I meant to post this days ago, you know how a storm and a massive power outage can screw up one’s plans. I had to ration the battery life of my phone by putting it on airplane mode most of the time and just read saved stories on there.

Anyway. I vaguely remember snippets of the 2001 Planet of the Apes and remember thinking that it was a little bit disjointed and weird. Later on I would learn that it was a Tim Burton and the weirdness made sense. I also remember walking out of Rise of the Planet of the Apes with a crush on the simean Caesar. It was such a brilliantly written character that I couldn’t help but be floored. As soon as it was confirmed that the sequel has been signed, it quickly became number two on my movie wait list (the Hunger Games sequels are still numero uno). Is the sequel as floor-worthy?

Here’s my round-up of Matt Reeves’ (Let Me In) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

A decade has past since the altercations in San Francisco and the ALZ-113 virus has all but wiped out the human population on earth. Most of those who were genetically immune from the virus usually didn’t survive the war, because apparently there is no excuse bad enough for human warfare against each other. Caesar (Andy Serkis – 13 Going On 30) has now a family – mate Cornelia (Judy Greer – Jawbreaker), son Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston – White Irish Drinkers) – and along with his ape generals Rocket (Terry Notary), Maurice (Karin Konoval – Step Up All In) and Koba (Toby Kebbell – RocknRolla), they have established a peaceful community high up in the woods where they go by the golden rule (‘Apes shall not kill apes’). Things get complicated when a handful of humans who all reside in the remains of San Francisco – Malcolm (Jason Clarke – Zero Dark Thirty), his son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee – Romeo & Juliet), and partner Ellie (Keri Russell – Waitress) – accidentally trod on the apes’ camp to get to an abandoned hydroelectric power plant. They were ordered by the human mayor Dreyfus (Gary Oldman – The Dark Knighttrilogy) to search for alternative sources to their dwindling power supply and must do so at any cost. Caesar’s tolerance for the humans causes friction among the apes who question if after everything that has happened, does he still value humans in a higher regard than his own kind?

THE GOOD:

1. Caesar as a character. Andy Serkis was bloody brilliant too, of course; I don’t even know how he got to give the ape so many human nuances but the character growth was just mind blowing. Here you feel the strains where exactly each of his commitments are pulling at him.
2. Gary Oldman. Although it was a small-ish role, he still gave one hell of a performance. I wish he was given Malcolm’s role though; I feel as though he would’ve made more of an impact because he would’ve been on a more equal footing against Andy Serkis’ Caesar.
3. Koba as a character. Everything that he did – and I mean everything – made sense and was true to how he was introduced in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The Stalin referrence was a little ‘in your face’, but all in all forgivable.
4. Epic scenes. You know how in some movies one scene would stay with you forever? You might even forget the story and the actors but that one epic scene would still burn brightly in your mind that eventually, whenever you pull up memories related to the film, that one scene would be the first one you’d recall? Yeah, this movie had loads of those.
5. The film was able to hold on to the tension for most of the one hundred thirty-one minutes run time. I’m sure that was more difficult to pull off than anyone can imagine, but I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie.

THE BAD:

1. The blah humans. With the sole exception of Gary Oldman, all of the humans were forgettable. None of their backstories were interesting enough and it’s almost laughable how they tried to sell Jason Clarke’s Malcolm as someone who can go head to head with Andy Serkis’ Caesar. And as far as I can tell, Keri Russell was only there because she was the star of Felicity.
2. It was a little bit too long. I think the film can still stand up pretty strongly on its own if ten to fifteen minutes are shaved off from the final reel.
3. Too little James Franco. I’m being unreasonable, of course, but I kid you not when I say that there was a collective gasp in the cinema when he showed up.

THE UGLY:

1. That in the end, it’s still nothing but a very long trailer for the third installment. Much like how Captain America: The First Avenger was nothing but a big teaser for The Avengers, this too was nothing but fodder until the next one comes out. I mean, okay the film did cover a major plot point but it’s nothing that couldn’t be covered by an opening narrative sequence.

All in all Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was an extremely enjoyable movie. There’s nothing like excellently written characters with so much internal conflicts to chew on portrayed by more than capable actors. The special effects were, predictably, incredible but they did nothing but enhance everything that was great in the movie. While I can’t comfortably call it a better film than the prequel, it’s still a fantastic movie that is worth watching.

THE VERDICT: 8.7/10. I sort of can’t wait to marathon these films one day.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.