Why Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Fails on So Many Levels
The Good:
The make-up, special effects are fantastic. Take me to a forest alive with apes any day! The special effects is where the thrill of the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes begins and ends.
*For a glance at my real life experience with primates in the jungle forest link here: Jungle Life!
The Bad:
The remainder of the film is a testosterone fuelled battle scene. My daughter’s boyfriend summed it up best when he said, “What’s not to like? A monkey riding horseback firing two machine guns at the same time…”
-this is the highlight of the entire film. Such feats impress teenage males and that’s about it.
Where Are The Women?
The film takes place in what appears to be the very near further—2020s is my guess. And yet, the human population might as well be living in 1824. The men have the only significant roles in the film. All the specialists to determine if the hydro dam will generate power? Men. The ONLY female with a speaking part is a side-kick pseudo-nurse to the wounded or ill.
The ape population is no better. The only female with a grunting role gives birth to the male leader’s (Caesar) second son and then falls ill.
In fact, my 14 year old daughter is so desperate to believe there is even one important female in the film, that she insists that the male orang-utan named Maurice is a female. I told her there is no way, Maurice has the massive cheek pouches that only sexually mature male orang-utans develop. I even had to point out that Maurice is a guy’s name (she doesn’t believe me).
Where are the bonobos? Bonobos are cousins to the chimpanze and human’s closets relative alive on earth today. They are also a matriarchal culture. The women lead. Put Bonobos in Planet of the Apes and then you’ll have a film worth making.
The Horrid:
The film is based on the angry, hair-trigger tempers of fearful male humans and apes. The film focuses on nothing but the actions associated with the fear filled apes and humans beating each other to death with big guns and explosives. YAWN!
What is wrong with American culture that this is the modern version of Planet of the Apes? Give me the 70s version with Roddy McDowell any day. In the 70s version there is a plot and characters.
Why is it that Matt Reeves (director) and the writers (Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) seem to have no idea that females exist in North American society? Furthermore, the director and writers appear to lack the creative skills needed to tell a story with a plot and character development. All that is evident in the film is that they may have a disturbing obsession with guns and violence.
It is tragic that the 2014 version of planet of the Apes is nothing more than a violent, misogynist, pumped of version of the 1970s classic series. American film culture has plummeted far in less than 1/2 a century.
The Audience:
I went to the movie with my entire family and my sister and her family. There were a total of 10 of us in the theatre for the family movie night (ranging in ages from eight through to adult). At one point I looked around the theatre and discovered only four of us were left. Many of our younger audience members had to leave due to the violent images on the screen.
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