn't have a bigger part, his part was good, but I could have done with more of him (regardless of what he said in an interview, that doesn't matter to me). I am a Gary Oldman fanboy, from Dracula to Commissioner Gordon. From Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg to Sirius Black. I have loved all of his performances, even when he was in bad movies I loved his performance in them ("Tiptoes" and "Robocop" to name a couple) and if the only bad thing I can say about this movie is that I wanted to see more of one of my favorite actors, then I guess this movie did pretty great.

Now I am going to do something I try not to do in my reviews. Comment on the music. The moment the movie starts you see the globe being effected by the virus, and the news reels are rolling over everything, you get emotionally invested. It isn't because of a new version of the same opening for a "pandemic movie" we have seen a dozen times, it is the music. Every battle, every emotional sequence, every speech is accented brilliantly by the use of this great music. I went over Michael Giacchino's  accredited works after watching this movie and have to say that this is quite possibly his greatest achievement. The story was great, the character's were great, the actors were great; but I have a feeling that without this music backing them all up this movie wouldn't have been as good alone. My one regret for Micheal is that he seems to work closely with J.J. Abrams and I hope he can find it within his common sense to jump off that untalented ship.

The last thing I can say about this movie is that the cinematography was on par with some of the greatest movies I have seen. Following Caesar''s son threw a battle with the humans was intense and makes you feel like you were there. Watching the birth of an ape was beautiful and emotional. Seeing every emotion cross a characters face with the perfect amount of close ups or seeing battles brought to life with expertly timed long shots was like seeing a true artist at work. I hadn't seen too much from director Matt Reeves before, but if this is what I can expect as a sign of things to come I know he has a bright future ahead of him. For now, I just can't wait to see what he does next.

Final Verdict: Buy it  One of the few movie's I have given my highest recommendation, and I can't stand behind this enough. Not only should you go see it in theaters right now, but you should but it on Blu-ray to enjoy over and over. If you don't have a Blu-ray player go out and get one so you can enjoy this movie in the highest form of home entertainment available then buy this movie. You will not regret it.