Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review

I don’t know what happened. In May and early June things were different. I miss those happy Edge of Tomorrow/Days of Future Past days where we were all on the same wavelength. Oh well. Here we are in July, with a film that many are calling the absolute best film of the summer, and I, much to the dismay of a few very enthusiastic friends think that it is merely ok. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes certainly is a highly ambitious film with some absolutely amazing advancements and moments, but as a story, it falls short in many key areas.

We pick up ten years after ‘Rise’. Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his comrades have formed a growing society of mostly articulate apes in the wake of the simian flu whipping out most of the human race. In fact, they haven’t even seen a human in two years, but all that changes when a group of survivors led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke) stumbles into their territory.  They’re looking for a dam that will hopefully restore power to their village, and while Caesar initially wants absolutely nothing to do with them, he ultimately allows them to get to work under his supervision.  This decision rattles the unstable Koba (Toby Kebbell) to the core, so much so that he decides to break away from Caesar altogether, and go to war with him, and the remaining pocket of humans living in the nearby remains of San Fransisco.

The element of this movie that completely delivers is the apes themselves. Motion capture technology has come so very far in recent years, and this is by far the strongest showcase for it to date. Gone are the days in the uncanny valley where the odd faces and not fully rendered fur pulled you out of the story, these look like real apes. The movie does a great job of immersing you in their culture, particularly in an absolutely riveting first fifteen minutes that focuses completely on how the ape culture operates. We see how they hunt, educate, and interact. This not only immerses us into what this society is, but who these apes are as individuals. These actors all give such physically committed, and emotionally layered performances. Andy Serkis infuses Caesar with all of the tragic flaws and innate virtues of a true hero and leader. He’s passionate and dominant, but also able to see good in people he thought to be his adversaries. Every single emotional change is so subtle, and even though his dialogue is very primitive, Serkis makes every word sing.

Almost surpassing Serkis is Toby Kebbell as Koba. He takes a character hardly worth a second thought in the first film, and turns him into deeply tragic, volatile villain. He may not be as intelligent as Caesar, but he’s about fifty times more arrogant and ruthless. Kebbell balances those elements, while never loosing sight of the character’s tragic roots as a lab ape who spent years being prodded and tortured at human hands. Not only is he perhaps the best villain of the summer, but he puts an actor who wasn’t even remotely on my radar before heavily within my sights. I can’t wait to see this guy as Doctor Doom now.

However, for as great as the apes are, they are offset by some borderline awful human characters. While all the apes are brimming with complexity, the humans are all extremely basic and only exist to fill one very specific function in the story.  Jason Clarke perhaps comes off the best, his relationship with Caesar ultimately his character’s saving grace, but really, he’s just a generic guy who takes the leadership role because, well, Jason Clarke happens to be an up and coming actor right now. Keri Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee might as well just be walking pieces of cardboard as Clarke’s family, never giving us much a family dynamic. Gary Oldman also comes off wasted here as the leader of the human tribe. Sure, he chews the scenery and has one or two moments of complexity, but his character doesn’t end up serving much of a purpose.

In fact, much of the first hour or so of this film doesn’t really serve much of a purpose. The story itself so small and thin that much of it is just spent meandering around the forrest, with the humans dourly working in the dam. It doesn’t help that the tone is so completely humorless that we can never attach ourselves to any of these bland characters, because they never get a chance to say anything interesting. Don’t be mistaken, whenever we’re spending time with the apes in this segment, it’s great, but these humans do their best to suck the life out of the proceedings. There needed to be more meat on the bones here, because really what the film ultimately is for a while is two groups arguing over separate sides of a forrest.

Then, the last act kicks in, and my god does it ever make up for whatever shortcomings came before it. Director Matt Reeves finally wakes up, and delivers what is essentially Apocalypse Now with apes. The warfare is so beautifully captured and barbaric, never for a moment numbing into endless action. Sure, every so often Reeves will make an odd choice here and there, but they for the most part pay off, particularly in one strangely angled mounted camera shot on a tank that results in one of the most unique frames of the year.  This segment is also when the conflict between Caesar and Koba takes center stage, and since that’s the strongest element here, the movie shines.

