Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Too much of monkeying around!
Main Cast - Andry Serkis - Caesar, Jason Clarke - Malcom, Gary Oldman - Dreyfus, Keri Russel as Ellie, Kody Smit -Mcphee - Alexander, Toby Kebbel - Koba
Directed By - Matt Reeves
Story, Backdrop &
Premise:-
Caesar and his band of
apes live in isolation. A pandemic (a kind of virus) kills most of the humans
in the city of San Francisco those who survive are isolated from the rest of
the country. They are living with basic amenities and fond memories of the past.
The power source of the humans dries up. Jason Clarke, his wife Ellie, son
Abraham and a couple of others go out into the forest on a scouting mission in
search of a dam which houses a power plant. Accidentally they chance
upon a couple of apes and one of them in a rage of panic
shoots one of the apes! This enrages Caesar and co who descends on
them putting their lives in danger. Much against his tribe's wishes
especially his confidant Koba’s wishes he spares the lives of the humans and
asks them never to return. The shocked humans return to tell their tale of
their chance meeting with the talking ape Caesar and his band of apes. The
humans in desperate need of need of power decide to eliminate the apes using
their superior fire power (guns etc). To their shock Caesar and co make a visit
to the human inhabitation with the shoe of raw power but Caesar declares that
he does not want war but will not hesitate to fight and reiterate if
the humans decide to wage a war. Humans (Dreyfus in particular) decide to
send Jason Clarke back to the forest to persuade Caesar and co to
allow them to repair the power plant and live in peace. Obviously all the
good intentions are blown to smithereens owing to a series of goof
ups by the gun crazy harry and the vengeful kobo (who by the way
is tortured by the humans along with many other apes the earlier sequel of
the film while conducting experiments on apes.) Caesar tries to thwart Koba's
intentions of killing the humans and Jason Clarke desperately tries to stop his
partner Dreyfus from killing the apes’ forms the rest of the story. A lot of
emotions between Caesar and his son form a major part of this sequel. It also
attempts to showcase the humans untrustworthy nature pitted against a more
trusting species of supposedly lesser intelligence the apes!
There are also brief
sequences of photos and videos of loved ones who didn’t survive the outbreak etc. The problem with this sequel is the
weak plot. A mere 30 mins premise has been stretched into a 180 mins film. Some
scenes are unbearably long and slow. Apes riding horses etc are very difficult
to digest. In fact in the first 30 mins or so when Caesar descends on the human
population John Clarke could have easily requested for access to the power
plant. Sending him once again to the forest to meet Caesar looks forced and
contrived. Then there are intercuts of apes fighting apes, humans fighting
humans which is totally unnecessary. The film also portrays that though humans
are the true enemy, the apes are so untrustworthy that they will betray their
own. Given how the struggle between humans and apes supposedly symbolizes a
number of conflicts in our society. The director ironically seems to suggest
that the formerly oppressed race would resort to betraying their own kind to achieve
an end. Somehow I felt that the humans got off a little too easily in this
film, which dilutes the message of the two species being so similar. The
original film was all about the apes being used as an allegory for the evils of
the human race. Here using Caesar the filmmakers seem to somehow want to dilute
the original premise and let ‘poor’ humans off the hook. To cut the story shot
this film has some great visuals and some breathtaking scenes but greatly disappointed
with an overly simple plot and a lot of unnecessary monkeying around!
A number action shots with the monkeys riding horseback with guns blazing! I
hope the makers don’t come with any more sequels like ‘Coffee with Caesar’ or
'Dawn to Dusk with the apes' or an even better ‘breakfast, lunch and dinner
with the apes' etc.
Scenes which worked: - 1.The
baby Apes antics (really cute) -2. Underestimating the apes intelligence by
the two gun men and paying a fatal price for it - Well thought off - 3. The
final action sequence though full of masala - fairly enjoyable
Bottom Line: -
Even if you really like this genre of sci-fi you will barely be able to
sit through it! My advice simply wait, for the DVD to hit the stand and at best
watch it on a large screen with surround sound!
My Rating 2.25/5
Until next time,
Director Haricharan
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