Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Plot & Characters: Wow. This movie, man. Shakespearean tragedy with monkeys -  and it somehow worked brilliantly. Firstly, this film was excellently paced. The humans' and apes' actions were believable, flowed in a logical and reactionary way, and effortlessly tied all the characters together. And there was an ever-present and increasing tension; a growing dread that despite momentary cooperation, everything will soon go to hell. Secondly, the movie spent an adequate amount of time with both the humans and the apes, balancing the watcher's sentiments for both. As a result, this wasn't a classic 'root for the good guys' film - it literally manipulated your emotions into requiring you to take a step back, simply watch the action unfold, and glean some conclusions only
at the end.

Honestly....damn, I really liked every character. This was definitely a theme/plot driven movie thus no single character took the spotlight - this is why it's impossible to divorce them from the overall movie. That being said, Caesar (good ape), Koba (bad ape), Malcom (good human), that other leader guy (bad human) were all dynamic in their own right. And (bless the hearts of the writers) they all behaved rationally - even when they chose to fight, it was justified, not a result of irrational temper.

A few moments especially stood out. 1) when Malcom's son gives the orangutan the book. Poignant and touching. 2) When Koba pretends to be a stupid chimp while fooling the guards. The moment he picks up the machine gun - chills. And the look on his face..... 3) The very end. Such a sense of depressing loss, exacerbated by the fact that they were so close.

Cinematography: Several very impressive shots, most notably the battle scene (especially the 360 degree tank shot) and the tracking shot in which Malcom is retrieving the medicine amidst the raid. That single shot was very Children of Men-like.

Production Design: The motion capture apes were quite simply unbelievable. I would go as far as to say that the texturing and lighting were the best CGI I have ever seen. The emotion on those faces was indistinguishable from the humans' - perhaps even more profound. Indeed, the apes were somehow just as well-characterized although they barely spoke and communicated through rough ASL. The post-apocalyptic San Francisco design was decent, and didn't draw much attention to itself.

Also, let me state for the record, a chimp riding a horse through a wall of flames while firing two machine guns sounds either like a bad parody or something akin to 'Sharknado'. But it worked. And it was terrifying.

Theme: This could have so easily descended into a tirade about human greed and savagery, and I give the writers props from avaoiding that route. Instead, this movie was a reverse Avatar (Avatar ie. the blue people movie). Humans were not the savage, imperialistic, capitalistic marauders destroying the primitive, peaceful, natives - instead they were portrayed as desperate, weak, and remarkably sensible. The apes were the ones who initiated war. They were ultimately the cruel ones.

This being said, I suppose by characterizing the 'ape' and 'human' actions, I am in a way missing the point of the movie. Namely, that good and evil transcend racial boundaries, and making character judgements based on species is simply ill-founded. The whole point was essentially that you can't support one side or the other, because peace-loving and bloodthirsty individuals alike reside in both. Judgements make sense for individuals, not the whole.


Finally, this movie is a textbook example of the escalating tensions and breaches of mistrust that lead to war. Replace the two sides with any two countries and you literally have the classic example of modern military escalation.  Moreover, it was an excellent study on how a single individual, hell-bent on war for his own personal gain, has the power to manipulate a peaceful community into violence. Overall, so much more in this movie than what the title and first impression would suggest.