DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

dawn of the planet of the apes (2014) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   130 minutes

Released         |   11 July 2014

cast

Andy Serkis ... Caesar
Jason Clarke ... Malcolm
Gary Oldman ... Dreyfus
Keri Russell ... Ellie
Toby Kebbell ... Koba
Kodi Smit-McPhee ... Alexander
Kirk Acevedo ... Carver
Nick Thurston ... Blue Eyes
Terry Notary ... Rocket
Karin Konoval ... Maurice
​Judy Greer ... Cornelia

director

Matt Reeves

writer

​Mark Bomback ... (written by) and
Rick Jaffa ... (written by) &
Amanda Silver ... (written by)
 
Rick Jaffa ... (based on characters created by) &
Amanda Silver ... (based on characters created by)
 
Pierre Boulle ... (based on the novel "La Planète des Singes" by) (uncredited)

cinematographer

​Michael Seresin

music

​Michael Giacchino

film editor

​William Hoy
Stan Salfas

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box office result

Worldwide               $710,644,566  

Australia                 $​​​​17,074,003

North America        $​​​​​​208,545,589

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the best dialogue

​Physician: If you have a fever and cough or a sore throat, stay home.
Man on TV: I'd say 95% chance of this is manufactured. Came out of a laboratory.
Female Reporter: The source of the virus was traced back to drug test done at Gen-Sys Laboratories in San Francisco.
Male Reporter 1: The lab technician, now known as Patient Zero, was accidentally exposed to retrovirus ALZ-113, an Alzheimer's trial drug that was being testing on chimpanzees.
Male Reporter 2: The infected chimps showed signs of erratic and aggressive behavior that led to their escape from the facility.

​Dreyfus: [addressing the crowd] We've been through hell together! We spent four years, FOUR YEARS fighting that virus, and then another four fighting each other! It was chaos... But you all know what we're up against. And I want you to know, it's not just about power. It's about giving us the hope to rebuild, to reclaim the world we lost!

Caesar: War has... already begun. Ape started war. And human... Human will not forgive. You must go... before fighting begins. I am sorry... my friend.
Malcolm: I thought we had a chance.
Caesar: I did too.

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relATED MOVIES

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (2017)

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Weta Effects Presentation

Images

Posters

Weta Effects Presentation

20th Century Fox hosted an exclusive screening of approximately 15 minutes of footage from the new Matt Reeves film ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ On Thursday June 19, 2014. The screening was attended by Erik Winquist, who was the Visual Effects Supervisor for New Zealand’s WETA Digital Effects on the movie. 

The screening showed a lot of new footage and, given Winquist’s attendance, concentrated on depicting the evolution of the Apes in this film. 

 As previously reported, the new film is set ten years after the conclusion of the first. For those with a good memory, you’ll recall that the end credits of the first film showed the spread of the ‘Simian Flu’ around the planet with the inference that mankind was in for a rough time in the near future.

From the footage shown, this film is certainly more ‘epic’ than the first. It’s clear that the Apes have not seen or heard from the humans since the outbreak of the ‘Simian Flu’ and Caesar, once again played by Andy Serkis, is not even sure there are any still alive. The Apes themselves have flourished in their woodland setting and appear now to number in the hundreds if not the thousands. The Apes questions about whether or not humanity has survived are soon answered when a group humans, lead by Jason Clarke, cross paths with two Apes in the woodlands. The scene is punctuated by Caesar yelling at the trespassers to “GO!”

Not to spoil what was in the footage, or the movie for that matter, the revelation of Caesar’s development to a new group of humans brings their own survival in to sharp focus. On the one hand, Clarke’s character seeks to understand Caesar and his civilisation, while Gary Oldman’s character is more of a ‘Hawk’; advocating all-out pre-emptive attack to ensure the Apes can never grow strong enough in number to overwhelm the remaining population of San Francisco.

The footage ended with the standard pyrotechnic display associated with a big-budget Hollywood film and it was the visual effects that everyone wanted to hear about. Winquist spoke in great detail about the motion capture for this film, explaining that ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ represents an evolution of the mo-cap technology that WETA has helped to revolutionise in the film industry. One such evolution was the development of wireless mo-cap, which has obvious benefits for the performer; especially in such a physical role. The absence of any connecting wires for the head-mounted camera provides the actor a greater range of freedom and allows the Director more flexibility of his master shot of the scene.

Winquist spoke about the need for him to be on-set for the film’s principal photography because the motion capture performances are so integral to this story. He spoke about the emotion of watching the performances being played out on set and, at various times, the emotion coming mo-cap actors was so overwhelming that crew members were brought to tears. He relayed one such scene where Andy Serkis is sitting with his son, talking in sign language, and how it made him emotional to watch the scene being played out. He commented that these may be motion-capture performances but the people who are playing the characters are no lesser actors just because their final performance “look” is animated.

