Render Unto Caesar: The Apes of Wrath

Evolution or revolution? You should brace yourself for plenty of both, because Dawn of the Planet of the Apes pulls off a trick few features master – it offers up a sequel that not only bests the original in spades, but stands apart from this years’ lackluster summer movie crop as a massively engaging old school entertainment, leaving no doubt in our minds: director Matt Reeves has arrived – and so has this franchise. This is how you make a sequel.

From The Walking Dead to Snowpiercer, more of our entertainments look to caution us that the apocalypse is right around the corner. In the ten years since the events of Rise, humanity’s population has been devastated by the “simian flu,” with the survivors living in the ruins of nearby San Francisco. When a human group led by Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Keri Russell and Kirk Acevedo (Fringe, Oz) venture into Caesar’s territory, hostilities quickly threaten to boil over.

Andy Serkis continues to marvel as Caesar, now a father as well as the leader of the expanding ape society. Serkis makes Caesar a fierce protector and guardian, but also a leader who just wants his tribe to be left alone, and in striving to be better than man, would rather avoid needless violence.

What’s so impressive about Dawn is Reeves’ ability to juggle strong thematic storytelling that’s heavy on character, with utterly gripping action and thrills. Rise screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver’s script received an assist from Fox go-to-guy Mark Bomback (Live Free Or Die Hard, The Wolverine), giving us a story that deftly balances the needs and fears of both ape and human communities. Trust and betrayal are big themes here, and you won’t want to miss Koba, Caesar’s right-hand ape who is the movie antagonist of the year. It’ll sound silly, but Koba’s a villain of nearly Shakespearean proportions. You can’t take your eyes off him. Each character has a parallel in the other’s community, Koba’s being Gary Oldman, who argues that the best defense is a good offense, when it comes to protecting the human survivors.

If there’s an even more nefarious serpent in Caesar’s Eden, it’s the firearm, with guns beings a source of temptation and tragedy on all sides. Like the Apes movies at their best, Dawn delivers effective and timely social commentary.

Reeves and his production team surpass anything he achieved in Cloverfield – there’s no shake-and-bake camerawork here. Cinematographer Michael Seresin (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Gravity) create a primeval, overgrown world that makes both the forest and the urban relics striking and real. The movie has a unique, almost seventies feel to it at times, evoking both the original Apes films as well as movies from The Searchers and The Omega Man to Mr. Majestyk. Caesar and his apes patrol on horseback now, and Michael Giacchino’s score has plenty of dynamic percussion that conjures up the same threatening discord of Jerry Goldsmith’s original. Along with editors William Hoy and Stan Salfas, Reeves and Seresin choreograph an epic series of sieges and conflicts that are action cinema joy candy – it’s easy to see why the movie is connecting with audiences like no film this summer has. Special effects completely disappear, and the apes are all fully realized characters. It’s a smart film and gripping as hell. Fox wisely signed Reeves to the next Apes sequel before Dawn even opened, and their confidence is well placed.

Guardians of the Galaxy is going to have to be pretty damned awesome to trump Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as the movie of the summer. This is rousing, food-for-thought action storytelling at its best. Highly, highly recommended.