《猩球崛起2》比《变形金刚4》强多了

A quick montage at the beginning of “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” fills us in on what has happened since “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Three years have gone by for us in the audience, and about a decade for the assorted primates on the screen. James Franco and millions of other people are dead, victims of a lethal virus and the usual apocalypse-causing diSease of hubris. After a period of violence and chaos, the survivors have cobbled together a reasonably stable society in the ruins of San Francisco, with Gary Oldman in charge.

《猩球崛起2：黎明之战》(Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)开始时，一段简短的蒙太奇镜头向我们交代了《猩球崛起1》(Rise of the Planet of the Apes)之后的故事。对于观众们来说，时间过去了三年，而片中的各种灵长类动物们则度过了10年的时间。由于一种致命病毒，乃至通常会导致人类末日的妄自尊大，詹姆斯·弗兰克(James Franco)和千百万人类都已死去。经过了一段暴力与混乱的时期，人类幸存者们勉强组成了较为稳定的社会，生活在旧金山的废墟之中，由加里·奥德曼(Gary Oldman)领导。

But this is not “Dusk of the Planet of the Humans.” The spectacle of yet another desperate population, huddled together in the wake of catastrophe to await the next zombie, alien, robot or monster attack, would be unlikely to inspire much excitement. The real interest lies across the battered Golden Gate Bridge, in Marin County, where our evolutionary cousins, under the benevolent guidance of an upright-walking chimpanzee named Caesar, have built their own civilization. In contrast to the bedraggled human colony, the ape encampment is a thriving city-state with distinctive wooden architecture, domesticated horses, a sophisticated (mostly signed) language and an educational system overseen by Maurice, the gentle, copper-furred orangutan who gave the first movie an extra fillip of soul.

但影片的名字并不是“人球覆灭：黄昏之战”。假如片子拍的还是一群绝望的人在大灾难前夕缩在一起，等着又一波僵尸、异形、机器人或者怪物攻击的大场面，那就没什么意思了。片中真正让人感兴趣的事发生在破损的金门大桥另一侧的马林县，在那里，我们进化之路上的表亲们正在建立自己的文明，他们仁慈的领导者名叫凯撒(Caesar)，是一个会直立行走的黑猩猩。和肮脏混乱的人类聚居地不同，猩猩们的营地是繁荣兴旺的城邦，盖起了独特的木结构建筑、驯养马匹、发展出一种复杂的语言（主要是手语），还有自己的教育体系，由红毛猩猩毛利斯(Maurice)负责，他性情温和，一身古铜色毛发，正是他为第一部电影赋予了一丝额外的灵魂刺激。

The sylvan, simian Athens in the Muir Woods is a remarkable achievement and an important part of what makes “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” directed by Matt Reeves from a script by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Mark Bomback, the best of this summer’s large-scale, big-studio franchise movies. Granted, this isn’t a very high bar to clear: “better than ‘Transformers 4’ ” barely counts as praise, even with an exclamation mark. But unlike that toy-smashing extravaganza — and unlike 2014’s visitations from the “Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and “Godzilla” money trains — “Dawn” is more than a bunch of occasionally thrilling action sequences, emotional gut punches and throwaway jokes arranged in predictable sequence. It is technically impressive and viscerally exciting, for sure, but it also gives you a lot to think, and even to care, about.

《猩球崛起2：黎明之战》由马特·里夫斯(Matt Reeves)执导，里克·杰法(Rick Jaffa)、阿曼达·斯尔沃(Amanda Silver)和马克·鲍姆贝克(Mark Bomback)担任编剧。这座红木林中的丛林人猿雅典城邦是了不起的成就，也是影片极为重要的部分，使其成为今夏最好的大规模大制作商业系列片之一。退一万步，说它“比《变形金刚4》(Transformers 4)强多了”，不算过分，就算再加个感叹号也说不上是多高的赞美。但是和《变形金刚》里的玩具破坏大场面不一样，和2014年的《蜘蛛侠》(Spider-Man)、《X战警》(X-Men)和《哥斯拉》(Godzilla)这些票房大片也不一样，《猩球崛起2》不仅仅是把若干惊悚的动作戏、刺激观众的感情戏和随随便便的玩笑按照可预期的模式组合起来。的确，它在技术上很出色，情感方面也令人激动，但它还能令你深思，甚至会令你产生忧虑。