In addition to his duties as overall VFX supervisor for WETA on the film, Winquist also pulled double-duty, and was the lead supervisor on the character of ‘Koba’, who is explored more thoroughly in the second film and becomes a catalyst for the events that unfold in the second half of the movie. He was especially complimentary of the actor who took over the role of ‘Koba’ in this film – Toby Kebbell. With no prior motion-capture acting experience, Kebbell, according to Winquist, threw himself into the role and pulled off an amazing performance. If the results in the footage presentation are what audiences can expect from the character throughout the entire film, ‘Koba’ is going to be a real talking-point for Apes aficionados and a role model in villainy!

An opportunity was extended to the audience to ask questions and ‘Screen Fantastique’ was ready to go with a series of questions about the motion capture process and how it’s integrated with the film’s other effects.

We started by asking how many actors the motion capture was used for and Erik answered telling the audience that it varied depending on the scene. There are eight main Apes in the film’s story but the motion capture was used more extensively than just those eight depending on the requirements – especially the scope – of the scene. 

This prompted the question about the integration of all the different effects techniques into one seamless process. Winquist, who had earlier mentioned that the film’s climax occurs entirely within a CG environment, told the audience that the motion capture for this film was seamlessly blended with CGI.
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While the CGI is a very technical exercise, location filming is not and FF was keen to understand what that means for the use of high-end technology on a shoot like ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’. Winquist acknowledged that location shooting adds another dimension to the overall effects process, especially when the film integrates real environmental impacts such as rain and wind into the story. There’s a consideration to be made of the equipment being used such as the wireless motion capture cameras, which translates into a consideration for the animators back at WETA about having to include droplets of water on fur in close-ups and more dynamic elements such as wind pushing fur around when riding on horseback. He said it’s a time-consuming process which one this movie involved the creative efforts of 1000 staff just at WETA.

​We asked Winquist about Caesar’s voice; something that had been a point of intrigue from the first film. It was a simple enough question … Having seen the original performance, prior to animation, is Andy Serkis’s voice altered in any way in the post-production process? The answer was a surprising ‘No’. Erik said that Serkis has a tremendous ability to adapt his voice and found a very low, slow delivery for Caesar that allowed his dialogue to be captured without any work being done after principal photography wrapped.

The final SF question was about the complexity of ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ compared to other films that he personally and WETA as a company had worked on. Winquist stated that ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ has been the hardest, most difficult project the company has worked on so far, but it wasn’t the answer of a man who sounded in any way shape or form tired or sick of his job; quite the contrary. The tone of his answer was that of a man who relished the challenge and was more than happy to keep pushing the envelope of a movie-making process that he has become one of the best in the world at leading!

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Ten years after simian flu wiped out much of the world's homosapiens, genetically enhanced chimpanzee Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his ever-growing band of followers have established a thriving colony just outside San Francisco in Muir Woods. Meanwhile, a small band of human survivors emerges, which forces Caesar -- as leader -- to grapple with the dual challenge of protecting his people and re-establishing a relationship with the remaining human population -- the latter being Caesar's secret wish.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 10 July 2014

Pop ​Movee Rating

An eerie silence fell over the cinema and the lights came up as the credits started to roll up the screen for DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Audiences had been taken by surprise with Rupert Wyatt’s 2011 reimagining of the endearing science fiction saga from the late 1960s and first half of the 1970s. If you were “surprised” by RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, then be prepared to be completely overwhelmed by this new movie. ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ can be summarised in two words: simply stunning!

At its very best, cinema can completely and utterly immerse its audience in the power of story and the power of images. Under the direction of CLOVERFIELD director Matt Reeves, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES creates the most complete “world” since James Cameron transported audiences to Pandora in AVATAR. The preview audience at the screening of this new film didn’t know whether to clap in appreciation or shout out for the sheer imagination that they had just been unrolled before them. Judging by the number of people gathered in the foyer immediately after the screening, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is a movie that is going to give moviegoers a lot to talk about.

The film’s story, and resulting screenplay, is incredibly well structured. On one side, you have the escalating tension of the two main apes of 'Caesar', played by Andy Serkis, and 'Koba', played by Toby Kebbell. On the other, there’s 'Malcolm', played by Jason Clarke, and 'Dreyfus', played by Gary Oldman. The story cleverly transitions these four main characters throughout the course of the movie, with the humans starting off as the threat to the apes, but as events occur it becomes clear that the apes very quickly shake-off their noble savage idealism and take up arms against the threats posed to them. What makes the story even more compelling is that the apes descent into more sophisticated savagery comes after a great amount of time has been spent showing how much all the apes care for each other and the community they have built is truly representative of family. As their world becomes more and more compromised, the viewer appreciates the terrible sense of loss that is happening right before their eyes.

