Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Apes prove their superiority and take over the world. It makes about as much sense as slow rotting corpses taking over or the popularity of Two Broke Girls, but god knows we have taken bigger leaps of logic. Summer blockbuster don't have to be big dumb explosion fests where nothing makes any  sense and one giant metal thing punches some other giant metal thing; you can in fact have your cake and eat it too. Hell this movie goes beyond even the thoughtful action movie instead choosing to balance elements from westerns, gangster films, science fiction and even political dramas. Although it never reaches the heights it seemed to be striving for it definitely hits more than it misses and has apes firing machine guns from horseback. What the hell else are you looking for?

 

The movie’s central plot hinges upon the upcoming clash between the dwindling human society living in the city and the expanding ape one that exists in the surrounding woods. Our foreknowledge of the eventual outcome casts a sense of hopelessness over the human story. In this way it acts as an antithesis of the classical western where the naturalistic tribal society is already doomed to be wiped out by the encroaching modern man before the story even begins. That same sense of inevitable doom hangs over the film, but it is the modern society that will be eliminated by the tribal one. It even has the white men learning the merits of the tribe by spending with a child and/or women. Hell at a certain point I was halfway expecting some sort of cross-species loving, looks like puritanical America struck again.

The film aims to have a sense of moral relativism. Where there are no bad guys just competing factions and ideals. While for the majority of the film this holds true, neither the apes nor the humans could be considered the villains, there is definitely a villain, and he is more Dr. No than he is Tony Soprano. This is Caesar’s show, and he gets to be the hero. And every hero gets a villain to punch in the face. An evil villain isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when everything before that in the film is set up as this morally ambiguous clash between two rival societies attempting to coexist in a new world it feels like a cheap way to get the conflict started. The main theme of the film seems to be the ways fear can turn us into monsters, but being scared doesn't absolve you for being an asshole. As the conflict ramps up it feels if anybody would just stop and talk about this shit for five minutes everything would have turned out alright, but maybe that was the point.

The performances were good, furry and non-furry alike. Although whether that is due to the actors or some poor dude sitting in front of a computer in a Burbank basement I couldn't tell you. Overall this is one solid flick. Despite it not quite reaching the high bar it set for itself in the beginning of the film, it is still a thoroughly satisfying summer movie and one that tries to be something greater. That is perhaps the thing I love most about the movie; it feels so genuine. It is a big blockbuster sequel without any returning characters, save ones that are completely computer generated. It even changes genre. In a summer full of cheap cash-ins and movies that were clearly made in boardrooms full of shareholders Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is clearly trying to be something unique, and even when it fails you have to commend the effort. Unfortunately, there is one glaring flaw in the film; that being the complete lack of a shirtless Charlton Heston, but I guess that is just a sign of the times.