《猩球崛起2》比《變形金剛4》強多了

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：黎明之戰》(Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)開始時，一段簡短的蒙太奇鏡頭向我們交代了《猩球崛起1》(Rise of the Planet of the Apes)之後的故事。對於觀衆們來說，時間過去了三年，而片中的各種靈長類動物們則度過了10年的時間。由於一種致命病毒，乃至通常會導致人類末日的妄自尊大，詹姆斯·弗蘭克(James Franco)和千百萬人類都已死去。經過了一段暴力與混亂的時期，人類倖存者們勉強組成了較爲穩定的社會，生活在舊金山的廢墟之中，由加里·奧德曼(Gary Oldman)領導。

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.

但影片的名字並不是“人球覆滅：黃昏之戰”。假如片子拍的還是一羣絕望的人在大災難前夕縮在一起，等着又一波殭屍、異形、機器人或者怪物攻擊的大場面，那就沒什麼意思了。片中真正讓人感興趣的事發生在破損的金門大橋另一側的馬林縣，在那裏，我們進化之路上的表親們正在建立自己的文明，他們仁慈的領導者名叫凱撒(Caesar)，是一個會直立行走的黑猩猩。和骯髒混亂的人類聚居地不同，猩猩們的營地是繁榮興旺的城邦，蓋起了獨特的木結構建築、馴養馬匹、發展出一種複雜的語言（主要是手語），還有自己的教育體系，由紅毛猩猩毛利斯(Maurice)負責，他性情溫和，一身古銅色毛髮，正是他爲第一部電影賦予了一絲額外的靈魂刺激。

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：黎明之戰》由馬特·裏夫斯(Matt Reeves)執導，裏克·傑法(Rick Jaffa)、阿曼達·斯爾沃(Amanda Silver)和馬克·鮑姆貝克(Mark Bomback)擔任編劇。這座紅木林中的叢林人猿雅典城邦是了不起的成就，也是影片極爲重要的部分，使其成爲今夏最好的大規模大製作商業系列片之一。退一萬步，說它“比《變形金剛4》(Transformers 4)強多了”，不算過分，就算再加個感嘆號也說不上是多高的讚美。但是和《變形金剛》裏的玩具破壞大場面不一樣，和2014年的《蜘蛛俠》(Spider-Man)、《X戰警》(X-Men)和《哥斯拉》(Godzilla)這些票房大片也不一樣，《猩球崛起2》不僅僅是把若干驚悚的動作戲、刺激觀衆的感情戲和隨隨便便的玩笑按照可預期的模式組合起來。的確，它在技術上很出色，情感方面也令人激動，但它還能令你深思，甚至會令你產生憂慮。

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.

先從猩猩們說起吧。片尾字幕由飾演凱撒的安迪·瑟金斯(Andy Serkis)領銜，這個角色繼續重新定義着數碼時代的銀幕表演。瑟金斯的面部表情與肢體語言令人產生共鳴，準確地傳達出言外之意，在他的表演藝術之外，是特效公司“維塔數碼”的精細工作。還有飾演毛利斯的卡琳·考諾娃(Karin Konova)、飾演凱撒的兒子“藍瞳”(Blue Eyes)的尼克·瑟斯頓(Nick Thurston)、飾演凱撒妻子科妮莉亞(Cornelia)的朱迪·格雷爾(Judy Greer)，他們的表演都非常逼真。此外還有科巴(Koba)，他一開始是凱撒的副官，最終與凱撒成爲死敵，託比·科貝爾(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.

科巴是科學實驗的倖存者，人類的殘酷行爲給他的身體與心靈都留下了傷痕。片中猩猩們遇到一個人類城市來的探險隊（由傑森·克拉克[Jason Clarke]和凱麗·拉塞爾[Keri Russell]率領），科巴馬上發出了警報。人類的能量即將用盡，想去修復猿類領土內的一個廢棄水電站，他們請凱撒給予協助。科巴警告說，人類是一個極度暴力、兩面三刀、掠奪成性的物種，如果無法避免，就要和他們展開戰爭。

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.

凱撒與弗蘭克與芙蕾達·平託(Freida Pinto)一起生活期間，曾見到過人性中慷慨溫和的一面，他願意假定我們人類是好的。有很多證據——電影內外都有——都支持科巴的觀點，但電影還是徑直走向了寬容與合作，也許有點過於多愁善感了。猿類與人類社會是兩條平行的原始父系社會（女性負責養育後代和憂慮，男性擔任領導工作，發動戰爭，這有點讓人失望，但算不上製片人想像力的驚人失敗），二者也面臨着同樣的分裂問題。科巴反對凱撒，同樣，克拉克飾演的角色馬爾科姆(Malcolm)也覺得自己和奧德曼飾演的德里弗斯(Dreyfus)意見愈來愈不一致，德里弗斯認爲猿類是致命的威脅，要用極度的殘忍手段來對付它們。

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.

這些爭執在本質上是關於是否應當只在族羣內部保持團結，還是應當與其他族羣合作，它爲《猩球崛起2：黎明之戰》賦予了精彩的寓言色彩。老版的《人猿星球》電影在20世紀六七十年代曾經震撼人們的心靈，闖入許多孩子們的噩夢（包括《廣告狂人》[Mad Men]第六季中的小鮑比·德雷珀[Bobby Draper]），如今這個系列又來到一個充滿種族衝突、生態焦慮的時代，很多人覺得社會就要崩潰。自上世紀六七十年代以來，電影特效技術從橡膠面具發展到數碼塑形，而我們的憂慮與願望也發生了變化，這一切令《猩球崛起》系列變得不那麼抽象，而是更加貼近當下，帶給人強烈的衝擊。

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》在大災難的陰影下仍然留出了生機勃勃的一線希望，這有部分是由影片本身的獨創性激發出來的；但是，儘管影片題爲“黎明”，片中仍然描繪出一幅陰暗、驚悚的未來景象。與此同時，它也呈現出莊嚴肅穆之美，邁克爾·吉亞奇諾(Michael Giacchino)充滿野性而又微妙的配樂，以及邁克爾·賽瑞辛(Michael Seresin)鏡頭中濃郁翠綠的陰影都爲之增色。導演裏夫斯在視覺的細節方面非常敏感，也擅長表現角色之間不用口頭語言進行的長篇大論，通過數碼手段和其他方式去強化它們。柯蒂·斯密特·麥菲(Kodi Smit-McPhee)在片中飾演拉塞爾正值青春期的兒子，兩人在有限的戲份中表現非常精彩。片中充滿簡短難忘的時刻，猿類和人類雙方都有個性鮮明的角色。

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.

換言之，這是一部令人滿意的電影，也是好萊塢主流大片仍然能夠取得成功的例證——雖然近期以來這樣的例子少得令人沮喪。這種“崛起”類型的大片總算有了長進，至少《黎明之戰》讓人感覺，許多關於未來世界的大片可以讓希望與恐懼共存——假如文明屆時還沒有完全崩潰的話。

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

《猩球崛起：黎明之戰》被標記爲PG-13級（強烈建議家長指導觀看）。有和動物相關的殘忍場面。