• Home
  • Meetings
  • Events
  • Blog
  • E-Board
  • Around Boston
NUFEC
.

Ben Garbow on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

7/12/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes begins ten years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), after the Simian Flu has wiped out nearly all of humanity and only a few pockets of survivors remain (among them our main human cast: Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, and others). The apes (Andy Serkis, Terry Notary, Judy Greer, Karin Konoval) have formed a colony in Muir Woods outside of San Francisco.

The story, like Rise, is straightforward. The acting is solid. The music by Michael Giacchino (one of my favorite composers) is great, alternately orchestral and dissonant. It’s very well shot, too; new franchise director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) certainly knows how to create a dynamic, tense mood. The script at times is a bit overly explanatory and the human characters don’t exactly have much depth. But by and large, it’s all great, an improvement on the first film in nearly every way.

But I don’t want to talk about all of that. I want to talk about the special effects and the motion capture performances from the cast of apes, and how the two combine to give the film a surprisingly resonant emotional backbone I was not in any way expecting in a movie about super smart apes.

The special effects are nothing short of groundbreaking and Andy Serkis gives an unbelievable performance. If Gravity showed us the future of visual effects as spectacle—dazzling, sweeping, and vertigo-inducing--Dawn of the Planet of the Apes shows us the future of visual effects as drama—emotional, human, and powerful. It doesn’t matter how much of what we see on screen is Serkis and how much is ones and zeroes. They come together to form one amazing character inhabited completely by one amazing actor who gives one amazing performance. When you look into Caesar’s eyes, you don’t see a fabrication of VFX engineers. You see a character, a being with dreams and fears and history and emotion. Caesar and Serkis are powerful, heartbreaking, intimidating. To quote the film, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

All of that—the acting, the story, the motion capture, the score—all of it combines to make a blockbuster that isn’t about style over substance. At its core, Dawn is thoughtful and somber. Its themes about war and sacrifice are so well realized that I didn’t know who to root for; both sides had internal power struggles, and both sides had good reason for going to war. And by the time the final battles begin, after tension has steadily been building for the entire film, each life carries weight, human and ape alike.

Dawn is a blockbuster that doesn’t feel like a blockbuster. Yes, it has dazzling special effects and intense sequences of violence, but at its core it’s a character study, one grounded in small-scale relationships. It’s the story of two groups and the people struggling to lead them. It’s an unsubtle and potent allegory for modern political conflict, and a powerful allegory at that. It’s emotional and thrilling and powerful and sad and tense and fantastic. And if Andy Serkis isn’t nominated for an Oscar, then no motion capture performance ever will be.

Grade: A-

(I’m speaking directly to you now, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For fuck’s sake, give Andy Serkis a goddamn Oscar. I cannot overstate this enough. Just give it to him.)

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    AJ Martin
    Andy Robinson
    Anime
    Anthony Formicola
    Anu Gulati
    Arjun Agarwal
    Arzu Martinez
    Ben Garbow
    Brandon Isaacson
    Brian Hamilton
    Carter Sigl
    Dan Simeone
    Discussion
    Elizabeth Johnson Wilson
    Eliza Rosenberry
    Emily Fisler
    Erick Sanchez
    Eric Tatar
    Essays
    Festivals
    Gabrielle Ulubay
    Grace Phalon
    Haley Emerson
    Here's Some Movies
    Ian Wolff
    IFF Boston
    IFFBoston 2015
    Interviews
    Isaac Feldberg
    Kunal Asarsa
    Library
    Lists
    Marguerite Darcy
    Marissa Marchese
    Marli Dorn
    Mary Tobin
    Meghan Murphy
    Mike Muse
    Mitch Macro
    Neel Shah
    Netflix Instant Watch
    Parth Parekh
    Patrick Roos
    Profiles
    Reviews
    Short Films
    Television
    This Week In Movies
    Tyler Rosini

    Want to Write for Us?

    Contact NUFEC at [email protected] if you're interested in writing for this blog!

    Archives

    October 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.