466: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, let's get to the sequel, which is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, came out in 2014,

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_00]: directed by Matt Reeves who before this had done.

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Ploverfield, the first one, stars Gary Oldman, Kerry Russell, any circus,

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Cody Smith McFeed, Jason Clark, Toby Kebel, Kirk Savito, that's about it, Judy Greer,

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: and the synopsis is the fragile peace between apes and humans is threatened as mistrust and

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: it's over the earth. And as I said, this was the first one that I saw, I am pretty sure

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_00]: if I'm not remembering incorrectly. I think the movie is amazing. Yes, there are a few little

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: flaws that I'll get to in a little bit but this is probably along with war, spoiler. It is one of

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: the best action movies, sci-fi movies of the 2010s. I would say even of the 21st century in general.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I think there is such, and a lot of it has to do with Matt Reeves' direction but there is

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: such resonance in this movie. There is a lot of quiet and subtlety and restraint and yet that

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: makes it all the more interesting and all the more compelling and a lot of ways in comparison

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: to rise because for one thing, Caesar is even more well developed and this one and any circus

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: is incredible in that performance as he always is. In terms of the conflict of the movie,

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I've heard some people compare it to or it'd be an allegory for the Israeli Palestine conflict,

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: which I can see that there's a lot of other interpretations I believe but I can understand that

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: because one thing that's very, very interesting and to me stands out more than almost anything is how

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: easily a war can be started and how violence can be started by there can be 99 out of 100 people in

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_00]: a group or on both sides who are like nope, I want peace. I want this. Let's not fight. Let's talk

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: it out and then there's one hothead, one trigger happy person. It's like nope, screw it.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm mad at it because of this. I want to cause some destruction and then one act can cause

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: this forever war that's been going on and leads into the other movie as well. So I think that's

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: relevant especially nowadays where anything can set people off and it's very easy to start a

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: ripple effect, especially when it comes to any kind of conflict. But a little bit that the character

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: of Koba is of course the antagonist of the story. That is such a well written character because

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: and first off all three of these movies don't have to be as good as they are, especially

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: the latter two. Like these movies easily could have gotten decent reviews, been a decent reboot,

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: you know done all right financially and not have elevated itself to what it is. But

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: due to writing, due to direction, due to the overall production, it is way better than it needs to be.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: All three of them really but especially this one. And that character of Koba is a perfect example

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: of that because he easily could have been just an angry, off-balance to ape who was like no,

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to cause some violence. Let's start a war and there's no real motivation for that. You know,

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: it could be a very shallow whatever throwaway villain but there is those conversations between

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: him and Caesar where Caesar's like no we don't have to harm these people. They didn't cause

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_00]: us harm or I guess not that much harm. And we understand his point of view because he grew up with

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: James Franco mostly and he had a generally pretty safe good upbringing because of them and yet

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_00]: what's great is we understand Koba as well because while we don't necessarily or I didn't,

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to root for him nor did I. We still understand where he's coming from being the

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: tortured abused ape where he grew up in captivity basically and he shows Caesar all this like

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: surgical incisions and other markings left by the experimentations and he's like human work,

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: human work, human work. And we can fully get why he wants to not always cause harm or cause

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: violence but not come to any kind of agreement with them because as is the case with any

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: modern or historical conflict or warfare where a country will go into another with a military with

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: whoever and the civilians there perhaps just as an example can only see the violence of those invaders.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And like why would I want to have any sort of relationship or peace with them? They're causing

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00]: me harm. They're invading my country. They're controlling me in some ways and so I think that's a

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_00]: very timely idea and that gives you a very good basis for why Koba is the way he is. He's not just

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: angry. He's like well I grew up in captivity. I was tortured of course I'm going to hate them.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be around them and then he also has some sugar-happy tendencies I guess you could say

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and he as I was saying earlier he just commits one act with a few followers and then

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: bam the rest is history. So I think that's a very very strong part of the movie.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: If I had to point out anything and it's the same thing with rise is the human characters as much

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: as I love Gary Oldman and Kerry Russell and Jason Clark they are by far the weakest part of the

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: movie in terms of writing. There's not a lot of depth there and I understand you're meant to be

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: the apes more and care for Caesar the most but at the same time you are still spending a lot of

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: time with the human characters. So if we weren't meant to care about them to learn about them they

