Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Ratings: 8.8/10
Film Class: A
Genre: Action Drama

Hidden under the realistic ape-like features of the ape horde is deceiving state-of-the-art CG. It doesn't look like anything much, but the fact that the entire movie immerses you into a whole new experience, a world dominated by apes, is just proof of how outstanding the graphics, as well as the plot is.

Caesar, the not-so-loved super intelligent ape from the forgettable Rise of The Planet of the Apes is back as the leader of a thriving new species of hyper intelligent apes. However this time round, Caesar promises to steal your heart in what I believe to be the most realistic portrayal of an animal-human in cinematic history. It was too horrifyingly realistic for me back in the prequel, because it felt rather weird then. But not now. In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the realism is what makes this film a worthy award-winning Hollywood Blockbuster.

Living peacefully in the forest with his newly formed ape colony, a group of humans unintentionally invades their territory. Fearing for the safety of his colony, he threatens the humans to leave them alone, if not war would be imminent. You see, most of the human colony has been wiped out by a virus, the Simian virus, allegedly developed as a result of the unorthodox experiments on the apes back in the prequel.

The surviving human colony is running low on energy, and thus treks into the woods to find another energy source, which so happens to be in the ape territory. This is when the plot thickens. The group returns to explain the situation to Caesar, seeking his trust to allow them to fix a rundown energy reactor. Friendships were made, trust was tested and conniving plots were given birth to. You’ll probably know where this leads to, eventually. But you wouldn't expect some twists in the story which makes this film more “human” than it actually seems.

There were a couple of eye-souring moments and this reboot of the cult classic rockets the ape-dominated franchise to greater heights. This movie is 70% ape, 30% humans, paying homage to the title and to the franchise, and the ending stinger is nothing like you've ever seen… or more accurately, heard.

*major spoilers ahead* There’s an audio stinger at the very end of the credits, a pretty long wait, but pretty worth it. It kinda hints towards what to expect for the sequel, chimp sounds, moving rubble, and what seemed to be breathlessness. In fact, I had read about the spoilers for the stinger right after the credits started rolling because my bladder was about to burst then. But I somehow managed to will back my tide till the very end. The breathlessness was very subtle… but very likely means the survival of a pivotal ape character.

The magnitude of my tension increased with each ape encounter, because I had to mentally gear myself for the abrupt attacks they would make because we all assume that when it comes to animals, they’re highly unpredictable. But that was exactly what the director wanted to portray, stereotyping. So was the same for my expectations about how the plot would unravel, but the twists were self-induced, without the stereotypes, the “twists” wouldn't be there.

The only puzzle rubble I have is where in the world did the horses come from? And then there was one, the one that Caesar rode on, and then many more magically appeared even though I hadn't seen any horses in the ape colony during the opening aerial shot nor in any other ape-colony scenes. Regardless, the horses gave a sense of mightiness to the apes and added a leaping advantage to the species which merely held spears. 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is really more than meets the eyes, it touches briefly on romance, and lingers mainly around the "love" amongst inter- and different species. It's one of animalistic substance, which only "superior" humans and apes can appreciate.

*warning: major major spoilers ahead, do not read on if you haven't watched the movie*

PS.: Just an easter egg for you, I've been incorporating subtle references in the words used during my newer posts (2014), see if you can identify them (you probably need to watch the movies first).

I'll just leak this one out, references made to the eyes - "eye-souring", "more than meets the eyes" (don't think the plural form of this phrase exist, so yes, it's not a typo). Fyi, not sure if it's a director's trademark but the starting and closing scenes are zooms out/in on Caesar's eyes. There's lotsa focus on the eyes throughout the movie, especially that of Caesar, probably to portray his humanistic nature.

And a weirdly but catchy combined twin word, "puzzle rubble". To refer to the audio stinger which I thought was an ingeniously novel way to imply the survival of the antagonist, of him emerging through the fallen rubble.