Reviews

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

In 2011 viewers and critics a like were pleasantly surprised with the impressive Rise of the Planet of the Apes which wiped the slate clean of the previously failed attempt by Tim Burton to reboot the franchise. The sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is a consistently tense and thrilling film that has greatly improved on what the first film set out to do.

It has been ten years since the events of the first film and the simian flu has killed billions world wide after the outbreak in San Francisco. The apes who escaped to the woodland surrounding the city have built a peaceful community for themselves with their leader Caesar. For the first fifteen minutes of film we follow these apes as they hunt a herd of deer through the thick forest with some stunning cinematography which is consistent throughout the rest of the film. There is also a great tribute during this sequence with the eerie chant from 2001: A Space Odyssey playing in the background which fits perfectly with the apes slowly stalking their prey. After spending time with the apes who are shown to be developing their society rather quickly, we are introduced to a small human enclave situated in the heart of the city. Compared to the apes, this small community of humans are in chaos and struggling to survive with their power running out and the fear that the apes could attack at any moment. Gary Oldman plays Dreyfus, the leader of this small community, and fits the role perfectly as he's done in every other role he's ever been in. While not being an incredibly important character to the plot he is still a nice addition to the cast. For most of the film on the human side we follow Malcolm, played by Jason Clarke, as he tries to negotiate with the apes and while being a very generic and predictable character Jason Clarke manages to provide some depth and emotion to keep the plot going. The rest of the human characters are very much forgettable as the movie decides to focus more on the side of the apes which proves to be a lot more interesting. 

The main protagonist of the film is the character of Caesar, and like the first film, is played by the incredibly talented Andy Serkis which through the use of motion capture is able to provide one of the most convincing and emotional performances of the year. Throughout the film you start to forget that these aren't real animals that you are witnessing which is thanks to the amazing visual effects of Weta Digital with each ape being meticulously detailed. This all adds to create one of the most visually impressive films of all time and a land mark of motion capture technology. 

With the plot revolving around two sides of a conflict, the audience instinctively wants to pick a side but cant due to there being good and evil on both sides. This is not only smart writing but allows the plot to be very unpredictable and provides a lot of the films tension. This also allows for the battle scenes between apes and humans to have a much more emotional impact which is very much felt in the ending battle scene and nicely evokes a similarly brutal scene from the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

Overall Matt Reeves has done an excellent job at creating a film that questions your morality as you struggle to decide who to root for in a conflict which is not all black and white whilst also creating a very impressive and superior sequel.