Without elaborating too much, the film’s final act is superb. These days, many blockbusters don’t know when to quit. (IMichael Bay and his 165 minute running time…) DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES clocks in at 130 minutes, but feels right. The action is well staged and though the great majority of it is 100% CGI, unlike many films over the last few years, the animation is seamless and is required to tell the story. During the finale, the editing moves back and forth between the apes and the human part of the story that plays out between Clarke’s and Oldman’s characters; making it one of the better denouements at the movies this year. Moviegoers looking for their next ‘Transformers’ hit should steer well clear of this movie; however, if you like a touch of pathos in your endings, then DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES could be what you’ve been hoping for.

It’s easy to get swept up in the immediacy of the viewing, but this movie would have to stand as one of the great follow-up films of all time. It’s not a direct sequel, but the main ape characters from the first movie all appear. Ten years have passed since the events of RISE and the exposition to move the story to the time of DAWN is handled nicely in an opening credits prologue. What the screenplay and Reeves’ direction do really well is to reintroduce the apes and expand upon what the audience already knew about them at the conclusion of RISE. Dare it be said, but tonally there’s a little bit of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY about DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Characters that the audience thought they knew are written and played differently this time and there’s a great balance between the intimate and the epic.

Central to the success of all this is Andy Serkis, who returns as ‘Caesar’, the ape whose intellect has benefited the most from the use of an experimental drug in the first film. Serkis is the pre-eminent motion capture actor working in films at the moment and his performance in DAWN is astounding. You may never see the real Serkis, but his vocal and physical work is outstanding and very seldom is there any consideration that ‘Caesar’ is an animated character. Even more astounding is how much of the dialogue between the ape characters is done in sign language. It’s a credit to not only Serkis, but to all of the actors portraying apes in DAWN, that so much emotion is conveyed in such a minimalist way. It’s incredibly effective and keeps the audience focussed on the actor’s performance. Special mention also goes to Toby Kebbell with his portrayal of ‘Koba’. His performance makes ‘Koba’ one of the truly great movie villains in recent memory; full of duplicity, anger and envy. One of the unfortunate parts of this movie is the brevity of the screen time for the human characters. Jason Clarke shares a lot of scenes with the ape characters, but Keri Russell, Gary Oldman and Kodi Smit-McPhee all feel as though their characters could have far more screen time, but, then, the film would have run for 165 minutes… Other than Clarke, Smit-McPhee really shines as Clarke’s character’s son, 'Alexander'. His scenes with ‘Maurice’, played by Karin Konoval, are really touching as the two of them are among the first of the humans and apes to recognise what the other may have to offer.

It’s hard to fault the technical execution of DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. From the top down, it’s a very assured film. Matt Reeves has not directed many movies but he has surely stamped himself as someone who can handle big budget fare such as DAWN. His previous two feature films were nowhere near as great in scope as this film, but it’s a great sign that directors with limited ‘blockbuster’ exposure like Reeves, Gareth Edwards, Josh Trank, Colin Trevorrow and Scott Derrickson are getting a shot at these larger films and making them both financially successful and creatively appealing.

 In addition to Reeves, credit must be given to Michael Seresin, the film’s cinematographer. Lighting and shooting a movie with such complex motion capture work must be incredibly difficult, but DAWN has  its own visual style that makes it very different in its look to the previous film. Both the set and location photography for this film could not have been easy given it’s raining for the first two-thirds of the movie, but Seresin uses this to his advantage to create the visual metaphors that relate to the film’s title, with the dawn of the apes struggle and the regression of humanity into the darkness.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES also gets the Michael Giacchino musical treatment. Once again, he demonstrates why he is the ‘Go To’ guy for movie music currently. Giacchino’s musical score mixes his own original pieces with cues from the original 1968 Jerry Goldsmith score for PLANET OF THE APES. It’s extremely clever and it adds an authenticity to DAWN that, for older fans of the franchise, feel as though they are viewing part of the ongoing saga that started 46 years ago!

The fundamental question for is whether this film is good science fiction? The answer is a resounding YES. DAWN moves the story far enough forward in its timeframe that it becomes a commentary about the end of a dystopian society and the emergence of a new society that has to make a choice as to whether or not it itself becomes either dystopian or utopian. All sorts of moral, ethical, political and social dilemmas emerge and play-out as a result. It’s great science fiction. It’s riveting to watch and leaves the viewer much to contemplate even after the lights have come up on the final credits. A lot of thought has gone into making DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. This is clear from the story & its screenplay right the way through the production. It’s a real joy to watch a film that is so well crafted but also has all the hallmarks of being a smash hit blockbuster. Matt Reeves and screenwriters Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Mark Bomback have given audiences a real treat and one that is neck and neck with X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST as the best science fiction, fantasy or comic book genre entry so far in 2014. Make sure you see this film at the cinema and in 3-D.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) USEFUL LINKS

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Wikipedia
​Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) - IMDb
​Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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