Reboots, and worse yet 're-imaginings', are something of a sore point for many franchise fans. After all, we all have our favourites and on most occasions remakes simply add a frustrating 'not that one the other one' moment to cinema discussions. It was interesting to see then, that Rise of the Planet of the Apes did the unthinkable by escaping the shadow of a much maligned Tim Burton effort some years before. It even managed to go beyond the trite 'Rise of' style moniker which usually signifies a sub-par effort from the creators. But they pushed forward with motion capture technology, provided a story with some emotional resonance and managed to offer many viewers a good time. There were some questionable inclusions of course - the casting, the clichés, and the unnecessary references to the Charlton Heston film. But overall it was pretty impressive once things got moving. Would a follow be able to do the same, or even up the ante?
As a sequel, Dawn offers a lot of food for thought while continuing to develop the apes as characters. Describing it as a fun blockbuster is probably pushing things. In fact it's a slower, bleaker, and more sombre affair all round. But it's often an engrossing affair. To set the stage, and in case some viewers missed the end credits sequel bait in the previous outing, the opening repeats the flight path info-graphic. It shows that right off the bat things will be a bit darker as a pandemic destroys much of the human race. With the 'simian flu' creators long gone there isn't room for another kind of story about the problems of gene therapy and lab testing. Instead it's a tale about survival and everything jumps forward a decade to allow ape culture to grow outside the ruins of the old world. There are a lot of great city visuals and ape civilisation shots to create a believable setting.
Things remain abandoned just long enough for it to be a surprise to them when homo-sapiens arrive back in forest outside of San Francisco. On top of everything else this a culture clash film, a story about the failure of communication between two tribes. Which is of course a great staple of both drama and science fiction. It's heavy handed in some ways, but so is all of the 'apes as humans' imagery being shown to the audience the whole time. Still, these are ideas that still work. Unlike something like... Avatar there are no one dimensional villains, superfluous love interests or clean cut heroes. Even if it is very predictable. The apes that are going turn out bad are easy to spot, so it's no spoiler to say it isn't the one called 'Blue Eyes'. Changing this around a little might have made it more interesting, but the motivations on both sides are pretty well established and the tone carries it.
Both of the tribes involved have members who are worried about losing things in life which everyone can understand, so these are understandable concerns. There's a power struggle, both the electrical and the social kind. They explore each view enough to give them some depth, but as everyone knows this will never end well. It was always going to lead into a story about the end of human society after all. But beyond the character drama this is another impeccable effects movie. As was the case with Andy Serkis as Caesar the first time (or when he played a character like Gollum) the realism of things like skin and hair is never quite perfect. But the execution and the performances are what makes things believable rather than realistic. He gets top billing for a good reason. Many of the other apes are also impressive, with his old allies returning after their animal centre escape.
On the other side you have a reasonable amount of human characters - with varying levels of actual humanity - and it's good to see things built up to have depth and nuance. Gary Oldman and Jason Clarke have had some dark years (again in terms of electricity and their personal lives) and a lot of it is only hinted at. Some the secondary characters feel a bit more one dimensional, but they're driven by things like simple fear and a lack of understanding. It's subtle without anyone having to chew scenery or rave about damn dirty apes. Which is an improvement over the previous chapter which had a few odd choices in the villainy department. There may be some franchise call backs occasionally, but there not as awkwardly shoved onto screen. The bad guys are more well realised, as is all of the computer generated fur.
When the fireworks do start it's not overblown or drawn out, there are just enough action beats in the conflict to release that powder keg tension which is building all the way through. The violence is also surprisingly brutal while never being explicit, and if you want to see apes on horseback and battles with armoured cars and heavy weapons there's a few great set pieces along the way. Beyond the musings about two opposing forces it's fun just to see apes in war paint using machine guns. It knows when to use sign language and when to use pyrotechnics and slow motion. The big climax is probably the one thing that does feel a little out of place in comparison to the rest of the film's tone. It's perhaps even a bit Spider-Man esque but it's a small moment of excess that finishes the story.
It's a more complex sequel overall, when it's being thoughtful rather than when it's just being a spectacle. It's a story where that feeling of
rooting for the underdogs as they escape from zoos and laboratories has
been replaced by a far darker atmosphere. This is a world where even the
gun collecting humans are motivated by things like loss rather than
just being archetypes that have no back story. They're not just evil for the sake
of having a bad guy in the script. It does feel its length at times, but overall this is a worth going back to re-watch in a time filled with comic book heroes and films which are all explosions and zero charisma. Even if it's another case of the second movie in a trilogy being the peak of the story. A great reboot is a rare thing which makes this essential viewing.
4/5
