Man and ape have been going at it on the big screen off and on since 1968, or roughly way before many of the people in the Ontario Cinemark audience on Sunday were born.
The names and faces (human and ape) have changed in the last 46 years, but the premise has remained pretty much the same since Charleton Heston as George Taylor offered the memorable first human words spoken to an simian in the original “Planet of the Apes: “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”
This is the eighth feature film devoted to this man-ape genre: 1)Planet of the Apes (1968); 2) Beneath the Planet of the Apes; 3) Escape from the Planet of the Apes); 4) Conquest of the Planet of the Apes; 5) Battle for the Planet of the Apes; 6) Planet of the Apes (2001); 7) Rise of the Planet of the Apes; and 8) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which opened nationwide last weekend.
(It’s also given rise to a pair of TV series and even a video game, for those scoring along at home.)
While the “series” jumped the shark after the first couple of films, the two most recent films have brought it back in line. Different people look at these movies and see different things in conflict, represented by humans and apes.
Cain vs. Abel. Israel vs. Palestine. Settlers vs. Native Americans. Conservatives vs. Liberals. Whatever makes it work for you is fine with me. I tend to see a little of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” (“Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad’) in the latest film.
The simple fact is these movies work – if they are kept simple and tend not to stray too far into the metaphorical underbelly where the series drifted after the initial success. This new rebooted series looks to be sticking to the original, successful plan.
The 2011 “Rise of Planet of the Apes,” told the story of an ape rebellion on Earth, led by a genetically-altered chimpanzee named Caesar, with great work by Andy Serkis (Gollum in “Lord of the Rings”) as the simian leader. The new sequel, with Serkis reprising the lead role, has the apes living comfortably in the northwest woods, coming into conflict with humans (whose race has been all but wiped out by Simian flu) who need to power up a power source found in a dam in the same woods.
A third film, not yet titled (dare I predict “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”), is scheduled for release in July 2016. That means almost a half century of apes-human conflict. Not bad for a series based on the 1963 French novel “La Planete des singes” by Pierre Boulle.
Even at 130 minutes, the new movie works. It has conflict, action, love, hatred, pathos, misunderstanding, revenge, redemption, great special effects and more.
Nothing in this series will ever top the shock ending of Heston finding the remains of the Statue of Liberty on the beach in 1968, when we realized for the first time we have been on futuristic Earth the entire movie.
But “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is an enjoyable trip back to the genre.
Movie: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Director: Matt Reeves (“Let Me In,” 2010; “Cloverfield,”, 2008)
Screenplay: Scott Burns, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Starring: Andy Serkis as Caesar, Toby Kebbell As Koba, Jason Clark as Malcolm, Gary Oldman as Dreyfus and Keri Russell as Ellie
Length: 130 minutes
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action; brief strong language
