Jay Snook reviews the latest entry in the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise, and he insists you should go out and see it.
This movie is better than it predecessor in every way.
It came out on Friday July 11th, and it is the sequel to the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It is rated PG-13, and it is 2 hours and 10 minutes long. This is a film that would be best to not have the kids see because of some adult language and violent scenes.
The movie begins in the world that the apes have created just outside in the forests of San Francisco. It has been ten years since the Simian Flu came into existence, and the apes believe all the humans are dead. The society they have created is peaceful and serene. They all seem to get along, and Caesar is the one who leads them. He has a family now, and there is even a school to help the young apes learn the alphabet. They even have a few laws that govern their lives so that they keep order and peace in their new community.
But one day while Caesar’s son Blue Eyes and Rocket’s son Ash are walking in the forest they bump into a human. This man named Carver gets scared and shoots Ash, and then he runs to his group of fellow armed humans to let them know there are apes out there. When Malcolm and Caesar meets, he doesn’t trust or like him at all. He wants him to leave the apes home immediately, and to never come back.
Malcolm goes back to SF and his community and lets his friend Dreyfus know there is a problem. They went there to fix the dam so they could have power in the city again, but with the apes inhabiting that area this may not be possible. To make matter worse Caesar and a bunch of his fellow apes come to the city on horses and threaten the humans that if they ever return to their home it will be an act of war. But Malcolm is eventually able to reason with Caesar and Dreyfus and is given 3 days to try to repair the dam.
But meanwhile Dreyfus has a distrust of the apes and not only has men set up with weapons but there is a huge armory set up in case war happens. At the same time Koba, who is like a brother to Caesar, hates all humans because he has scars from all the tests they did on him at the lab 10 years ago and wants them all gone. With this hate coming from both sides, it makes it seem unlikely that peace can happen between these two species. Is it possible to have peace with these two societies? Can they coexist together? And is there anyway to end the hate they have for each other?
Malcolm is played well by Jason Clarke, his character has heart and even though he has had a tough life, all he wants to do is help the people in the city get power and to survive. Andy Serkis does an amazing job playing Caeser, best known as playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series. He brings such emotion and facial expressions to this character that never seem forced or fake, he was meant to play this role. Gary Oldman does a good job playing the human villain Dreyfus, he is easy to hate and there is no scene where you want to feel sorry for him. But the best portrayal in this is by Toby Kebbell who plays Koba. This ape has a true blind hatred for humans, and the way he acts in this film makes you want to hate him, so much that when something bad does happen to him it is almost a relief. The rest of the cast does a great job helping the film move along at a good pace and the film never goes slow or seems to drag on.
This film has many good things going for it. The special effects are superb, used in each locale it really helps bring them to life. It also helps show how battered SF is and how booming the ape community is, almost like one society is growing while the other one is in danger of extinction. The soundtrack is also very good, it helps bring many scenes to life and no song felt out of place. Some songs fit so well it make the scene more enjoyable like when the dam does begin to work again, adding the song Jesus of Nazareth seemed odd at first, but it makes sense. It helps the scene because it shows how happy the humans are to have some power and therefore hope of survival has returned for now.
But the best thing about this film is how the apes interact with each other. The beginning scenes are beautiful. The apes communicate in a special way I won’t ruin here, and don’t even begin to talk English until they run into humans. It is apparent this is something they don’t like to do, but to communicate they are willing to do it. The place they live in is simple but absolutely beautiful at the same time. It is a dream society, with no famine, war or hunger. In just 10 years they accomplish this, and it made me wonder why is it so hard for humans to reach such a goal?
By the end of the film, many things have happened to both societies so that they will never be the same.
This film got the #1 spot this weekend and made $73 million in the US alone. It has gotten good reception so far from audiences and critics and I believe it is going to make a good amount of money this summer.
If you saw the first film you must go out and see it. There is so many good things about this film it is hard to put into words here. Check it out, and even go see it more than once. Trust me it is that good. I highly doubt you will regret it.
i came across this article in the nottheonion reddit forum Among the millions of ticket-buyers who turned out to see “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” were two movie-goers with particularly evolved tastes. A pair of 2-year-old chimpanzees were brought to a Myrtle Beach, S.C., multiplex to watch the film about super intelligent apes who faceoff against humans in a dystopian future — and the primates gave the flick two opposable thumbs up, according to ABC News. […] “The older one, Vali, is a very bright guy, he’s (also) watched the Lord of the Rings many times, and he… Read more »
I thought Koba was actually pretty funny. He pretty much made me stop taking the movie seriously. Also I had a few problems:
1. The apes were united interspecies? Come on, humans are all in the same species and they can’t stand each other. I wish that dynamic was played with between chimps, orangutans, and gorillas.
2. Humans failed to adapt to life without electricity and technology? That was insulting.
I saw this with my sister and we knew that was going to take place.