When Rise of the Planet of the Apes first dropped in theaters I was genuinely confused as to why anyone thought there was a market for people who wanted to see a reboot of a movie that is literally about monkeys who can talk and have taken over the Earth. Oh, people were interested in this forty years ago... I bet they'd be interested to see how it all started. Shockingly enough, people were. I don't think it had as much to do with wanting a monkey origin story, but more that the technological advances in CGI implemented in Rise were note-worthy and it was actually a very well-written/directed film. So, naturally when a big summer movie does well (makes a shit ton of money) a sequel is inevitable. And so, here in 2014 we now have a sequel to a reboot of a movie that was popular over 40 years ago about monkeys that take over the Earth. And it's fantastic.
There's a fine line to walk when writing a movie about animals vs. humans. If we're watching animals thriving once a good chunk of the human race has been eradicated do we root for them? But, we're also humans and I know personally if a bunch of talking monkeys with war paint on their faces tried to kill me, I'd be a little pissed off. So who do we root for? The human race or the persecuted/angry monkeys? Director Matt Reeves has answered this question quite elegantly in that we root for both. Why not? Over the course of the film Reeves aims to show that anything animal or human with cognitive abilities and emotion... we're not so different from each other.
This time around, we're ten years in the future since the events of the previous film. Most of the human race has been killed off and none have emerged for the last two years. The ape nation has expanded and thrives with their leader Caesar (Andy Serkis). When a group of forrigers looking for an energy source to power their dying San Francisco city led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke) meet the apes... tensions run high. The humans in their habitat, helmed by an intimidating Dreyfus (Gary Oldman), and the apes are both weary of one another. However, Caesar and Malcolm make a pact that if the apes allow the humans to fix the power source at the dam so that humans can begin to rebuild, they will leave the apes alone. This is much to the chagrin of Dreyfus who wants to wipe out the humans, as well as scarred up ape Koba who only knows humans as emotionless and violent towards apes. Caesar, who has known the kindness of humans is much more trustworthy, yet he still exercises caution when it comes to the humans.
This when some Shakespeare/Lion King shit goes down. Koba turns on Caesar and takes control of the colony leading an all-out war against the humans. It might've been a little too on the nose with Caesar being named so aptly in this film, but considering it was his name in the previous movie before, I'm sure, the brain cells required to make this film aligned, I'll let it slide. But, Julius Caesar this film could be... you know... with monkeys. In more ways than one the Apes are more intellectually complex than the humans, yet each have that "wildcard" in the group that can fuck everything up. Not so different from one another. What's great about this summer popcorn sequel is that it takes a careful path to reach its climax. It's not just about getting all of the exposition out of the way so it can finally blow some shit up, the film takes its time. It leaves a queasy feeling in your stomach because you KNOW that shit will go down, but as humans and apes work together, you really just want everything to work out. Let's make that movie! Humans and talking apes hang out and fix shit. I'd watch that.
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| "That's what he gets for not hailing to the chimp." |
The computer animation is fantastic. Other than a quick scene in the beginning involving deer and a bear, all of the animals in the film look as real as they possibly could. If we didn't know in the back of our brains that these were computer created apes, you might be a little scared. It's also a very intelligent film with a lot of political and evolutionary undertones that don't force-feed you messages of how to make the world better. It has a lot more insight in it that a summer blockbuster ought to have. It truly is the platform that all the Michael Bay types ought to template their next films after. Who says you can't have something to say, something to kill, something to blast, and something to laugh at while still implementing some intelligence into the film? I highly recommend this as the next movie you make it out to see this truly thin summer.
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