The ‘Digital Apes’ makes you cry and make realize how bastard we ‘Humans’ are

July 30, 2014 2 comments 14066 Behind The Scenes, Blog, Entertainment, VFX

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Extraordinary CGI.

 

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‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ is the sequel of 2011 blockbuster ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. With tight Editing and Screenplay, it glues you on the edge of the seat.

The storyline is: The Simian Flu (ALZ-113 virus) had got the entire human civilization. Only a handful people remained in San Francisco and are in desperate need for alternative energy source. During the hunt, the researcher’s team with Malcolm (Jason Clarke) comes in contact with Caesar (Andy Serkis). Caesar has built the entire community of chimpanzees in Muir Woods. Followed by some unfortunate circumstances and past experiences, Caesar can foresee the future of possible war between Humans and Apes. To avoid it from the very beginning, he and his entire army visits the remaining people and clearly warns them to live within the boundary. However, Malcolm convinces Caesar to get access to hydroelectric dam so the humans can get power.

Story takes undesirable twists from here on. Caesar’s chief Ape, Koba (Toby Kebbell), had grudge against humans as they had tortured him brutally in the lab. Koba’s revenge mind clashes with Caesar’s analytical mind. Koba set the trick – he bullets Caesar and blame it on humans. He takes command over all the Apes and attacks the city and make humans’ prisoner. Now, Humans and Apes are on a brink of a war to decide the dominant species to take command on Earth. Malcolm, Ellie (Keri Russell) and Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee) founds wounded Caesar and bring him to life. Finally, Blue Eyes (Ceasar’s son – Nick Thurston) and Caesar runs through an epic battle with Koba, emotionally and physically, and wins over.

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The script has given full justice for the characterization and development of all major and supporting casts. It maintains a subtle pace with weaving all the different perspectives and feelings, clashing together and generating new paths. The extreme situations and clever dialogues are of top notch. Foster (Jon Eyez) says – “Apes are much more dangerous than Human. They are not dependent on weapons, light or food. They are raw”.

You just love Caesar as ‘he’ predicts the future with human alike logic and takes bold steps to achieve it, even if it means to go against the entire Ape community. You don’t even hate Koba either for his extreme actions against humanity. Now, it’s his turn to take revenge and there is nothing wrong with it. The only mistake he made – he betrayed Caesar and all cards flipped wrong. It was a brilliant metaphor of showing Koba’s character as Human, not as an Ape.

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The Director, Matt Reeves, is at his best. He deserves a standing ovation for his super sharp nitty-gritty details of the subject, emotional and psychological drama, environment creation, integrating digital motion capture actions with real action shots and binding them all in one mesmerizing package to be remembered forever in the Hollywood Cinema. The current science fiction installment of the franchise is much more badass with hyper realistic CGI and emotional turmoil. There are tons of great directional cuts in the movie, but the best is – Koba appears with guns in front of Caesar in the climax tower fight – Koba just look like Human!

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The CGI and VFX is spell bounded. You just can’t believe the Apes are digital. Weta Digital had gone in the actual deep forest to recreate look and feel for the movie. To capture the running crowd sequences of Apes, they used about 50 Motion Capture Cameras and 8 standard high definition cameras. It’s a quantum leap in visual effects territory. With every movie, Weta is breaking it’s own benchmark and presenting breakthrough technologies for digital cinema. 

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Hats off to Andy Serkis! He is one of the strongest players along with the Director and VFX. Undoubtedly, he is the king of Motion Capture Acting. Andy lives the Caesar in his motion capture suit with all his exceptional details and emotions. He is ‘behind the camera’ great actor. With his surreal acting for CGI characters, he is literally changing the face of new age film-making. Serkis is the Human actor who does acting only through eyes to make you feel the feelings of an Ape !

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This motion picture will be hitting hard the Oscars 2015. The nominations can be – Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Actor (Andy Serkis – why not?). Please watch the movie in theater only. Caesar is not made for pirated DVD and small screen monitor / TV. You need a bigger canvas to get enthralled with this giant.

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‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ has blurred the red thin line between CG and Live Action Shooting. You just can’t believe you are watching some sort of animated characters. On technical excellence scale, this one stands the with VFX extravaganzas like Avatar, Life of Pi and Gravity.

Enjoy the rare and unique, official and fan made, movie posters and wallpapers:

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