lasttimeisaw — 11 years ago(August 04, 2014 01:12 AM)

Title: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Year: 2014
Country: USA
Language: English, American Sign Language
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Drama
Director: Matt Reeves
Writers:
Mark Bomback
Rick Jaffa
Amanda Silver
Pierre Boulle
Cinematography: Michael Seresin
Music: Michael Giacchino
Cast:
Andy Serkis
Jason Clarke
Keri Russell
Gary Oldman
Toby Kebbell
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Nick Thurston
Kirk Acevedo
Judy Greer
Jon Eyez
Karin Konoval
Kevin Rankin
Enrique Murciano
Keir ODonnell
James Franco
Rating: 7/10
As a compulsive purist, it is aching to write this review since I missed the opening scenes for 10 minutes at least, watched it in a shoddy 3D screen and the surging audience after Ramadan blindsided both me and (obviously) the cinema, thanks to a long queue and the lack of countermeasure from the tickets office, what a mood-killing damper!
So the first scene I saw is the confrontation between the human squad led by Malcolm (Clarke) and the apes, with Caesar (Serkis) now crowning as their leader. As most of the mankind has been obliterated by deadly virus from the preceding RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011, 7/10), a desolate dystopia scenario cannot be more familiar to present audience, which effectively tips the scale to the uprising of apes versus mans dominant lethality and sets up as a logical prequel to PLANET OF THE APES (1968, 8/10).
The animation capture technology of personifying thinking-talking apes has again proved to be a chief accomplishment in this franchise reboot, Serkis, Kebbell (plays Koba, the ape presents strong animosity toward human race due to the suffering of inhuman treatment in the human lab) and Thurston (plays Blue Eyes, Caesars eldest son) impressively morph into their primate personages by aping human movements, body gestures and facial expressions with minute verisimilitude.
The plot draws lessons from Shakespearean complex, conspires to a ferocious ape usurper and bluntly puts him in the villain default (unlike its prequel, where rapacious human beings are the arch enemy). When the internecine friction takes the stage, mankind is subjugated to sideline, Malcolm and his family are amicable friends, but Dreyfus (Oldman), the leader of the remaining humans and his gangs are frivolous saboteurs doomed in their narrow-mindedness. Jason Clarke believably justifies that he can lead a blockbuster too given a proper chance, him, Keri Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee form a close knit, as the last hope for men; Gary Oldman, bears the ambiguity in his actions, is a pitiful sacrifice for the wrong cause.
Apes are the stars, maybe in the next instalment, no men is required, the film will still be overwhelmingly compelling, suffice to say, the CGI effect and action set pieces are among the best of the year, particularly the ones involve the mobilities of great mass, gun-wielding apes charging on the horses, one scene when Koba attack a tank with a 360 degree shot of its surroundings, superbly orchestrated! The final showdown is also fluidly white-knuckle with vivid tumbling down veracity, although the casualty is conspicuously underestimated to create a spectacle that the number of apes is not drastically declined after the monolith wreckage.
The director chair is handed from Rupert Wyatt (for RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) to Matt Reeves (CLOVERFIELD 2008, 7/10 and LET ME IN 2010, 7/10), a wise decision since the scale and gravitas clearly go up a notch, but the 3D surplus does hurt the viewing, too dim and overstretched in this case, otherwise I might rate it higher, perhaps I should give it another try and catch up with the missing parts. Anyway, it is a pretty marvellous studio juggernaut, devoid of the manipulative eagerness to introduce its sequel, but indeed establishes a solid ground for the next move when the last humanity will be snuffed in the bona fide planet of the apes.
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