Film review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Et tu, Caesar?

MANILA, Philippines - With no apologies to Shakespeare or Brutus, the 20th Century Fox current release, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is the brilliant sequel to the 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which in turn began the reboot of the Planet of the Apes film franchise.

With events in Dawn transpiring a decade after Rise, we’re thrust into a bleak, post-virus world that finds pockets of human survivors located in San Francisco, transgressing on the forest areas which have become the domain of the ape community, as led by chimpanzee Caesar. And it is Caesar (once again, wonderfully played by Andy Serkis) and the brilliant screenplay (take a bow, Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) that catapults the film into the realm of near greatness — hence, the title of this review.

In much the same manner that The Empire Strikes Back had a stronger epic story-telling element to it than Star Wars, the textured and intricate plotting of the Dawn gives the sequel a far more satisfying story than Rise.

There’s no Dr. Rodman (James Franco) in sight — except for a prerecorded vignette; and so it’s squarely left to Caesar to take the center stage, and lead us through the engrossing tale of defining civilization and decoding good and evil. And here is where the screenplay shares the limelight with Caesar. Rather than falling back on a simplistic “apes versus humans” scenario, the layers created point out to us that no matter what evolved species we may be talking about, it’s not just a matter of “us versus them,” but will always be also about the good in any species versus the bad in that same species. We’re engaged to the point where, at times, we’re rooting for the apes, even if that ultimately means the subjugation of us, humans, in the film.

That’s how complex the simian characters are portrayed and developed as the movie progresses. And we’re impressed by the research that had been invested in the film — how even if we’re talking about evolved apes, Caesar often reminds us about how some basic tenets of ape behavior cannot be eradicated. The concepts of hierarchy, of family or preservation and survival, all weigh heavy in the balance of events; and we’re constantly shown how these concepts operate in both the human and simian communities.

The Australian actor Jason Clarke as Malcolm is the human we invest much of our sympathy to. He alone stands up to leader Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) when fear and loathing of having to treat the apes as equals become an issue. Maurice, the Borneo orangutan, and Koba, the Bonobo, are back, each playing vital roles in how at one point, there’s poetry and irony in the name Caesar, as much like Julius Caesar, our chimp counterpart has to face blind ambition and treachery.

There is something of a slow start to the film, but the moment things pick up, there’s no letdown, as the plot thickens, the action picks up pace, and there is the constant tension of hell breaking loose. That this all comes without jettisoning catharsis, and our being engaged by what our protagonists are going through, says much about how the film’s story develops, and the richness of the characters —  whether human or otherwise.