In 2011, Rise of the planet of Apes has revived the Planet of the Apes franchise successfully, and it garnered commercial and critical acclaim. Rightly so. Building up on a predecessor that nailed so many aspects just right is definitely a daunting task. And despite a few shortcomings, Dawn was able to actually pull that off in style.
Dawn is a perfect blockbuster, with enough amounts of emotion, intelligent writing and action making it one of the few films that do so very rarely. The last movie that gave me such impression - a sensible blockbuster - was The Dark Knight Returns.
The story picks up after its prequel, leaving a few details cleverly dropped and for the viewer's imagination. Our super-intelligent ape Caeser, who made it home at the climax of Rise will mature much over the time and is the leader of the 'Tribe' of monkeys in the wild. Of course, the human survivor territory and the Ape territory are effectively separated, the humans staying in the amazingly realized New York City devastated after the outbreak in Rise and the monkeys stay in the wild, among the high trees, inhabiting them. The survivors come up with a plan to revive and old dam for the sake of electricity since their stored up fuel is getting exhausted. The plan is good enough, except for the fact that the dam falls into the Ape territory. What happens after that forms the rest of the story. I shall not analyze the story here as it requires a lot of spoiling to the people who have not seen the movie. There are a few clichéd moments that form the main conflict and it gets predictable towards the end. Except for that, the story never bores you. It's really good and there will be enough plot twists to keep the interest high up. The screenplay leaves you with enough back story to characters on each side that you will find that its hard not to root for a particular side - humans or Apes. It also tidies up the premise for a wait-worthy sequel.
A story so good needs a top-notch cast to support it and carry it. On the human-side, there is Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell among others and they all do a commendable job. A good soundtrack and great cinematography among many other departments make the Ruined New York extremely believable and immersive. The 3D was particularly effective in the latter part of the experience.
Now for the real deal. The Ape side. In Rise, Caeser's motion capture actor Andy Serkis has done a fabulous job and the motion capture was equally well done. But Dawn builds up on the already spectacular performance and as a result, the performances of all the Apes, specifically the main characters and more importantly Caeser, were jaw dropping. With this movie, Andy Serkis has proved that he is positively one of the best motion capture artists out there. Every detail, every frown, every sneer, every smile and every muscle movement was wonderfully captured with a ridiculous amount of authenticity. It is extremely hard, not to be impressed by Caeser's character as well. On one hand, he is the leader of the Apes and on the other, he has seen the loving side of the humans. His attempts for peace, his decisions and his ties to his own family (oops!) definitely remind us of a few great leaders of history.
There are only a few complaints I have about this movie and everything else is so good these complaints might look like knit-picks. Some of the characters in the story were unnecessary and the love angle between two characters though welcome, did feel a bit out of the place. The story eventually gets predictable but by then there will be virtually no main scene left to guess. The pacing slightly drops before the second act and picks up very soon. And that's all I've got.
If you were allowed only one movie this whole summer, this is the one I'd pick. Dawn is a sci-fi blockbuster so well made that only a few movies reach its level of storytelling and intrigue. If the visuals don't impress you, the soundtrack doesn't elevate the mood and if the cast doesn't pique your interest, then the character of Caesar should do the trick. He is like nothing you've ever seen. That ape is a show-stopper and I'm running out of adjectives here.
Dawn is a perfect blockbuster, with enough amounts of emotion, intelligent writing and action making it one of the few films that do so very rarely. The last movie that gave me such impression - a sensible blockbuster - was The Dark Knight Returns.
The story picks up after its prequel, leaving a few details cleverly dropped and for the viewer's imagination. Our super-intelligent ape Caeser, who made it home at the climax of Rise will mature much over the time and is the leader of the 'Tribe' of monkeys in the wild. Of course, the human survivor territory and the Ape territory are effectively separated, the humans staying in the amazingly realized New York City devastated after the outbreak in Rise and the monkeys stay in the wild, among the high trees, inhabiting them. The survivors come up with a plan to revive and old dam for the sake of electricity since their stored up fuel is getting exhausted. The plan is good enough, except for the fact that the dam falls into the Ape territory. What happens after that forms the rest of the story. I shall not analyze the story here as it requires a lot of spoiling to the people who have not seen the movie. There are a few clichéd moments that form the main conflict and it gets predictable towards the end. Except for that, the story never bores you. It's really good and there will be enough plot twists to keep the interest high up. The screenplay leaves you with enough back story to characters on each side that you will find that its hard not to root for a particular side - humans or Apes. It also tidies up the premise for a wait-worthy sequel.
A story so good needs a top-notch cast to support it and carry it. On the human-side, there is Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell among others and they all do a commendable job. A good soundtrack and great cinematography among many other departments make the Ruined New York extremely believable and immersive. The 3D was particularly effective in the latter part of the experience.
Now for the real deal. The Ape side. In Rise, Caeser's motion capture actor Andy Serkis has done a fabulous job and the motion capture was equally well done. But Dawn builds up on the already spectacular performance and as a result, the performances of all the Apes, specifically the main characters and more importantly Caeser, were jaw dropping. With this movie, Andy Serkis has proved that he is positively one of the best motion capture artists out there. Every detail, every frown, every sneer, every smile and every muscle movement was wonderfully captured with a ridiculous amount of authenticity. It is extremely hard, not to be impressed by Caeser's character as well. On one hand, he is the leader of the Apes and on the other, he has seen the loving side of the humans. His attempts for peace, his decisions and his ties to his own family (oops!) definitely remind us of a few great leaders of history.
There are only a few complaints I have about this movie and everything else is so good these complaints might look like knit-picks. Some of the characters in the story were unnecessary and the love angle between two characters though welcome, did feel a bit out of the place. The story eventually gets predictable but by then there will be virtually no main scene left to guess. The pacing slightly drops before the second act and picks up very soon. And that's all I've got.
If you were allowed only one movie this whole summer, this is the one I'd pick. Dawn is a sci-fi blockbuster so well made that only a few movies reach its level of storytelling and intrigue. If the visuals don't impress you, the soundtrack doesn't elevate the mood and if the cast doesn't pique your interest, then the character of Caesar should do the trick. He is like nothing you've ever seen. That ape is a show-stopper and I'm running out of adjectives here.