Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Matt Reeves’s 130 minute film picks up ten years after the epidemic: the ape community in the forest and the humans holding the city make contact over a hydroelectric dam. The opening catches anyone expecting a summer blockbuster off guard. Barely a word of English is spoken in the first stretch; the apes sign to each other and the audience reads subtitles. Caesar’s speech is deliberately rationed so each sentence lands hard, but a viewer who wants tension carried by dialogue will be watching body language for a long time. The technical leap sits in the same place. Where the previous film limited outdoor performance capture largely to the Golden Gate Bridge sequence, this one was shot mostly outside. Weta Digital rebuilt the markers as brighter LEDs set in flexible silicone, made the rigs portable, and used up to forty capture cameras depending on the scene, so rain, mud and a forest at night stopped being obstacles. Production began in April 2013 at Campbell River in British Columbia, moved to New Orleans in May, and used the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans park as a location. Rupert Wyatt had left over scheduling and Reeves replaced him. Not for you if you need one side to be right: each community contains someone opposed to peace.