Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Chris Eberle

Synopsis

After a deadly virus wipes out most of the Earth’s human population, Caesar has founded a new home for his family and a huge community of evolved apes. All is peaceful until human survivors from San Francisco venture out to try and restart a hydroelectric dam so they can restore power. Instead they discover the apes’ home and a misunderstanding causes immediate tension between the two sides.

Caesar and human scientist Malcolm negotiate a fragile peace but unfortunately radical individuals on both the human and ape side can’t lay aside their differences. Power is restored but Koba, an ape who refuses to trust humans, decides to take matters into his own hands. By the end it seems that war is inevitable.

Commentary

I’ve always been a fan of this franchise, in all its different forms; but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is by far the best film yet. 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a surprise hit at the time and director Matt Reeves has easily topped that excellent movie. While the story is a good one, I most enjoyed watching the incredible range of emotion made possible by some of the best CGI effects I’ve ever seen. If I didn’t know better I’d think the film-makers managed to find about 500 perfectly trained primates to star in this movie. Of course you will absolutely root for the apes but not all the humans are evil. Malcolm, played by Jason Clarke is a completely likeable character that I instantly identified with. This is a rare movie that can be both a box-office smash and a showcase for the film-maker’s art. Highly recommended and a must-own.

Technical

The image is fairly dark throughout but never to the point where you can’t see all the detail which is sharp in the extreme. It’s more about texture than color and there’s more than enough to tell the tale. Contrast is very deep with rich blacks and bright highlights when appropriate. Films like this often look grainy but that particular texture is thankfully absent. The creature effects are amazingly realistic and they translate well to the small screen.

The original film was mixed in Dolby Atmos. That codec is not included on this Blu-ray release but as I watched it I couldn’t help thinking, “why do I need Dolby Atmos?” The DTS-HD Master audio track is mixed in 7.1 but it sounded amazing in my 5.1-equipped theater. Rain effects were especially tasty as they took place overhead and behind me. My surround speakers are mounted well-above my head and are quad-polar which I’m sure added to the effect. This is probably the best use of surround sound I’ve heard on any Blu-ray to date. Dialog was crisp and clear as well and my sub got a decent workout during the more action-packed scenes.

Extras

Bonus features total over two hours and include featurettes on the creation of the new Planet of the Apes franchise, how motion capture was used to realize the phenomenal creature effects, deleted scenes and audio commentary from director Matt Reeves.