Starting with the apes themselves. In the final credits, Andy Serkis receives top billing for his performance as Caesar, a role that continues to redefine screen acting in the digital age. His facial expressions and body language are so evocatively and precisely rendered that it is impossible to say where his art ends and the exquisite artifice of Weta Digital, the special-effects company, begins. The same is true of the other main ape performers: Karin Konoval (Maurice); Nick Thurston (Caesar’s son Blue Eyes); Judy Greer (Caesar’s wife, Cornelia); and especially Toby Kebbell as Koba, Caesar’s lieutenant and eventual nemesis.

先从猩猩们说起吧。片尾字幕由饰演凯撒的安迪·瑟金斯(Andy Serkis)领衔，这个角色继续重新定义着数码时代的银幕表演。瑟金斯的面部表情与肢体语言令人产生共鸣，准确地传达出言外之意，在他的表演艺术之外，是特效公司“维塔数码”的精细工作。还有饰演毛利斯的卡琳·考诺娃(Karin Konova)、饰演凯撒的儿子“蓝瞳”(Blue Eyes)的尼克·瑟斯顿(Nick Thurston)、饰演凯撒妻子科妮莉亚(Cornelia)的朱迪·格雷尔(Judy Greer)，他们的表演都非常逼真。此外还有科巴(Koba)，他一开始是凯撒的副官，最终与凯撒成为死敌，托比·科贝尔(Toby Kebbell)的表演格外精彩。

Koba, a survivor of scientific experiments, bears the physical and moral scars of human cruelty. When the apes encounter a scouting party from the city (led by Jason Clarke and Keri Russell), Koba is quick to sound the alarm. The humans, about to run out of fuel, want to restore an abandoned hydroelectric station in ape territory, and they ask Caesar for help. Koba warns that people are a violent, duplicitous, predatory species that should be fought if it can’t be avoided.

科巴是科学实验的幸存者，人类的残酷行为给他的身体与心灵都留下了伤痕。片中猩猩们遇到一个人类城市来的探险队（由杰森·克拉克[Jason Clarke]和凯丽·拉塞尔[Keri Russell]率领），科巴马上发出了警报。人类的能量即将用尽，想去修复猿类领土内的一个废弃水电站，他们请凯撒给予协助。科巴警告说，人类是一个极度暴力、两面三刀、掠夺成性的物种，如果无法避免，就要和他们展开战争。

Caesar, who saw the generous, tender side of humanity when he was hanging out with Mr. Franco and Freida Pinto, is willing to give our kind the benefit of the doubt. There is plenty of evidence — both in the movie and beyond it — to support Koba’s view, but the film comes down squarely, and maybe a little too squishily, on the side of tolerance and cooperation. The ape and human societies are parallel primitive patriarchies (women nurture and worry, while men lead and fight, a disappointing but hardly surprising failure of imagination on the filmmakers’ part), and they are threatened by symmetrical schisms. As Koba opposes Caesar, so does Malcolm (Mr. Clarke’s character) find himself increasingly at odds with Dreyfus (Mr. Oldman), who sees the apes as a mortal threat to be confronted with maximum brutality.