 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a film that lives in two different worlds. On one hand, it’s one of the most revolutionary showcases for visual effects ever put on film, managing to make characters who can hardly speak some of the most fascinating ones of the year and throwing them into one of the most thrilling climaxes I’ve experienced in a very long time. On the other, it’s a fairly drab film with boring human characters and a needlessly dragged out first act. As a whole, it seems like a good movie pretending to be a great one. Points to Reeves and company for ambition, but hopefully in the upcoming third film they can balance that ambition with the tight pacing and well roundedness of Rise. Still, if you want a blockbuster with an above average brain and a subtitle amount of brawn, this is your ticket (but only because Edge of Tomorrow is almost gone.)

Rating: B

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

People love to rally against reboots. They cry and holler about how “there’s no originality in hollywood” or that the studios are just “regurgitating old franchises for a quick buck.” They’re wrong. Often times a rejuvenated version of a classic story can be just about the most innovative thing out there.  From the ashes of one of the worst remakes of all time, Rise of the Planet of the Apes emerges like a phoenix from the ashes to right previous wrongs, and sets the franchise off on a new and exciting path.

We start off eons before the other films, in present day San Francisco. Dr Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist attempting to create a serum that can cure Alzheimer’s decease which his father (John Lithgow) is affected with. While testing the medicine on chimpanzees, he discovers that one chimp in particular demonstrates increased intelligence. As such, he sneaks him into his house, names him Caesar (Andy Serkis) and raises him as his own. However, once Caesar gets out of hand, he’s forced to live a life of captivity in a barbaric ape shelter run by John Landon (Bryan Cox) and his arrogant son (Tom Felton). Fed up with this, Caesar befriends the other apes and forms a rebellion against the injustices of humanity.

The key to a great reboot is to establish a completely new tone from the previous iteration, and ‘Rise’ masterfully achieves this. Gone is the sardonic, campy tone of previous entries, and in it’s place is an extremely emotionally grounded story with a heavy focus on character, both human and ape alike. While certainly darker then before, it never becomes too heavy, finding those nice little grooves for humor and humanity to balance out some of the more grim moments.

While the human performances are definitely worth mentioning, the real dramatic achievement here comes from the marriage of technology and acting used to bring the apes to life. The process used here is known as Performance Capture. By placing an actor into a suit that tracks each of their movements and mannerisms, those affections can then be adapted into a computer generated character. The master of this craft is Andy Serkis, and here he gives what is by far his strongest performance to date as Caesar. Over the course of this film, we get to see Caesar’s decent from optimism to disillusionment, and with very few words, Serkis manages to completely embody this evolution. Serkis performs more here with digital replications of his eyes then most actors can with their entire body. There are also plenty of other apes who get quite a bit of personality here. Watching Caesar interact with them and in very subtle ways build camaraderie with them as they team up is one of the great joys of this film. It’s everything that the creators of the original franchise dreamed of, Dynamic apes who completely emote, but still are incredibly animalistic.

The human characters aren’t quite as strong. James Franco is a very workmanlike leading man, giving us just enough of a look inside Will’s obsessive personality and desperation to escape becoming a generic leading man, but some of the other actors just don’t have a whole lot to do. Frida Pinto barely does anything beyond standing next to Franco as his love interest, Cox and Felton sneer and snarl their way through their one dimensional villains, and while the superbly talented David Oyelowo chews up the scenery as much as possible, his character never really evolves from being a generic money grubbing businessman. One person who does stand out is Lithgow, providing a subtle and accurate portrayal of Alzheimer’s disease that will break hearts.

The whole thing is very competently directed by Rupert Wyatt, a newbie to the blockbuster game. He has a solid command of scale, often going for the gorgeous tracking shot over the choppy action we’re used to seeing in these films. He lets the apes cut loose and showcase their physicality, without overloading the movie with action. In fact, most of the action is in the final twenty minutes, but the build up to it is so fantastic that you won’t even remotely feel the time go by.

On the front of very minor issues, every so often the effects are a little rough. Don’t get me wrong, for the most part what Weta digital has done here is some of the most groundbreaking effects work of all time, but every so often, the uncanny valley just has to rear it’s ugly head. Sometimes, especially from far away, the fur in particular just does not look realistic, and it feels like a bunch of tracking shots with apes digitally imposed in there. It’s not a huge deal, and it looks to have greatly improved in the sequel, but it’s worth a mention. I suppose when you’re breaking new ground there’s bound to be some growing pains.

While there are certainly areas that it could have been stronger in, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a superb new beginning for the franchise. It introduces some really interesting new ideas, while never loosing sight of it’s main attraction, Caesar, who is by far one of the most impressive CGI creations ever seen on film. It’s an intelligent, fast paced, character driven piece of sci-fi that reminds us why we love the genre in the first place. Not to mention, it certainly seems to have laid the groundwork for an incredible sequel, and I cannot wait to see where that film goes.

