Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – 2014
Perfection! The visual effects for this movie were incredible! They were amazing! They were completely convincing! Looking back at the previous film in this rebooted franchise, there is little comparison. Normally, in a sequel, the idea is bigger, better, and more of it. Well, this movie didn’t disappoint! There were more intelligent apes, clearly growing from the origin story of the first film, into the intelligent simian rulers of the world we know they are destined to become.
So first off, there were a lot more apes. Their population had grown, so the CGI department had their work cut out for them. The digital apes had a lot more screen time. Much of the plot centered around their fledgling society in the Muir Woods. I can’t say enough about how perfectly the photo-realistic apes looked and moved. They mostly communicated with sign language, and we were given subtitles to understand them. And here, there are hundreds of apes, as compared with the mere fifty or sixty in the first movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
In addition to greater numbers, the level of realism and detail in the apes had risen significantly. The apes were so much more expressive! They had the ability to display real emotions just as convincingly as any live actor. That being said, I find it ridiculous that Andy Serkis, the actor in the performance capture suit that played Cesar, the lead ape, was not given a Best Actor nomination because his character was CGI. At this point, I think it is safe to say that a CGI character is nothing more than an actor in digital makeup, and they deserve to be recognized.
But the apes were not the only fantastic CGI images on the screen. The caribou at the beginning of the movie, as well as the bear, were all digital. Also, the horses that the apes rode throughout the film were CGI. These were done so well, that it never even occurred to me to think that they weren’t real.
And there were some pretty exciting action sequences that looked fantastic, too. The ape attack on San Francisco was remarkable! The humans were able to defend themselves with machineguns, a rocket-launcher, and even a tank. In the resulting fires, the CGI apes were perfectly blended into the burning backgrounds. Also, the climactic battle between Cesar and Koba at the top of a tower under construction was phenomenal. The realism has gotten to the point that my eyes can no longer tell that the CGI is not real. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were.
And then there was the baby chimp, Cesar’s newborn son. There was a scene in which it was exploring, crawling onto Keri Russel’s shoulder. Not only was it darn cute, but it moved and behaved just like it was supposed to. It was an inquisitive child in the agile body of a chimpanzee. So much wonderful attention to detail!
After watching this movie, I spoke to a friend, praising this movie’s visual effects. He told me to just wait until the next entry in the franchise, the 2017 Best Visual Effects nominee, War for the Planet of the Apes. I can’t wait!