凯撒与弗兰克与芙蕾达·平托(Freida Pinto)一起生活期间，曾见到过人性中慷慨温和的一面，他愿意假定我们人类是好的。有很多证据——电影内外都有——都支持科巴的观点，但电影还是径直走向了宽容与合作，也许有点过于多愁善感了。猿类与人类社会是两条平行的原始父系社会（女性负责养育后代和忧虑，男性担任领导工作，发动战争，这有点让人失望，但算不上制片人想像力的惊人失败），二者也面临着同样的分裂问题。科巴反对凯撒，同样，克拉克饰演的角色马尔科姆(Malcolm)也觉得自己和奥德曼饰演的德里弗斯(Dreyfus)意见愈来愈不一致，德里弗斯认为猿类是致命的威胁，要用极度的残忍手段来对付它们。

The arguments — in essence, about whether the boundaries of solidarity should stay within the tribe or extend beyond it — give “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” a nice allegorical heft. The old movies, which blew the minds and troubled the sleep of many children in the ’60s and ’70s (including young Bobby Draper in Season 6 of “Mad Men”), arrived at a time of racial conflict, ecological anxiety and a general sense of social breakdown. Since then, cinematic technology has evolved from rubber masks to digital sculpture, and our fears and aspirations have mutated, too, making “Planet of the Apes” a less abstract, more hauntingly immediate story.

这些争执在本质上是关于是否应当只在族群内部保持团结，还是应当与其他族群合作，它为《猩球崛起2：黎明之战》赋予了精彩的寓言色彩。老版的《人猿星球》电影在20世纪六七十年代曾经震撼人们的心灵，闯入许多孩子们的噩梦（包括《广告狂人》[Mad Men]第六季中的小鲍比·德雷珀[Bobby Draper]），如今这个系列又来到一个充满种族冲突、生态焦虑的时代，很多人觉得社会就要崩溃。自上世纪六七十年代以来，电影特效技术从橡胶面具发展到数码塑形，而我们的忧虑与愿望也发生了变化，这一切令《猩球崛起》系列变得不那么抽象，而是更加贴近当下，带给人强烈的冲击。

And while “Rise” found room for exuberance in the shadow of catastrophe — partly because it seemed so justifiably excited by its own ingenuity — “Dawn,” its title notwithstanding, paints a darker, scarier picture of the future. It also has a grave, brooding beauty, intensified by Michael Giacchino’s wild and subtle score and by the deep, verdant shadows of Michael Seresin’s cinematography. Mr. Reeves has a fine sense of visual detail and also of the eloquence of nonverbal exchanges between characters, digitally enhanced and otherwise. (Ms. Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee, as her adolescent son, do especially graceful work in limited roles.) The film is full of small, memorable moments and crowded with distinctive personalities on both sides of the ape-human divide.

《猩球崛起》在大灾难的阴影下仍然留出了生机勃勃的一线希望，这有部分是由影片本身的独创性激发出来的；但是，尽管影片题为“黎明”，片中仍然描绘出一幅阴暗、惊悚的未来景象。与此同时，它也呈现出庄严肃穆之美，迈克尔·吉亚奇诺(Michael Giacchino)充满野性而又微妙的配乐，以及迈克尔·赛瑞辛(Michael Seresin)镜头中浓郁翠绿的阴影都为之增色。导演里夫斯在视觉的细节方面非常敏感，也擅长表现角色之间不用口头语言进行的长篇大论，通过数码手段和其他方式去强化它们。柯蒂·斯密特·麦菲(Kodi Smit-McPhee)在片中饰演拉塞尔正值青春期的儿子，两人在有限的戏份中表现非常精彩。片中充满简短难忘的时刻，猿类和人类双方都有个性鲜明的角色。

In other words, it’s a satisfying movie and an example — a dispiritingly rare one these days — of what mainstream Hollywood filmmaking can still achieve. That we have progressed from “Rise” only as far as “Dawn” suggests many future sequels, which may, in this case, be a source of hope as well as dread, provided that civilization doesn’t collapse in the meantime.

换言之，这是一部令人满意的电影，也是好莱坞主流大片仍然能够取得成功的例证——虽然近期以来这样的例子少得令人沮丧。这种“崛起”类型的大片总算有了长进，至少《黎明之战》让人感觉，许多关于未来世界的大片可以让希望与恐惧共存——假如文明届时还没有完全崩溃的话。

“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Animal cruelty.

《猩球崛起：黎明之战》被标记为PG-13级（强烈建议家长指导观看）。有和动物相关的残忍场面。