Rating: A-

Planet of the Apes (2001) Review

Every so often, you love something really friggin’ stupid as a kid. For me, one of those things just so happened to be this  film. Tim Burton’s 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes captured my imagination, and I watched it over and over. Well today, it certainly captured me, in that it held me hostage. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so silly as I did just now as I re-watched this embarrassing attempt to cash in on such an amazing film, which began a string of Tim Burton remakes that just got worse, and worse, and worse. Seriously, I happen to like Tim Burton when he decides to do something original that actually suits his style, but I’m hard pressed to know what he’s thinking whenever he re-conceives something.

This version begins much like the original did, except with all of the good storytelling taken out. Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) has spent a couple years in space training chimps to operate space pods (get it? because this movie is about apes). When one of his monkey test subjects gets lost in a mysterious space storm, Davidson goes to investigate and ends up getting sucked in, crashing on a mysterious planet. On this world, apes have taken over society…blah blah blah…keep the humans as slaves…yaddy yaddy yadda….and Davidson tries to escape with the help of a couple sympathetic ape companions, and a few human prisoners. In his way is the absolutely insane general Thade (Tim Roth), and his army, who are determined to get them back to their rightful place.

Before I bash this movie’s face in, I want to pay it the one major complement it deserves. The prosthetic ape make-up by Rick Backer is absolutely amazing. Not only do all of the actors in question, including Roth, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, and Helena Bonham Carter all completely transform themselves leaving not a trace of their original faces in tact, but also, this incredible make-up work fuels some really physically committed performances. These actors clearly studied up on how these animals move and interact with each other, because they absolutely nail it. The apes in this version are much more animalistic and aggressive in this version, which while definitely hurting the point of the story as a whole, is a somewhat welcome change, at least on a visceral level.

Now…

 Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?

On almost every level, this is a completely inane attempt to create a generic blockbuster out of something that was never intended to be such a thing. What was once a story brimming with character and social commentary before has now been turned into a silly chase movie. This screenplay almost never functions. The plot is barren and completely predicable. It’s your typical series of action sequences, with occasional pauses to babble on about nonsense, only to go back to plain action. Dialogue is beyond terrible, with exposition so completely obvious that it’s laughable. Example, at one point, Roth looks at Duncan and grimaces something to the effect of “I trust you…we are not just soldiers..we are friends!.” None of these people or apes are actual characters. They have one defining trait, and that serves a basic function in the plot, that’s it, none of them serve any greater purpose.

The performances are almost universally terrible, even by the people I just complemented for their physical work. I have come to absolutely love Mark Wahlberg over the years for his manic wit and endless charisma, but none of that is here. He’s a completely vanilla hero who exists only to have things explained to him by the other characters, and look angrily at things. All of the Ape characters are completely over preformed. While the newfound physicality is a solid change, what was so brilliant about the original was how subtle the apes were as people. Not so here. Burton makes these poor actors, all of whom are incredibly talented, hoot, holler, and chant like hillbillies. It comes off as flat out idiotic, particularly in Roth’s case, which is a shame because not only is Roth an extremely underrated actor, but he’s really trying here.

Burton’s direction here is flat as a 2 day old Denny’s pancake. If any movie needed his sense of outlandish production design (to a certain extent) it was this one. However, Burton seems more concerned with filming as much sand, and dirt as possible, which is pretty much the go-to palate for directors who are too lazy to actually visually conceptualize their movie. All of the action is lame brained and weightless. It’s watching a bunch of people jump around, yell, and smack each other around. The sense of consequence that was so prevalent in the original is completely removed here. This is especially evident in the climax, a generic “let’s all run at each other and hit each other” fight that wreaks of eighty million other movies.

Planet of the Apes is an utter failure. It removes all of the elements that made the original so fascinating, and replaces them with generic pieces of the average summer blockbuster puzzle. The performances are either far too understated, or over-the-top, and it’s never even remotely exciting enough to justify it’s nearly two hour length. Oh, and that ending, oh my goodness, I have never seen anything so completely dumb in all of my years watching movies. It’s no wonder this movie killed the franchise for a decade. Thank god for Caesar.

