Flat out, no doubt. Andy Serkis is a genius. Now if only we could get the Academy to agree.
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“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is the second film in the latest reboot of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, and picks up where “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” left off. This time we are following Caesar and his band of intelligent apes as they encounter what it means to have to co-exist with humans who have lived through a world-wide epidemic. Andy Serkis returns as Caesar with Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, and Keri Russell joining in as some new participants on the human side of things. So if the last Apes flick was a movie with low expectations that somehow worked, how does this one fare now that the expectations have been raised? To be honest? It blows those expectations right out of the water.
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This is an incredible movie on almost all accounts. It’s engaging, spectacular, moving, and meaningful and a genuine evolution of the summer blockbuster movie and what it can do. To start with great movies need great acting and Dawn delivers. Russell and Oldman are great, Jason Clarke (who you may remember from Zero Dark Thirty) is phenomenal as the man at the center of interacting with the emerging Ape culture. But as with Rise, Dawn is most dominated by the incredible Andy Serkis. I don’t want to downplay the incredible acting work of the other ape players, who were certainly great as well, but Serkis as Caesar is a performance like we’ve never seen before, and is worthy of any accolades or awards that might come his way. Yes, at the end of the day it is a CG creation, but the digital effects are more akin to makeup in the way the process works here. Every action, every line, every facial movement, they belong to Serkis, and he’s once again stunning. It’s incredible to think of how much of this movie is performance based CG, and what a technical achievement it is to have a movie full of this much depth and pathos painted with pixels. Speaking of which the emotion is intense in this movie, dealing with genuinely tragic motifs in a way that keeps the audience engaged in searching for hope. The depth of the emotion is also deepened by the fact that these two cultures, human and ape, are both representative of the best and worst we see in ourselves. The ape culture holding up a mirror to the base representation of the power, danger, and inevitable consequences of tribalism in our society. And it pulls no punches in doing so, allowing each emotional blow to resonate fully so we get the impact. This movie is so good. And I haven’t even mentioned the beautiful shot selection, the well choreographed action, the rock solid plot structure, or Michael Giacchino’s incredible score. There’s just so much to love about this movie it’s hard to pick a best thing. But one thing I haven’t mentioned, and let’s go with this, is how the filmmakers ease you into this Ape culture gradually so that talking apes or apes with more human like characteristics don’t take you out of it. It’s a subtle trick, but one that pays off in huge ways as the movie progresses and allows us to feel like this is a real universe.
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Is it perfect? No, there are still a few moments where the technology doesn’t quite pull it’s weight and we find ourselves in the dreaded uncanny valley, but considering the level of difficulty and how few and far between it happens it’s barely worth a mention even as the worst thing.
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At the end of the day, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is an incredible achievement and an amazing film. It’s a testament to the fact that when you dedicate yourself to presenting truth and depth with skill and talent that any source material can achieve greatness. Even with a few moments of CG that fall a bit short, it’s still a very solid A.
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Thanks for checking out this Your Movie Friend review, stay tuned for this review’s “Best Ever” challenge here in bit but first, I’m going to put up some stuff you can click over in this area. If you’d like to subscribe, which I would much appreciate, you can do so by clicking the big gray subscribe button. Want to see more? Well, it was just Apes this week, but there were a bunch last week, so if you didn’t catch my reviews Tammy, Deliver us From Evil, or the surprising Snowpiercer you can check those out by clicking over here. You can also Click the logo up here to go to the all new yourmoviefriend.com where you can find a searchable database of reviews as well as the written text of these videos. And finally this review’s “Best Ever” Challenge, where you name the best movie ever in a particular category and also try to identify my choice. What is the “the best Andy Serkis movie ever”?. Mine’s not a surprise, but let’s just say it’s the middle of middle. Drop your own answer and a guess at mine in the comments and first person to guess mine gets a point! Thanks and please subscribe!