Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Sci-Fi Classic Film Review
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Good luck not getting "Rise" and "Dawn" confused
From a purely logical standpoint, it makes more sense to try to remake a flawed movie than a successful one. That way, there is a decent chance you can improve upon the original and make a better film. Naturally, producers rarely look at things this way, choosing instead to rely on "proven" properties that are more likely to turn a profit. Still, every once in a while, the stars align in just the right way to allow a flawed movie to have a chance to achieve its full potential. This is the case with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which is a remake of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the lowest ranked film in the entire franchise.
Despite my initial, glowing review, I haven't given Dawn of the Planet of the Apes more than one or two viewings since it first released, since it is overshadowed by the novelty of Rise and the masterfulness of War. However, after watching it again for the purposes of this review, I'm almost ashamed of that, as I now think this movie is even better than my initial review made it out to be.
Some of the complaints I levied against it baffle me, such as my insistence that Gary Oldman's character, Dreyfus, is undercooked and unrelatable. This is flat-out untrue, as can be seen quite clearly in the scene where the power is finally restored and he is able to look at digital photos of his lost family that he hasn't seen in years. (This is a clever recycling of the plot point from Battle in which Caesar seeks out pictures of his dead parents.) Not only is Oldman's acting here fantastic, but the scene also hints at the possibility that his desperation to get power to the city wasn't driven entirely by a selfless desire to help his fellow man. This comes into play in his death, when he blows himself up, saying he's doing it to save the human race but showing a glimmer of ego and madness behind his eyes.
Not underused
Ultimately, this is a film about trust--about how much easier it is to misplace your trust in your own people than it is in "the other"--and about how true threats tend to be the result of xenophobia, of fear. People are easily lead by a narrative that confirms their worst fears about outsiders, and this is how wars are stoked. The thing is, all the characters act in understandable ways, with no one (outside of the flaming anal orifice that is Carver) behaving as a one-dimensional hero or villain. Caesar is as flawed in his thinking as Koba is believably cynical, just as Malcolm is as paternally motivated as Dreyfus is clinging desperately to the past.
Director Matt Reeves really stepped up his game for this sequel, with much bolder filmmaking and deeper storytelling on display. It's easy to point out the flashily directed sequences--like the one-shot scene of Malcolm fleeing from an onrush of apes through narrow corridors and crumbling stairways--but Reeves also knows how to organize, frame, and shoot more delicate scenes, like a rather complicated but much less flashy sequence of Koba jumping down into the power station to menace Malcolm's son. He also takes the skeleton of Battle and adeptly reorganizes it into a much stronger and more cohesive tale, highlighting the central conflict of Caesar being driven to the point of realizing his fault and breaking his one rule in atonement.
Jason Clarke is superior to James Franco
Of course, the bigger budget helps, too. Instead of a badly edited scene of Caesar and Aldo facing off anti-climactically on a tree branch, Dawn sees Caesar fighting Koba on top of a concrete tower that is threatening to collapse after a bunch of C4 is detonated at its base. (Side note: I originally thought it was weak writing that the explosion doesn't demolish the tower immediately, given that Dreyfus, who sets the charges, shows enough military and engineering know-how to place them properly enough for an admittedly unsafe demolition, but on this rewatch, it occurred to me that Dreyfus is interrupted while still working on the explosives, so the set-up is never completed before he hits the detonator, which explains why the tower doesn't topple.) It also goes without saying that the incredible CG work on the ape characters is far more emotionally compelling than the cheap masks of Battle.
As for the effects, they are a big upgrade, even considering how groundbreaking the CG is in its predecessor, Rise. There's less awkward motion blur, and every scene looks better in high-definition. The music is also much improved. Michael Giacchino blends the instrumentation of Goldsmith's original Planet of the Apes score with his own hyper-dramatic style, with a few motifs from Rise used here and there, and the resulting mix works well to delineate the world of the apes from the world of the humans and how intense it is when they clash.
Koba is a bad, bad primate
One other thing I wrote in my original review that I disagree with now is that the film is careful to not lay the blame on either side of the grand conflict. While it is true that there are bad actors (in the metaphorical sense, not the literal one) among the humans as well as the apes, I find it undeniable that the sole antagonist is Koba, who initiates the violence, using Carver's bad behavior as a believable smokescreen. He refuses to tell Caesar about the humans collecting weapons at an armory, because he knows, deep down, that Caesar will find a way to understand it and excuse it, and it's worth noting that the humans collecting weapons is a perfectly rational course of action given earlier events.
So while I'm still not prepared to say it's better than War for the Planet of the Apes, which I'll discuss next time, I can say I've been unfairly dismissive of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It's a great movie that succeeds not only on improving upon its immediate predecessor (Rise), but also in making the failure of Battle for the Planet of the Apes worth it.
-e. magill 2/3/2022
SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PATRONS:
BattyBatFirebrand
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David Murray
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