Rating: D-

 

Planet of the Apes (1968) Review

As much of a massive cinephile as I am, there are so many classic films that I have yet to experience (I should probably handle that before I go off to film school.) Even so, we can now scratch one of those off of the list. Planet of the Apes is a film that needs no introduction. It’s been a staple of sci-fi culture since it’s release, viewed as a piece of masterful allegorical satire, revered for it’s groundbreaking visuals and twist ending, and both successfully and unsuccessfully re-conceived for a new generation. I’m planning on taking a look at both of those re conceptions this week in preparation for the upcoming ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ which looks like it could be the most epic installment of the franchise to date, but for now, here’s the original masterpiece.

Planet of the Apes opens with an astronaut named George Taylor (Charlton Heston) logging his experiences in space with his small crew. Although they have only been out there for a few months, they believe that many years will have passed on Earth where they return. After a stint in cryogenic sleep, the crew finds themselves crash landing on a mysterious world (yes, yes I know, but we’ll leave a little to the imagination of the three remaining people who don’t know) where Apes are the dominant species in society, keeping humans as pets who have been stripped of all their expressive abilities. These aren’t apes as we know them though. They’re highly intelligent, articulate, inquisitive, and curious. Zira (Kim Hunter), one of the Ape doctors takes a fascination to the seemingly more intelligent Taylor much to the distain of their scientific and religious leader Dr Zaius (Maurice Evans) who wants to maintain the status quo.

This is one of those films that is so incredibly built up by absolutely everyone that the result could have easily been underwhelming, but that is not the case in the slightest here. I found Planet of the Apes to not only be a delightful piece of satirical fiction, but also a well acted technical marvel that reaches far beyond it’s time on a production level.

The brilliance of this film lies in the simplicity in which the premise is handled. The apes are not out of control, animalistic creatures in the slightest. In fact, they are probably more restrained then humans ever were. They’ve formed a society that, even while founded on ignorance is actually incredibly functional and normal. All of the characters reflect this, having such shockingly human personalities that it makes their mistreatment of humans all the more tragic and darkly humorous. Dr Zaius in particular is absolutely fascinating and is preformed with a brutally condescending chill by Maurice Evans. His sheer ability to manipulate an entire society into believing in a warped mix of science and religion makes for a threatening and overpowering villain. By contrast, the humans in question are so dulled (either by brain surgery or pure primitive fear) that it fully cements what is being brought across. Really, there are no truly in control human characters besides Heston.

On the topic of Heston, he’s magnetic here. Taylor is by no means a good person, he’s emotionally manipulative, darkly sarcastic, and borderline sociopathic, but even through all of that, Heston attaches us to him. This could be partially because midway through the film, he’s shot in the neck and has to act only through body motions and his facial  expressions for a while, letting that side of his character wash over a little bit, but her completely sells the fear he ultimately feels when he realizes the gravity of his situation. Does he over-act a touch? Yes, particularly at the very end and during some other heated emotional moments, but given the heightened state of the entire film, it works.

On a technical level, it’s an absolute blast to watch these apes interact with each other. It’s all brought to life with some good old practical costumes, and while the processes used in the later films are absolutely spectacular in their own right, there’s something so innate about having those apes really there on set, right in front of our human actors. The use of cinematography by Leon Shamroy to effortlessly build up to the apes appearance in the early part of the film is eerily effective, and director Franklin J. Schaffner really shines in the action sequences. These are some of the coolest scuffles I’ve ever seen in a movie of this time period, particularly the first major one where the apes mercilessly attack a human tribe, capturing some, and killing most. It feels massive, and carries a great deal of weight.

My only real hang up here was that most of the other ape characters were not nearly as interesting as Dr Zaius. Zira is your typical bland optimist, her husband Cornelius (Roddy Mcdowall) and in particular her annoying nephew Lucius (Lou Wagner) don’t come off much better. Seriously, Lucius sounds like an actor in a bad 1950’s PSA about sex with his ‘aw shucks’ voice and constantly whining attitude. Also, the apes really only have two designs, and it would have been nice to see one or two more.

Like I said in the into, Planet of the Apes really needs no introduction. It’s one of the sci-fi classics, and it completely lives up to it’s reputation. It’s a constantly interesting, well paced film that has a whole lot to say, and says it rather well. It’s a marvel that a movie like this was even made at all in 1968, setting the groundwork for so many other future blockbusters of all shapes and sizes before the blockbuster was even a genre.

Rating A-

Alright Burton…You’re up next.

 uh oh…