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: shouldn't have been on screen as much and so really if I had to point out any flaw it would be that

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: which not a big deal I still think the performances are great Gary Oldman's amazing Kerry Russell

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and Jason Clark is he's a really great character actor in my opinion. He's very good.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Visually the movie is fantastic and one big thing and it's more so with Don and War but also with

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: rise is this is probably one of the only if not the only sci-fi franchise where

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: if you take apes and you're having apes be the lead characters we're obviously you're having

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: that dump through motion capture animation and really never once for me maybe I'm in the

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: server was questioning that was watching real apes on screen because if you think about it if that

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00]: was done in the wrong way do whatever reason these movies would be so shallow so distant so goofy

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: and it's the exact opposite in this case like I was fully believing their times were

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: asking oh yeah like these aren't real apes you know it's really well done it's perfectly done

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: in all respects visually direction the sign language is fantastic I love that angle and I just love

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Don and War more so even this one how quiet they are at times like there's big action and really

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of big loud moments and yet there's so much effectively quiet moments and sequences as well

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: and so that's another strong point that gives you that time to think about what's going on

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: think about those ideas think about the characters and the nuances with Caesar and the apes in

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: in terms of their conflicts their relationships with each other and with the humans

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: also apes on horseback amazing one of my favorite visuals probably in all of

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: cinema I love apes on horseback and there's a lot of that in this movie

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: the big action sequence like halfway two thirds of the way through where the apes attack

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: the human compound and there's that tracking shot like 360 shot is really really well done

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: also the moment towards the beginning where the humans encounter Caesar and the young apes killed

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: and Caesar yells go at the humans like that is such a powerful visceral chilling

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: moment both in performance in the direction and that's like a holy crap moment reaction from

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: the humans and they get out of there I love that moment and talking about other things that I don't

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: fully love or that aren't as good as other parts is I think the ending

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: showdown with coba and Caesar not that it's bad but it does feel a little anti-climactic

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and a little generic in the sense that it's just two apes fighting each other in this

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: rundown or bandend building and things are as crashing around and it's really loud and

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_00]: interesting and I like the fun or resolution of that but that feels a little

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_00]: smaller than the big action sequence where they attack the compound it almost feels like tacked on

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_00]: in a way obviously it's important because of the story but in terms of the overall suspense

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_00]: the creativity it feels a little underwhelming in that way but not a big deal because it's still

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: an amazing movie despite these small flaws I have with it another great moment and see I could

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_00]: talk about these movies for hours is and it's a great performance moment by Jason Clark where he's

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_00]: taken by the apes into the ape village and he's being carried and he is looking upwards

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and he just sees this long like hallway of ape staring down at him and hollering and screaming like

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_00]: that's such a great piece of direction in terms of the fear of him but also good performance by

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Clark in terms of thinking oh my god like am I gonna die what's gonna happen and I'm gonna be

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: tortured sacrificed brutalized whatever like it's a really great introduction to the ape world

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: through him in terms of the other characters like human characters really love Gary Olman and everything

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Gary Russell is good there's not a lot to her character and Cody Smith McFeed don't love

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_00]: him in general he's all right in this and I do like his friendship with the ape in terms of

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_00]: looking at the drawings I really like that that's a touching moment one thing that I understand

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_00]: that there's always this kind of person because there's Kobe on that side who's the hothead in

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_00]: a sense but in terms of the weaker writing the hothead on the human side who is with Clark and

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: them that's basically the opposite of what I was talking about with the strength of Kobe's character where

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_00]: the human hothead let's just call him that is not really that well written we don't really care

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00]: about him he's basically just hating on the apes to hate on him unless I miss something there's

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_00]: not much motivation there so I don't love that character kind of a noxious doesn't really need to be

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_00]: there I get the point of in terms of plot but not my favorite part of the movie

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_00]: the score by Michael Gichino is excellent and I think he gets even better in war

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't love him all the time I think he's at times overused in Hollywood blockbusters I wish they

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00]: would have more variety but he has grown a lot I think over the years in terms of changing up his

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_00]: styles and sounds other than that not a whole lot else to say really it's really just fantastic

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_00]: can't praise it enough will always be up there with the best of the apes franchise I'm sure

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_00]: the next ones will probably be at least pretty good but I think this and more especially will always

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_00]: be towards a very top and it's deserving of even more praise than it already got so that is a five out of five