Movie Review: Dawn of The Planet of the Apes: You'll go Bananas!

First, I’m well aware that I still owe a Legend of Korra-based post (it’s coming). I also know that a review of Rogue Legacy is on the way. That was just delayed because I needed a break from playing it. (It’s good, but frustrating). But a movie review is quick, simply, and only takes 2-hours of commitment and less repeating the same tedious bullshit simply to find a slime-monster and then find it again so I can kill it dead. So here’s my review of Dawn of The Planet of the Apes… with many barrels of monkey puns! 

To say that Rise of the Planet of the Apes (the last one for those who remember) was a good movie almost doesn’t do it justice. I remember when it was first announced, I was skeptical because the Planet of the Apes franchise was one I disregarded as an old idea done to death. And I was skeptical a reboot of the same bizarrely dumb concept would win my attention. Not only did it end up being good, it was surprisingly better than most films releasing that year (2011). For those who don’t remember, that was a decent year with releases like Thor, Captain America, and Harry Potter 7 Part 2).

So it stands to reason that I went into this week’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with the same level of skepticism. Not so much that I continued to believe the concept was dumb. But that I didn’t expect the film to repeat the whole “surprise, we’re a damn fine movie,” this time around. But it exceeded my expectations and surprised me in a lot of ways. Before I even get into plot details or anything, I just want to get out of the way that right now, this is the movie of the summer, if not the year. I know Guardians of the Galaxy is coming soon and it looks great and a strong contender, for sure. But after the huge summer lull we’ve had of movies that were just okay to being downright awful or boring, it’s great to get a breath of fresh air and finally have a movie that is smart, interesting, and has balls to do some amazingly though provoking stuff all while being about an ensuing battles between apes and humans.

The plot picks up 10 years after the previous film. For those who remember the small nods to what happened in those ten years hinted in the first film, the chemical that made Caesar and the apes smart was, in fact, a lethal disease to humans. So much so that a vast majority of the human race has been wiped out save for small remote groups, struggling to get by on the ruins of their old world. The apes have been living in the red wood forest the whole time, staying away from the humans they stopped trusting years ago, tired of their monkey business. One day, a couple of apes are out in the forest wandering around and come across a band of humans. An ape named Ash is shot in self-defense/fear-reflex, and thus the tensions begin.

Caesar and his horde of apes tell the humans to leave and stay off their land. But why were the humans there? A small settlement of the remaining survivors of the city of San Francisco are running out of fuel to keep their settlement calm and alive. As such, this small band was trying to reach the hydro-electric dam in the ape-territory, led by a man (Malcolm) who only wants peace and actively works to build a trusting relationship with Caesar and the apes. Through trial and lots of error, Malcolm and his team succeed in fixing the damn and restoring power.

But, much like how not all the humans trust the apes, not all the apes trust the humans. Enter Koba, the acting “general” among the apes whose past is littered with human experiments on him that has left him both physically and mentally scarred. Rather than follow Caesar on his peaceful path to working with humans, he goes out of his way to take over and get revenge on the humans he can’t trust. This enters both the apes and humans into a war that Caesar never wanted, but is now forced into because the humans will never forgive the massacre that Koba started.

And I don’t count any of this as spoilers because, yes, this is still acting as a prequel to Planet of the Apes, which I imagine will be the next film, but we’ll see how that goes in the next few years. You know the humans and apes have to fight. You know that a war leads to the apes eventually winning (not in this film, but eventually). You know apes inherit the world and humans are just barley around. Can’t wait to see where this franchise goes next, but this was one hell of a ride.

As far as performances go, Andy Serkis is the main attraction of this event and he delivers better than ever before (along with his talented and amazing team of digital effects artists that make him doing his job all the more possible). Toby Kebbell (of Cirque De Solie fame) takes on the mo-cap work of Koba and there’s at least one scene where he gets to show off a bit of that Cirque skill. Much like Mr. Serkis, Toby is very talented and making Koba come alive which makes for his… um… challenge to Caesar all the more entertaining to watch.

On the human side, there really wasn’t anything that stood out as being that particularly amazing. Yes, you had some great actors doing a decent job, but they’re not the ones we’re watching. They’re not the ones who the film focuses on (save for Malcolm’s family). This is about the apes (mostly) and their struggle to get over the fear and distrust of humans only to become fearful of Koba and his iron fist (of bullets). This isn’t to say they were bad. They just weren’t as interesting as anything we saw amongst the apes. Luckily, they don’t get as much screen time as Caesar and the gang, which is a-peeling for me. :D

There are some plot bugbears that are annoying, but they don't really take away from the overall feel of the film. We're introduced to Caesar's family and his partner, Cornelia. I imagine she HAD more screentime, but her role is drastically reduced in the film. On top of that, I question the struggle between this group of humans and the apes even needing to take place. Yes, the apes want to keep their home safe and yes the humans need that dam for the electricity. But do they need to be in this specific city to rebuild society? Why not go somewhere else so the apes are a non-factor? And (much like I'll get to in a second) the power dynamic between Caesar and Koba asks me the same question I ask in relation to Megatron and Starscream of the Transformers, why doesn't Caesar take action to keep Koba from becoming a problem and, instead, just letting him do as he pleases until it becomes a problem that threatens Caesar's life as well as the rest of the apes? While these are all valid questions, it doesn't take away from the fun or interesting relationships between the characters. 

Going into farther details (so spoilers ahead, but, again, prequel so not as terrible as it could be), while I absolutely despised him for what he did and who he is, I have to give massive applause to Koba for being one of the most interesting characters and one of the most entertaining villains to watch. I’ve said before that a good villain makes for a spectacularly amazing story and that if your villain isn’t entertaining to watch on SOME level, then your story isn’t going to be any good. This is why Transformers (the original series) was fun, because Megatron and Starscream alone were massively entertaining.

Koba takes the idea of being “The Starscream” to another level. He uses his monkey-antics to trick humans to obtain weapons. He tries to assassinate Caesar and burn down the ape-home, blaming the humans, to make the apes follow him. But not out of loyalty to Koba. He used fear tactics to force the apes to follow him so he could engage on his personal war against humans to get revenge for all they did to him in his former life. This is further evidenced by his imprisoning the apes who he deemed “too loyal to Caesar” (Rocket, Maurice, etc).

What makes Koba better than Starscream is the fact that while he’s a slimy piece of shit that betrays Caesar and doesn’t actually care about the apes he leads, he’s also competent at what he does. Enough where he is a credible threat to Caesar, the apes, and the humans. Sure, Starscream is a threat, but he has too many character flaws (cowardice) to actually obtain leadership himself. Koba isn’t afraid and he’s ruthless enough to get what he wants unless Caesar keeps him in check (or just kills him). As such, Koba has officially joined my list of personal favorite villains because of just how devious he is. It takes a lot of bravado to try and assassinate someone as benevolent as Caesar and start a war that shouldn’t have been fought and STILL think you’re in the right. 

Apes. Humans. It doesn’t matter what you are. There’s hate and fear in everyone and every thing. You can’t blindly trust all of your own kind and not trust anyone else because that kind of mentality leaves you vulnerable to those you believe to be closest to you. There are a lot of layers to this otherwise fun and engaging film. And that’s great if a monkey dual-wielding machine guns on horseback isn’t enough of a reason to want to watch this movie (and I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to see that).

After a rather lackluster summer this year, it’s great to finally have a fun movie that is 100% good. Go see it and enjoy! See you soon for Rogue Legacy, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more Korra-related stuff… oh and Transistor at some point too.