Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

You will have to bear with me a bit more than usual with this intro, mainly because I want to hammer home the point that I had so many things running through my head before the movie even started, that if left unchecked, could have potentially ruined Dawn of the Apes for me. First, for everyone that has seen the Charlton Heston Apes or even the television show reruns on TVLand, we all remember his iconic line of "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!" which pretty much epitomized the arrogance of the white male in the 60's. A time where you could casually cheat on your wife with your young secretary, and then drive home drunk while playing a game of chicken with the local immigrants who were working in the your neighbor's yard without any repercussions. Then of course there were the apes who spoke perfect English, some of whom had proper British accents and wore linen robes. I figured if it were ok to give some a British accent, why not throw in a Texas accent for the dumber apes as well?

But whatever, those were the least of my concerns. I will never forget how excited I was for Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes with Marky Mark. He, along with Jack Nicholson, almost single handedly saved the Superhero genre with his version of Batman; seeing as how Superman 4:The Quest for Peace nearly killed it! What sticks out about that movie, besides the fact that it sucked, was the fact that for years my buddy tried to convince me that it was perfectly normal for him to want to have sex with Helena Bonham Carter in a monkey suit! Let's forget the fact that this takes Furry love to a whole new level, and focus on the fact that this gives a whole new meaning to the word unkempt. Also, when other oral acts are being performed, I certainly don't want the feel of a mustache in that area while it's happening; I'm not that big of a Tom Selleck fan! Sorry to gross you out but thanks to my idiot friends and my own twisted mind, these were the thoughts I had to clear out before watching the sequel to a fairly decent reboot in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

This movie starts 10 years after the virus James Franco developed spread throughout the entire world and killed nearly everyone in it. Only a few humans that were genetically immune to it remain, and we are introduced to a group that has rallied together in San Fransisco with the hopes of reviving some sort of normal society again. The issue is, they are running out of the only viable power source they could find and that is gasoline. So they send a small unit up to the Red Woods to get the local power dam running again, with the hopes of having a constant power source that will also open up communication with the other possible survivors. However when this unit goes up into the mountains, they run into Caesar and his community of apes. In the 10 years that have passed since he freed everyone, they have grown both in numbers and in intelligence. They are a stronger community than when they first started and Caesar now how a wife and two kids.

But a lack of trust still exists between the two species. While there are humans who act intelligently and try to understand these advanced apes they have been introduced to, there still exists your average human that will immediately try and destroy what they don't understand. But it's not just the humans, there are a few apes who still remember how they were mistreated in labs by these humans and they will never again trust them under any circumstances. And it is this mistrust that eventually leads to an all out war.

Now I don't know why I always expect greatness when it comes to a movie about talking monkeys, but I do. I'm not saying this movie isn't good because it is, but I wasn't blown away by it in the way that I thought I would be. The story is a good one and it will definitely keep you entertained as the tension that exists between the humans and the apes is palpable. And you will find yourself on the edge of your seat every time these two have to interact with one another. I guess my main complaint is that the best actors in the movie were clearly the apes. It amazes me that Andy Serkis (Caesar) has never been nominated for an Oscar. This just goes to show how close minded the Academy is when it comes to these things because when you look at the life he brings to characters like Caesar, King Kong, and obviously Gollum; you'd realize that these movies would never work without a performance like his. You mean to tell me he's not as good as Geoffrey Rush was in Shine? Did anyone ever actually see that movie? I dare you to tell me one thing about it without Googling it first! Also Toby Kebbell from RocknRolla almost steals the entire movie with his performance as Caesar's friend who later betrays him in Koba.

The human casting was a bit weird; I like Jason Clarke but more in a supporting role versus that of the lead because he doesn't have the screen presence or charisma that's needed to carry a movie. He basically just walks around with a confused and scared look on his face the entire film, adding absolutely nothing to the character. And I don't know who dusted off Kerri Russell from the 90's but she could barely act then and she hasn't grown as an actress since. Was Kerry Washington or Jennifer Connelly not available? Damn you Aronofsky and your stupid Noah!

Now I know I'm stating the obvious when I say that you will have to suspend your thoughts of reality a bit when referencing a movie about talking monkeys, but this really only pops up when you see Koba become a marksmen with an automatic weapon once the war starts. Outside of that, they do a really good job of not making the apes' ability to speak laughable. It's intelligible yet broken enough to where it seems like they are slowly picking it up as they evolve into more advanced beings. Also, there were some pretty cool battle scenes that included exploding monkeys (you don't actually see them explode) and apes taking down a tank!

The more this movie settles with me, the more I find myself liking it. It runs a bit long but not so long that your kids will make you want to kill yourself by the time the closing credits start rolling. I rate this movie as FRESH!