Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Blaine: I thought “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was so good, that a sequel couldn’t be as good as the first, but “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” proved me wrong.

Plot (Spoiler Alert)

    Ten years have passed since the 113 virus was exposed to humanity and the human race hasn’t been seen since then. Apes have evolved and bred more with Caesar as their leader. Caesar has a wife and two sons. One morning a gun shot goes off and the apes go to it quickly. The apes discover that human race still lives. Caesar has the apes stand down and not attack. He tells them to go and the humans are shocked to hear an ape speaking. Caesar has Koba and two other apes follow them back to their base.

    They discover that several humans have survived the virus. Koba feels they must attack the humans, but Caesar feels they could lose everything if they go to war. But he does want to make it clear to the humans to stay off their territory. The next day the apes show up to the human base to inform them that apes do not want war, but they will have to fight if they must. Caesar and his army leave. The humans are almost out of power and there’s a hydroelectric dam on the apes side. One of the humans, Malcolm, feels Caesar can be reasoned with. Dreyfus, the leader of the remaining human survivors informs Malcolm he has three days to get the dam working or he is sending men with guns there.

    Malcolm goes back up to forest along with his partner, Ellie, a former nurse, his son, Alex, and other members of his group, Carvar, Foster and Kemp. Malcolm travels to the ape village, where he is taken to Caesar. Caesar listens to what he has to say and after a discussion, Caesar believes the humans are desperate and allows Malcolm and the others to work on the dam on condition they give the apes their guns. Koba has had a bad history with humans and despises them. Koba and couple other apes go back to the human’s base and finds where the humans hide their guns.

    Meanwhile Malcolm and the others work on the dam. Caesar’s baby son finds a gun in Carver’s tool box. Carver pushes him away from the gun and the other son, Blue Eyes, stops him. Then Carver pulls the gun on Blue Eyes. Then Caesar smacks Carver on the ground and takes his gun. Caesar throws the gun in the river and wants the humans to leave. When they return back to the village, Caesar sees his wife, Cornelia is very sick and it worries him. Malcolm and Ellie show up to apologize. They see Cornelia is sick and Ellie has medicine that can help her. Caesar gives them a second chance and informs them they will only have one day to fix the dam and the apes will help them. Malcolm promises to get rid of Carver. Carver has to stay in the car the rest of the time they’re there.

    Koba returns and is not happy that apes are helping the humans. Koba feels Caesar loves the humans more then apes and his own children. Caesar looses it and nearly kills Koba, but then he remembers the ape law that ape must not kill an ape. Koba asks for Caesar’s forgiveness. Later at dinner time, Caesar tries to tell something to his son, Blue Eyes, but Blue Eyes doesn’t listen and just walks away. Koba doesn’t want to tell Caesar about the guns he and the other two apes found because he feels Caesar will never understand how evil humans can be.

    Koba returns to the city, kills two men with a gun and returns to the forest with it. Malcolm and his men are finished repairing the dam and the power is working. He thanks Caesar for what he has done and Caesar feels Malcolm can be trusted. Koba kills Carver.

    Caesar and the other apes welcome the humans into their village and show them the view of the lights in the city. But the celebration is not to last. From the main tree, Caesar looks down and sees Koba with a gun and Koba shoots Caesar. Caesar falls and Koba leaves the gun behind so that the apes would believe that it was caused by a human. He also sets a fire.

    Koba then takes charge of the apes and leads them to the human city. One of the apes helps Malcolm and the others escape. They hide in the forest during the night. The apes attack the armory and steal all the guns. The apes then attack the humans. The humans try to defend themselves, but the apes overpower them. Blue Eyes sees a lot of ape deaths and feels what they are doing may not be right.

    The next morning while heading back to the vehicle, Malcolm, Ellie and Alexander find Caesar alive. Caesar needs treatment. Malcolm asks how this could this have happened, but Caesar informs him that it was an ape who did it.

    Koba kills one of the apes for being too loyal to Caesar. The apes lock the humans in a cage. Blue Eyes sees other apes who are loyal to Caesar held prisoner on a bus. Malcolm and the others need to find a place to stay and Caesar guides them back to the house he grew up in. Ellie needs something to operate on Caesar’s wound so Malcolm sneaks into the city without getting caught by the apes. Blue Eyes finds him and points a gun at him, but decides not to kill him. Malcolm informs Blue Eyes that his father is alive and brings him back to the house.

