Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Movie Review by Guest Blogger, Marie Gilbert

Remember how I said that my grandmom and I went to see the newest "Planet of the Apes" movie in theaters a couple of weeks ago? We decided to each review it and then post on each other's blogs because we loved it so much. Last week you saw my review, and although I had intended for hers to come out after my review of the newest TMNT movie, I decided that it would make more sense to post this first. (That, and I need some extra time to think about things before I write my TMNT review.)

So without further ado, please welcome my guest blogger, Marie Gilbert (aka Grandmom)!

Planet of the Apes

If you’re my age, you’ve probably seen the original 1968 film, Planet of the Apes, starring Charlton Heston as George Taylor the American astronaut who with his crew crash landed on a strange planet after spending thousands of years in hibernation. The film which is based on Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel, La Planete des Singes, introduced moviegoers to intelligent gorillas and speechless, animalistic humans.

The film’s ending, along with Taylor’s shocking realization of his true location, is seared forever in my mind and I became an instant fan. Unfortunately, I found most of the sequels to Planet of the Apes a big disappointment, but at the time I wasn’t sure why. It was only after watching the 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes and this year’s blockbuster, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes that I understood what was missing from the earlier films.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

To give my thoughts on The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I do need to mention the 2011 film The Rise of the Planet of the Apes which was directed by Rupert Wyatt and starred James Franco as Will Rodman and Andy Serkis as Caesar. The 2011 film did what all the previous films in the franchise did not do. It allowed the movie audience to become one with an intelligent species that is endangered in the real world.  Will Rodman (Franco) a scientist from the Sen-Sys Biotech Company is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, a disease that his father is victim to…but we all know that the plans of mice and men often go astray.

The company does its research on chimpanzee subjects and the drug ALZ-112 makes one of the chimps, Bright Eyes, extremely intelligent, but she goes on a rampage. Due to this mishap, Will is forced to take her infant and raise it. Infant Caesar grows more intelligent each day, but he still has animal tendencies that Will Rodman must deal with. The drug may be a blessing for the primate characters of the film, but its side effect on humans is catastrophic. While the airborne disease becomes a pandemic nightmare for mankind, Caesar and his fellow intelligent chimpanzee friends escape to Muir Woods; their new home. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes changed the game plan on the franchise by telling the story from a new perspective. We began to identify with Caesar. He was the hero of the film; the survivor against man’s cruelty towards non-humans.

 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The 2014 film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Andy Serkis as Caesar, Jason Clarke as Malcolm, Gary Oldman as Drefus and Toby Kibbell a bonobo and Caesar’s second in command, focused on the lives of the primates living in Muir Woods.  Have you’ve ever truly looked into a primate’s eyes. I do whenever I am at the zoo or when watching all the National Geographic documentaries about the dire conditions of a species, be they Chimpanzee, Bonobo or Gorilla. There is intelligence in those eyes and before we split off from our cousins millions of years ago, we were just like them and we have the DNA to prove it ranging between a 95 to 99% similarity.

In the 2014 film we see Caesar in charge of his troop of fellow primates.  They’ve not only built shelter for themselves, but they successfully hunt for food. When Drefus (Oldman) the leader of a small band of human survivors living in a section of San Francesco sends Malcolm and his team to check for a source of water power to keep their city running, they encounter Caesar’s son, Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) and Rocket’s son, Ash (Doc Shaw). Ash is injured.

The film deals with Caesar and Malcolm trying to keep peace between the two species, but mistakes are made by both sides and it’s not only the humans who thirst for supremacy; stupid choices are made by both men and beast alike.

Conclusion

Humans have this false illusion that we are above nature. It is because of this mistaken belief that our oceans are polluted; our air dirty and species around the globe go extinct at an alarming rate. We forget that the havoc we cause to nature will eventually come back to kick us in the butt. If we don’t respect nature and the other life forms that share this planet with us, then we are doomed.

When you look into the eyes of any animal, you see a comrade that has survived, like us, the evolutionary trip through time. They deserve our respect. See the movie. We are witness to an old story told through new eyes and it feels right.

~

You can find Marie Gilbert on Google + and on her blog, Gilbert Curiosities. :-)