Movie – Dawn of the planet of the Apes

Movie – Dawn of the planet of the Apes
Score : 8/10
Year : 2014
Director: Matt Reeves 
Country : USA
Language : English
Duration: 2h10

Following the footsteps of Rise of the planet of the apes , ‘‘Dawn’’ is a direct sequel to the 2011 ‘’Rise…’’ and starts exactly where the previous movie left.
Both movies rely on a suggested storyline from the book, and could be viewed as prequels.








10 years have elapses since the events in Rise of the planets. Earth’s infrastructures have collapsed. The super-intelligent ape society launched in ‘’Rise’’ is threatened by human survivors of a devastating virus. As tension rises, it seems war is inevitable between the two.
Most of the crew from ‘’Rise’’ aren’t here anymore.  I’m glad to see the new director Matt Reeves continues Rupert Wyatt’s storyline and storytelling.

Most of the cast changed as well. Andy Serkis, however, remains as the motion detected and computerised Caesar and you still get to profit from his genius portrayal of this ape and be moved by his emotional yet
technically accurate performance and believe that you’re actually watching a super-intelligent, evolved ape.



Alongside him, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell, and many others are either humans, or apes.

 ''Dawn'' just like ‘’Rise’’ is a visual feast; its cinematography is stunning, both in 2D and even more so, in 3D that I got to see in cinema last year. 

In fact, the 3D experience was amazing, and this was my very first 3D movie. Every scene was a visual treat, so Weta workshops can once more boast for their special effects, following their quality standards set in Lord of the Rings, and ‘’Rise’’… 

Filmed in full HD, as recent movies are, the image is crystal clear. 

The futuristic San Francisco, mostly destroyed, with overgrown trees and plants is well imagined and rendered.

 ''Dawn'' makes several more steps in portraying human flaws, both through some human survivors as well as some of the apes - serving as direct allegories-  and come quite close to the ideas set in the original Pierre Boule novel which was truly innovative and still valid now. Actually, it speaks now even more than it did in 1963, and it’s about time that someone depicted these human facets and act as wake up calls to everyone’s hearts and compassion… Or we could all suffer the consequences in the worst possible manners, just like in the movie…


Thus, the hunting scene at the beginning of the movie, is unsettling, and sets the parallel of human evolution; how we as a race came from apes and at some point became predators, a flaw Planet of the Apes decries.  Luckily all apes, deer and bears aren’t real; they are all CGI, with great attention to details for their animation, movements and their overall appearance. In spite of this, I personally preferred not to look at these scenes.

I like that the humans look gruff, unshaven, not so clean, and not full of glamorised makeup. Contrary to other movies, people here aren’t glamorised, or plasticised. After all, the humans lack in all kinds of commodities as this is a realistic setback they must’ve suffered in the off-screen 8-10 year period since the events of ‘’Rise of the planet of the apes’’, and thus they wouldn’t appear so clean. They look like real people and that’s great.

The acting is very good, and even amazing from several actors. Others are ‘’just there’’ as secondary characters and don’t get to shine as much, but allow to contrast with the heroes and villains. 
 However, ''Dawn'' continues the same writing flaws as ''Rise'', specifically the lack of female characters. 
In ''Dawn'', Kerri Russel's ''Ellie'' is a slight improvement over  ''Rise'' Frieda Pinto's Carolina ; yet, she's not written to her fullest potential, and just like Carolina who was a vet, Ellie is a doctor... again, the two main woman are written as ''partner of the hero'' and trapped as ''taking care of others'', with no depth. Ellie's emotional distance in all situations, including a tragedy she herself faced, aren't realistic and one cannot feel sorry for her and root for her character's plights, as she doesn't seem to care much about it either... 

Both ''Dawn'' and ''Rise'' had female characters, both giving birth and dying... this is an unacceptable situation, because there were no other female characters to balance this out...

I wish the writers had included more female characters, both humans and apes, and given them more depth and variety ; more jobs, not the typical female jobs, and also include kick-ass yet feminine characters... there weren't, any! 
Once more, the overall appreciation and thus score are greatly diminished and that's a shame...
I really hope the third movie in the series will correct these issues...

I had some difficulties hearing properly a few shouted dialogues, but I cannot tell if it’s my fault or the movie. Either case, I read those few lines in the subtitles.
The apes in both reboot movies alternate between sign language and spoken English. This is a great touch and unique to all ‘’planet of the apes’’ movies.
The music is engaging, present almost continuously throughout the movie and fits the various emotions, tension and comic relief moments. It was composed by Michael Giacchino who also signed Star Trek reboot soundtracks for Star Trek (2009), Into Darkness (2013) and will be heard once again for Stat Trek Beyond (2016) as well as a few other science-fiction movies I haven’t seen… he seems like composing for this genre.

The reboot series makes many nods to the original Planet of the apes movies from 1968-73, and I suggest you watch them before watching the bonus material in the bluray… as they spoil quite often! You’ve” been warned !


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Dawn of the planet of the apes... in the media

I saw on dvdfr.com that this French limited steelbook edition was the fullest so I bought it  a few days ago as its price finally went down. Its EAN is 3344428059026 and looks like this

The movie is available on 4 medias in this edition: the dvd, a 2D blury, an active 3D bluray, and digital copy you can watch on a computer, tablet or even a smartphone if you want to damage your eyes...



I assume that the dvd is just like EAN 334442806033, with the movie wtih a 16/9 image with an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 in dolby digital 5.1 English and French, and same languages for the subtitles.

I cannot check the 3D disc because I don't have a 3D TV...

The 2D bluray is the richest as far as I know.
The movie is in 16/9 image with an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 but in full 1080p HD, and sound is upgrades as follows : English in 7.1 DTS HD-MA, French in 5.1 DTS Digital surround ; 19 languages for the subtitles.


And 1 hour 53 of bonus material as follows :
3 deleted scenes (4:34) ;
Journey to Dawn (8:47) and Andy Serkis : Rediscovering Caesar (9:02) are mildly informative and entertaining, but far too short!
Humans and apes, the cast of Dawn (17:47) ; the World of Dawn (14:31) ; the Ape community (10:26) ; More like an Ape : an artist's medium (15:25) ; Weta and Dawn (20:27) ; The fight for a new Dawn (16:00) ; 3 trailers (6:17) and 4 photo galleries.

The menu is very well done and offers access to the bonus material as well as the movie's scenes and setup, and isn't intrusive. 

An exclusive ''Andy Serkis bluray'' is included, and gullible, I thought it'd contain a documentary regarding his performance and specifically offer an in-depth look at his motion-caption aspect... Well, this is my gripe of the day : this isn't the case. FAR from it!!

It's a 46 minutes q&a interview... in French (2.0 dolby digital sound) with Andy talking in some cinema hall, presenting excerpts from the movie and ... and.... dubbed in French, with a rather bad sound, and thus I cannot even make sense... I'm sure he's quite interesting, but this isn't what I thought it'd be and I'm not interested at all in listening to this ultra-exclusive which didn't even need to have its very own bluray disc... not for 46 minutes, and not for a stereo sound and not for the fact the disc doesn't have anything else to sink my teeth into... a bit of a disappointment there, I must say.