    Blue Eyes sees the wound and blames the humans, but Caesar says it was not human, but Koba who did it. Blue Eyes is shocked and sad for what the apes have been fighting for is a lie and that Koba almost killed Caesar. Ellie nurses Caesar’s wound. Later, Blue Eyes apologizes to his father for what has happened and informs what Koba has been up to including the killing of an ape. Caesar has to find a way to stop Koba. Blue Eyes wants his father to rest for now and to help him.

    Blue Eyes informs the imprisoned apes that Caesar is alive and frees them from the bus. Blue Eyes leads them to the house. Blue Eyes informs Caesar that the females and children on their way. Caesar must confront Koba before it happens. Malcolm leads the apes into the tower from the tunnel below. Gun fire goes off and the person asks if they are human. Malcolm tells the person to hold their fire and tells the apes to take the stairs to bring them to the streets.

    Malcolm is brought to Dreyfus. Dreyfus is happy to see Malcolm and informs him that with the apes on the tower they are going to blow it up and blasts them all.

    Caesar and the other apes climb the ladder to the tower. After he gets to the top, Caesar reveals himself to be alive in front of the apes. Koba tells Caesar that he has no place here and the apes follow him now. Caesar and Koba fight each other. Koba fights Caesar with all his anger.

    Meanwhile down below Malcolm takes a gun and tells Dreyfus and the others that he can’t let them do this because Caesar is trying to take care of the situation and tries to explain that the apes attacked because they thought humans attacked first. Dreyfus and the others have already contacted the military and they are on their way. While Malcolm is distracted, Dreyfus goes for the switch that triggers the explosives. He sets it off and Malcolm runs and ducks. The explosion causes the whole tower to fall apart, but doesn’t bring the whole thing down.

    Koba grabs a gun and shoots at Caesar. Blue Eyes throws steel rodsg at Koba and Koba shoots at anyone who tries to attack him. Caesar has had enough and puts an end to this by jumping onto Koba and pushes him away.

    Koba tries to climb back up and Caesar grabs his hand. Caesar takes one look at Koba doesn’t accept him as an ape and lets him fall to his death. Caesar watches from up above the tower as the female apes arrive. At the bottom, Caesar meets up with Malcolm. Malcolm informs Caesar that he and the other apes aren’t safe here and that the military will be on their way.

    Caesar knows that there is no stopping the war that is coming towards them and that they can’t wind back the clocks. An ape started this war and the humans will not forgive. Caesar tells Malcolm he must leave before the fighting begins and stay safe. Malcolm is upset for he had wished the human and the ape race had a chance together and Caesar thought so too. The two of them acknowledge their friendship and say their goodbyes. Malcolm disappears into the shadows while Caesar stands before the apes as they await for the war to come.

Blaine: There was only three people Caesar loved and trusted from the human race and they’re all dead. He knows there are other good humans who must have been out there, but he doesn’t know which ones. Then Malcolm comes around and even though Caesar doesn’t trust him fully yet, still he knows there’s something about him that he likes. And the more Caesar gets to know Malcolm the more he wants to believe. And Malcolm proves he’s a good person to Caesar and he along with Ellie and Alexander have earned Caesar’s full trust after everything they’ve been through including giving his wife, Cornelia, medicine so she could be healthy again and nursing Caesar’s wound. Caesar also feels like he has become more of a powerful leader after the past ten years and is more serious. He also looks different from what he looked like in “Rise” like he’s more adult age.

    The whole movie’s about trust between the humans and the apes because both sides feel the other will attack first. But the humans and the apes have a couple things in common and that is that they are trying to survive and move forward.

    “Dawn” has familiar faces from the ape species that were in “Rise” like Caesar, Koba, Maurice and Rocket. The apes aren’t fully evolved enough to talk normally like the humans, but they are getting there. A lot of them talk more through sign language.

    Koba is played by a different actor in “Dawn”. When I saw “Dawn” for the first time I knew there was something familiar about Koba’s lip movement, but I couldn't put my finger on it until I found out he was played by another actor, Toby Kebbell.

    A lot of the ape movements came from Terry Notary, who plays Rocket in the film. He taught the stuntmen how to move like an ape for six weeks and then he work with the actors. Learning how to act like an ape looks like a lot of fun.

