Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The Planet of the Apes franchise has had a bit of a checkered history. It is generally agreed upon that Tim Burton's remake of the original 1968 classic was terrible, but prior to that there was a short series of films that directly followed the original, these being Beneath, Escape, Conquest and Battle (all with the of the Planet of the Apes suffix). Of these movies, only Escape from the Planet of the Apes was good. So I think we're kind of lucky that 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a success, especially after the franchise had died two times over.

Dawn begins a decade after Rise which ended with the hint of a virus which only affected humans was about to spread. Well this 'simian flu' (as it's called in this movie) spread and wiped out the majority of mankind. Caesar and the apes from the first film are living in a colony outside San Francisco. A group of humans led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke) stumble upon this group while trying to find a hydroelectric dam in the area and become the first humans to contact the colony. This contact, combined with distrust between the two groups, eventually leads to violence.

The evolution of the world between the last movie and this one is really amazing. The fall of human society while the ape one flourishes is a fantastic contrast. The humans don't want to return to the time just after the fall of society because they were no better than animals, while all that the apes want is a safe community where they can live.

Again there are references to previous Apes films. The opening scene is one of the apes hunting some deer. These techniques are the exact same that they will use to hunt humans in the original film. They now have horses, which is their preferred mode of transport in the original. Also the name of Caesar's wife(?) is called Cornelia, a homage to Cornelius the chimpanzee who helped Taylor the lost astronaut. There is however, no sign of the eventual status quo that we know the planet will eventually fall into, with the orang-utans as the leaders.

This cast almost reads as a who's who of my favourite actors. Aussie Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) leads the human cast superbly and his relationship with Gary Oldman pulled at my heartstrings at times. Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirk Acevedo (my all time favourite actor) round out the human cast.

But the most praise has to go to the actors who play the apes. Motion capture technology has come so far in my lifetime and it's only going to get better. Andy Serkis (Caesar) is so good at this now, it's second nature to him. His performance is unbelievable in this movie as are the others. Toby Kebbell (RocknRolla) and Judy Greer (Arrested Development) are also great, especially being the first time they've both done this.

Verdict: A great follow up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the series can only get better from here.