Dawn was directed by Matt Reeves and this is just his third film and it seemed like it. Handing a director who had only done two movies previously a production budget of $170 million dollars is akin to someone knocking on my door, handing me a helmet, and telling me to pilot a fighter jet. The downfall in my opinion was the script. The plot holes were massive and really made this film difficult for me to thoroughly enjoy. There's a moment where the humans give Caesar's wife human antibiotics, now call me crazy but if there was a worldwide pandemic, where in the world would the humans find antibiotics? And why and how would they work on an ape?
The biggest problem of this film was the humans being relegated to footnotes. There is NO sense of true desperation, no moments of anguish, and they were ALL one dimensional. There were no character arcs, no journey's, no evolution in any of them whatsoever. The humans are the same people they are through the film from the moment you see them to the end of the movie. And when it comes to the apes, all the male apes can talk and fight and are far more nuanced where the female apes say nothing, do nothing, and are stuck to the background. Outside of Caesar's wife, the female apes were nonexistent.
There were a ton of character stereotypes that dragged this movie down in my opinion. Jason Clarke's Malcolm is righteous and good right from the start. He needs no convincing on how good, kind, compassionate, and amazing Caesar is. Kerri Russell's Ellie was completely under utilized, Malcolm's son seemed like he suffered from some neurological disorder and had the mentality of a four year old. They all could have been written better.
What I did love had nothing to do with the story (which was weak) and had more to do with moments in the movie. When Koba tells Caesar what "human work" had done to him grabbed me. When Koba takes fellow ape Ash and kills him because Ash wouldn't kill a human was shocking. When Maurice stood up to Koba when Koba went after Malcolm's son made me smile. And when Koba played the stupid monkey with the two humans only to get the better of them and kill them with their weapon was intense. Yes I know all those moments involved Koba but he is what made this movie even remotely compelling. Without him this movie falls completely apart. The motion capture graphics should win this movie a technical Oscar, they are that impressive and the high point of the movie.
There were scenes in the trailers that weren't in the movie and that was upsetting as well. The scene where Jason Clark is yelling into the woods, "I need to speak to Caesar!" is not there. Part of Gary Oldman's speech about how the humans spent "four years fighting that virus and then another four fighting each other, it was chaos" is also missing along with a few others. I don't know about you but I hate when that happens, it feels like a bait and switch to me. I gave this film three buckets of Killer Korn in my review but just barely.
The next apes film has been announced and the director who has now only directed three movies is helming the next one though this time Matt is writing it as well. Here's hoping he crafts something better than what was handed in for Dawn.
So tell me Kornheads, what did YOU think of the movie? Did you love it, like it, or was it meh? Let me know, I'd love to hear your opinion.
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