There’s a world out there in which the original title of Rise Of The Apes was used for the predecessor to this Planet Of The Apes reboot instead of shoe-horning in a franchise notifying extra three words and my life would be bliss…
Written by Michael Moreci
Illustrated by Dan McDaid
WHY WE LOVE IT: BOOM! has a long history with Planet of the Apes and for good reason: We love those damn dirty apes. Serving as a perfect tableau to examine society’s ills through the lens of science fiction, we were thrilled to explore those themes in the modern setting of the new films.WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT: Michael Moreci (Curse, Hoax Hunters) and Dan McDaid (Mind the Gap) bring the hard-bitten world of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to life—dealing with both classic and modern POTA questions of what the true meaning of “society” is, and if being “civilized” is even possible in a world wracked with strife. Great for fans of end-of-the-world stories like 12 Monkeys, The Road, and Children of Men.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Bridging the 10-year gap between the Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes films, fans will bear witness to the fall of humanity and the rise of Caesar’s civilization. While the apes of the world have yet to advance as a species, Caesar must find a way to unify them to one cause. On the other side of the country, Malcom must venture into the decaying Americas with his family to find a cure for the plague slowly killing his wife, Rita. World powers will shift as civilizations collapse and rise.
I’m not really a end of year top ten list kind of a person to be honest, but I think I would have to say that if I had to choose my top film of 2014, it would probably be Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. Despite the unwieldy title, the film turned out to be a surprisingly insightful and, dare I say it, powerful sequel to the rather surprisingly well made, but equally overcompensating in the title department, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. And I would put that all down to one man: Andy Serkis. Serkis managed to put in the performance of a lifetime as the ape leader, Caeser, bringing emotion and heart to a character who was, ostensibly, not human and who, for more of the film, didn’t speak.
Now, if you’re like me and you enjoyed Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes then I am here to tell you that there is no reason for you to miss Boom! Studio’s recently released tie-in comic from Michael Moreci and Dan McDaid. For those of you who remember, there was a ten year gap between Rise and Dawn where a bunch of stuff happened and Moreci and McDaid’s story takes place about three years into that gap. The story itself follows in part Malcolm, the character played by Jason Clarke in Dawn, and his family as they look for a safe haven as well as following Caeser as he begins forming a society for the apes who follow him.
One of the things that made Dawn the film stand out was the stark direction and cinematography throughout the film that created a sense of desolation and unease. The comic, obviously, isn’t at that point yet as it isn’t as far along after the end of civilisation, but Dan McDaid’s artwork captures a semblance of that as we see a world slip into barbarism. His work is harsh and murky, with heavy shadows and detail obscured by thick inks in favour of highlighting only certain details in the panels. One detail I really appreciated was McDaid’s ability to capture Jason Clarke in the way he drew the character of Malcolm. It’s a little thing, but seeing the character in the comic and recognising that the artist went out of their way to make them look like the actor was a nice touch.
This is all helped greatly by the colours from Jason Wordie who uses a rather muted colour palette to wash out the colours and bring that murky feeling to the fore. In the grand scheme of things, it stands as a nice medium between Rise, which was a rather bright and vibrant film, and Dawn, which was washed out and muted and a blue tone throughout most of the film. Wordie’s colours sit in a nice middle ground between the two as he uses earthy and warm tones, but muted to keep in line with the apocalyptic tones of the latter film.
Continued belowNow, if you’re wondering if I’ve been focusing on the human side of the story more than the apes, then… you’re right. I have. And that’s because, while the human side of the story, from Moreci’s writing to McDaid and Wordie’s art, accurately captured the feel of the human story of Dawn, there’s just something missing from the ape side of the story in the comic. What really made the portions of the film focusing on the apes special is that eschewed holding the audiences hand and had extended scenes without dialogues where motion-captured (read: not “real”) apes communicate with sign language instead of dialogue. It was a very un-blockbuster move and brought a lot of, dare I say it, artistic merit to the film in its direction and performances.
The sad fact is that there was no real way to capture that in a comic unless you copy David Aja’s sign language art from “Hawkeye”. Moreci and McDaid, to their credit, do bring as much heart to the ape scenes as they do the human scenes and there is a very neat lettering trick to denote the apes’ use of sign language, but there just wasn’t a way to capture what made it special in the film on the page. Perhaps they’ll manage it in later issues, but in this issue I would say that it’s actually the human story that overpowers the apes.
Overall, I would still stand by saying that if you’re a fan of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes then there is no reason for you to miss this comic. For one thing, Dan McDaid’s art is spectacular and for another, Moreci’s writing captres the stark, harsh introspective humanity of the film as it looks at what must be lost for civilisation to be built. Like I said, the only real thing that brings it down as it couldn’t really capture the sense of awe from watching such intricately created cgi characters communicate without dialogue, but it’s really not fair to hold that against it. Still worth checking out, but if you’re not a fan of the films then there might not be much here for you. It is a licensed comic, though, so you could probably work that one out for yourself.
Final Verdict: 6.9 – Worth checking out if you were a fan of the film, but if you didn’t see it then there’s no real reason to rush out and check this one out.