    Karin Konovai returned to play Maurice, the orangutan, after the first film and she has studied a lot about orangutans on her own. And she based Maurice on three real apes she knew from their movement. The character, Maurice hasn’t seen any of the good out of humans like Caesar and has only seen the bad, but he was born a honorable ape the way I think of it. In “Dawn” he begins to experience the kindness out of humanity through Malcolm, Ellie, but especially Alexander after he gives Maurice a book as a thank you present for defending him when Koba was about to attack him.

    I really like Jason Clarke as Malcolm. I’ve seen Jason in “Public Enemies”, “Lawless”, “The Great Gatsby” and “Zero Dark Thirty" and he would play the drunk or the tough guy or the guy who messes around with ya, but his performance in “Dawn" shows a very kind man who wants to develop a friendly relationship with Caesar and proves to Caesar how good of a man he is.

    Actress, Judy Greer’s husband is a huge fan of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise and she decided when they would make a sequel, she would would try to get a role in it even though it was small. But she also wanted to be an ape. She got the role of Caesar’s wife, Cornelia.

    Caesar’s son, Blue Eyes, doesn’t trust humans and asks if his father is making the right decision and asking why he is willing to give humans another chance. He also doesn’t understand the human race because he has never had any experience with humans until they show up out of the blue. After what Blue Eyes has seen in battle, he realizes that this is what his father was warning the apes about when he said that they would loose everything including members of their own kind. Blue Eyes has honor in him some where deep inside and finds it after he learns the truth that Koba tried to kill his father.

    I don’t think Caesar ever told Blue Eyes that he was raised by humans, that they showed him the love and that they taught him how to do sign language. Caesar has every reason to give humans a second chance. He probably told his wife, Cornelia. Caesar doesn’t look back the past because he has been thinking about the future for his race. Blue Eyes shows a lot of emotion through his eyes and that’s what I like about him the most, especially during the scene where Caesar is recovering and Blue Eyes apologizes for what has happened.

    The symbol that used to be on Caesar’s window is now a symbol for the apes. I noticed it on the one of the big rocks when Malcolm is first taken to the ape village. And then Blue Eyes uses it to inform the apes that are held prisoner on the bus that Caesar is alive.

    The visual effects have enhanced since “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and they look more life like a lot of the time. The scene where Koba jumps into the tank, kills the humans inside and uses it against the humans is amazing how they shot that in one take while the top of the tank is spinning around and showing the surroundings.

    Director, Matt Reeves, said no villains were meant to be in the story. Gary Oldman is best known for playing a lot of villains in his career. And his character, Dreyfus, who is the leader of the human survivors, is just doing what he thinks is best for the human race. And he’s also someone who has had a tragic loss through the virus.

    It’s too bad the relationship between Caesar and Koba had to go down hill because in the beginning of “Dawn” it shows what good friends they are and then after the humans show up, they end up disagreeing with each other. And Koba only thinks of himself and is just an ape wanting revenge.

    When Andy Serkis read the scene where Caesar lets Koba drop to his death for the first time, he thought it was so wrong for Caesar to do that and he had a very violent reaction to it. But playing the role all the way through reached a point to Andy where it actually began to make sense, but it was still a complicated scenario for him. I don’t think it was an easy choice for Caesar to let Koba fall to his death because he loved Koba like a brother, but he knows Koba is dangerous to be kept alive. He lost Caesar’s trust and he has already broken the apes law that an ape must not kill another ape.

    I like the deleted scenes on the blu-ray disc because number one the effects are fully done in them where as deleted scenes in other films look like something from a cheap computer game. The first deleted scene shows an ape ceremony after Cornelia gives birth to her new son. The bear Koba killed to save Caesar is now a rug and Caesar thanks Koba for saving his life from it. It shows the brotherhood between Caesar and Koba. The last deleted scene shows the apes leading the humans to the camp site where they will be staying and then Malcolm and Caesar introduce themselves by name.

    In the 1973 film, “Battle of the Planet of the Apes”, the saying is “Ape must not kill ape” and that’s where it came from. “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” proves that some sequels can be hard working and because of “Dawn” I believe “War for the Planet of the Apes” will just be as good. My rating on “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is five out of five stars.