PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW DETAILLS THAT MIGHT SPOIL THE MOVIE FOR YOU. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
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Well, to begin with, the effects in this most recent incarnation of Ape World are so phenomenal, they carried the story through the excessive violence. There's a lot of that, so you know. This movie is NOT appropriate for young children and might even be questionable for teenagers. But you're their parents, so you'll have to make that distinction yourself.
As with the last movie of similar title, it is the characters that carry the movie. Most notably the familiar names of Caesar, Maurice, Koba, and Rocket. The movie opens where the last one closed, fortunately, and it passes through approximately ten years in the span of the opening credits before we get our first view of the apes the movie is named for.
More ape characters are introduced- most notably the first generation of super-smart apes after the "jail break" that ended "Rise". We meet Caesar's son, Blue Eyes, and as much as the story is about the tensions between human and ape (and, eventually, ape and ape), it is also about Blue Eyes coming of age in the world as it has become.
The range of emotions the characters display for each other even before the introduction of this round of human characters is phenomenal: we watch the apes hunt in a pack, playing off each other's strengths, we get to see Caesar's wife/mate give birth to their second son (poor thing never does get a name before the end of the movie), we see the family love and dynamic within the larger ape groups. We also experience the moment that the apes become, for all intents and purposes, human- because only humans commit murder (I define murder here as the killing for pleasure or material gain rather than survival).
There are a few comedic relief moments to lighten a movie that otherwise had me tense the entire time- usually waiting for something to jump out. Koba's pretense at being a "dumb" ape to escape a couple of humans was entertaining, if slightly creepy because you understood the motivation behind it. His relationship with Caesar, who freed him from the human labs in "Rise", is intriguing to watch because it carries with it the opposite end of the spectrum of very human relationship (the other end being love, the love Caesar has for wife and children). Koba's betrayal of everything the apes are supposed to hold dear- for power, no less- is a very humanizing component of the story.
And yet, even though the apes started the war, it was the humans, in the end, who still managed, in some part, to be villains.
And I suppose I was not the only one at the end thinking, as his "people" bowed to him, "All hail Caesar!"
My recommendation: if you're only seeing one movie this year, it should have been Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If you're seeing two, try Dawn of the Planet of the Apes- especially if you saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes a couple years ago. (This recommendation is subject to change as more movies come out.) Next movie review: Lucy!
Today was more than a movie, however. I got to contribute to a project I'm absolutely thrilled to be a part of (anything that contributes to the mainstream recognition of ElfQuest is something I want to be a part of!).
And I read and I wrote and I hung out with my mom (we watched Revenge of the Sith and part of A New Hope) and I caught up with my brother. That's always a reason to celebrate.
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