[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ebooting a franchise is never easy. Ask Joel Schumacher about Batman and Robin. Or Michael Bay. The success rate is fairly underwhelming, in fact.
If you’re looking at failed attempts, you won’t find Rise of the Planet of the Apes there. The first installment of the latest series stood tall, not an action masterpiece by any means, but an excellent base to build upon. Similar in ways to the fourth part of the original series (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes), the human performances were adequate, it engaged from the start, and delivered sustained action throughout in the 2011 film.
Three years later, we’re given the follow-up to that effort, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which brings us up to date with the excellent Andy Serkis as Caesar, the leader of the evolved primates. Despite some shortcomings that Rise even nailed, 2014’s ape odyssey surpasses its predecessor in enough areas to potentially rank as best of the entire franchise.
Set a decade after Rise, Earth has gone to hell thanks to symptoms contracted from ALZ 113, the potential Alzheimer’s cure that was on trial at Gen-Sys Laboratories. Its creator, James Franco’s Will Rodman, is essentially nowhere to be seen this time around, replaced by Dawn‘s male lead Malcolm, played by Jason Clarke. The newest film centers around Malcolm’s family and a band of survivors in San Fransisco, borrowing from familiar locations as the human group looks for ways to restore technology and start rebuilding humanity as we know it.
Not that Rise asked a great deal of its human actors, but their involvement was more integral to develop the backdrop. It says something that the material gives audiences a lesser chance to connect with Clarke than with Franco’s character, and his wife, Ellie (Keri Russell), is more underwhelming than Freida Pinto. The film could use a strong female presence. It feel like Gary Oldman’s Dreyfus, a leader figure among the human survivors, is never given the screen time early that could allow his scenes later in the movie to resonate stronger.
Conversely, the power struggle and characterization of the apes that is laid down in the 2011 film laid a base that Dawn turns into a platform of drama and intrigue. To say that it overshadows the consequences of the human camp is also telling of the strength of the screenplay. Koba (Toby Kebbell) and Maurice (Karin Konoval) both return and feel like fully fleshed-out subjects and the power struggle that escalates within the ape hierarchy sizzles until reaching an exciting conclusion. Again, not enough can be said about Serkis’ performance, a master class in performance capture.
3D does very little for the film, but it doesn’t need to. Dawn doesn’t come feel as powerful out of the gate as the previous film, but it picks up in the middle third and finishes with the kind of scope and blockbuster-level action that one would hope for. Even without the sheer inner-city destruction that Rise dished out, its sequel measures up just as important as the factions fight for power leading into a finale that is visually impressive and leaves you on the edge of your seat.
In the end, what Dawn does well, it does really well, and that’s more than enough to make it one of the best action films of the year. With back-to-back solid outings, it begs the question: How many solid rounds will this rebooted series go? The original Planet of the Apes series went five rounds, the evens being far better than the odds, yet fading from start to finish (blame budget woes for part of the conclusion’s shortcomings).
Can the escalating quality mean that the latest inception will actually eclipse the originals? Thanks to the latest entry, it’s not hard to fathom.
This story was originally published by our partners at Press Row Sports & Entertainment.
