Last week I was bemoaning how visual effects and action have taken over the sci-fi genre a la Transformers 4 but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes showcases all the strengths of a good sci-fi movie - great characters, exploring real world issues in an extraordinary context, great themes and a cautionary tale delivered as a popcorn movie. Let's dig in.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a sequel to the sleeper hit of 2011 that was actually a prequel to the 1970’s Planet of the Apes saga. We pick up the story with Caesar now older, living in the jungles with his community of apes. He has a bratty son, a general in Koba who's craving to get his own against humanity, a wife and his own set of manevolent dictator comandments for Ape kind.
Whilst the 1970’s worked as metaphor for race relations in America, Dawn's themes are set around racism, hate and family that go beyond the US. It speaks volumes to the world of today. The more the film ran, the more it made me think of our own history and current situation when it comes to race in South Africa or even the Gaza strip.
Caesar is almost like a Mandela figure, he knows how the enemy thinks,he understands them, yet he sees that the only way forward is peaceful co-existance between Ape and man, besides all the wrongs mn has caused. Whilst Koba, the poor disfigured Ape, only knows man’s malice which has left him with all sorts of scars (physical and emotional) and wants retribution, some would say justice. Koba kinda reminds me of those who see Mandela as a sell-out and are secretly longing for the knight of long knives.
Andy Serkis does a brilliant job as usual with the motion capture. The CGI is brilliant - the apes look and feel photo-real. Yet this film is not about the visual effects but the damage that cycle of hate and prejudice create. There’s a scene whereby Koba plays the fool and that’s the only way humans are able to interact with him but when he is a thinking and smart Ape they're afraid of him. Which made me think of our own society's ideas of cooning.
The idea of the "other" is very strong in Dawn'. The turning those who are not like you into object of fear and distrust. Seeing the “other” as a negative polar opposite of the “normal” – ordinary that happens to be you. Something colonization and apartheid really mastered. In post apartheid South Africa we still struggle with this idea of the other. Instead of seeing the others as ourselves, we see them as an object of all our fears, to man, the ape is the other whilst to Koba,man is the the other who needs to be feared/destroyed.
Kudos though to Matt Reeves, the director, 'cause the storytelling is not bogged down by these heavy themes. They are seamlessly threaded into the story; so we are able to get the skop, skeet and donner whilst still having some to chew over after the movie. Long live sci-fi.
Rating ****
*junk **almost bearable ***now we cooking ****almost perfect *****classic ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++