★★★★★
13 July 2014
This article is a review of DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.
|
“Do they look like just apes to you?” Malcolm (Jason Clarke)
Intelligent, bleak, emotional, allegorical, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES builds on the potential of predecessor origin story, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.
Lights wink out, as the world slowly rotates, representing simultaneously the faltering of electricity, though more unsettlingly, also the extinguishing of human life. Ten years on, biotech corporation Gen-Sys’s foray into an experimental Alzheimer treatment trial has gone catastrophically awry: Not only creating super-smart apes, but unleashing a disease, nicknamed “Simian Flu”, eviscerating the global population. Anarchy followed in its wake for those survivors genetically immune.
Apocalyptic news clips bring us up to speed. Alighting on this revised Earth, in a Californian forest, apes led by Caesar (Andy Serkis – rightly top billed) hunt deer. Organised, exuding power and focus, the simians are immediately established as a force to be reckoned with. Human survivors are holed up in a makeshift commune beneath an unfinished San Franciscan skyscraper.
Hate, unjustified (through ignorance) and arguably understandable (reparation demanding), derailing peace is the prime theme. As figurative expressions go, the metaphor is as flexible as they come – applicable to nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Any kind of friction between two factions, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES could be applied to. Joining recent intelligent sci-fi parables such as DISTRICT 9 and LOOPER is no small achievement.
Striving to give peace a chance are two nuclear families from opposing species:
1. The humans: Malcolm, Ellie (Keri Russell) and teenage son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
2. The Simians: Cesar, mate Cornelia (Judy Greer), adolescent son Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) and new baby.
Breathtaking motion capture and computer generated imagery wow and beguile in the conceptualisation of the apes (the same way the humans collectively gasp when Caesar astride a horse suddenly addresses them); though the true compliment for the technicians and actors is that you eventually cease being pulled from the film in admiration, rather they become credible characters (as all great animation pulls off).
Michael Giacchino’s fab music score harks back to old school event films while conveying grandeur and menace. And new to the franchise director’s chair, Matt Reeves, shows the verve of CLOVERFIELD was not a one-off. An armoured personnel carrier attacks the simians at one point, and in a single shot the turret rotates to reveal the sequence unfolding as tables are turned to giddying effect.
Thoughtful, pessimistic, brainy blockbusters are too rare.