Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Post-release)

[AJTaliesen]

Re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I like that they are making these. It's the one rare time where I felt that a reboot was called for.

When discussing originals, I think most people aren't even aware that there were 5 of them. I think this forum is the only place I've ever found anyone other than myself who even knew there was a part 5, let alone saw it. It seemed to have no budget. It was like they made a movie with whoever was hanging around at the time.

If you can get past the "are they really doing a battle sequence with a dozen people and a bus?" aspect of it, part 5 was a movie I actually really enjoyed. There was a solid story there trying to peek out from the total lack of interest the studio had in the films existence. I'm glad to see that story finally being told with more investment.

I can accept that it's got to change a bunch. The crossover storyline between 2 and 3 in the original was so obviously not pre planned, and part 3 itself was just another "let's put the puppets/alliens/talking animals/smurfs in modern America! it'll be hoot!" films. Not to mention the heavy handed/uncomfortably racist Watts riot comparisons from 4....You really have to make a few real changes if you're going to tell the rise story in a serious way.

I'm looking forward to it.

edit: and I just now found out that they're all available on itunes. I know what I'm watching this week.

 

[Fly4v]

Re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I like that they are making these. ...Watts riot comparisons.

All excellent points.
With the Watts riots remakes coming out how long before we get a Blue Thunder remake.
Aerial crowd control combined with NSA spying and drones, welcome to the 21st century.

 

[Father]

Re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

All excellent points.
how long before we get a Blue Thunder remake. Aerial crowd control combined with NSA spying and drones, welcome to the 21st century.

Ooh... I'd welcome a GOOD Blue Thunder remake. The original was ok. Nothing spectacular. but fun and the helicopter was neat for it's day.

 

[Zombie_61]

Re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

...When discussing originals, I think most people aren't even aware that there were 5 of them. I think this forum is the only place I've ever found anyone other than myself who even knew there was a part 5, let alone saw it. It seemed to have no budget. It was like they made a movie with whoever was hanging around at the time.

In my opinion that's the major flaw with the original five movies--20th Century Fox demanding sequels, but diminishing the budgets. The budget for the first movie was approximately $5,800,000; by the time they made Battle five years later the budget was down to approximately $1,800,000, and it shows.

 

[Wes R]

Re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I agree Fox kept wanting more and more but would pay less and less. Honestly the fan based stories, which i think some is now canon, taking place at the time of Battle is better than all the scripts after Beneath. It covers how the doomsday bomb got to NY and a ton more.

 

[cayman shen]

Re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

94% at RT. The reviews are practically gushing. I can't help it; I'm hyped!

 

[Father]

Re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

94% at RT. The reviews are practically gushing. I can't help it; I'm hyped!

I think that worries me more than excites me.
1. Higher expectations is almost a guarteed disappointment.
2. Depending on which critics are "gushing" will either mean people who actually have standards are loving it and it'll be awesome or people that applaud movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are loving it and it's going to suck hard.

I'm going to go in expecting a typical sequel to a good movie. We'll see how that works for me.

 

[BlobVanDam]

I thought the movie came out on Thursday here, but then last night I find out it's Wednesday! So of course I had to see it today!

(no spoilers)

I was very impressed with the movie, and it lived up to my expectations.
It focused a lot more on the apes than I expected, with the ape drama carrying the movie moreso than the human drama, but of course a lot of it was interaction between the two, and you could sympathize would both sides trying to do what was right for their own survival.
It was refreshing seeing a movie that felt it could rely so heavily on CGI non-human characters, and it did it damn well. The CGI apes looked great, and a lot of the time you'd forget they weren't real, because it sold it well, interacting seamlessly with the human characters and environments. They spent a lot of time from the start establishing the ape characters and their society, which instantly showed you that these were developed characters of the story, not just a ton of apes ready to break stuff. This was a great example of CGI done right.

As I expected, the movie very much parallels Battle for the Planet of the Apes, except done properly with a budget, and without wrapping things up all neatly as Battle did. It maintains the tone of the last movie, but I think it's definitely better. I give it 9 out of 10 chimps.

 

[Vivek]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a powerful and worthy sequel.

One of the biggest strengths of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is its invoking sense of realism which results in an immersive experience.

The visuals effects by Weta Digital in the movie are so great and seamless that one would forget they are CGI apes and early on it pretty much gets taken for granted that they are inhabiting the world.

Leading the charge is Andy Serkis as Caesar. He has many moments of verbal dialogue and sign language (shown with subtitles), but even during scenes where he doesn't even speak a word he is able to display such range of emotions, it's a fine example of his staggering performance. His collaboration with the visual effects team along with the rest of the performance capture team is leaps ahead of the first film.

Michael Giacchino has given the movie an audacious musical score and I look foward to listening to the whole score when it gets released.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a much darker film than Rise of the Planet of the Apes. And it doesn't really have any lighthearted moments. The movie demands your attention and it's gripping till the end as the events unfold.

 

[Shadow345]

Well folks, Shadow345's favorite simian themed sci-fi franchise of all time has yet another installment. But does it live up to standards? Sure enough, it does pretty well. With a solid story and great performance from motion capture actor Andy Serkis.

It was more of a slow burn than I was expecting, but the end story was satisfying.

CGI is well done, and is the kind of quality CGI where I had a hard time making out if some parts were done with prosthetics, which is exactly what you want from digital effects. Not to dazzle, but to convince you of the ape character's existence.

 

[Clutch]

I enjoyed it. It slowed down toward the end which didn't seem right but overall I thought it was a very good movie.

 

[GF]

I enjoyed it very much great movie!

Gerardo

 

[cayman shen]

Excellent movie. I don't feel let down by the hype at all. I was a LITTLE taken out of it by the Donkey Kong gags though...I'll let you find them yourself if you missed them! I really feel like this is how a blockbuster should be: intelligent, moving, AND full of spectacle/explosions/etc. Lots of gorgeous shots, and Andy Serkis should be paving his garden with Oscars by now. Fantastic. By the way, the book the kid was reading was Black Hole, and it's awesome. If you don't know it, check it out!

Four thumbs up. Bring on part 3! After two well-crafted movies, I'm all in.

Also, I will never complain about CG again. Outstanding fx work. You forget you're not watching real apes 99% of the time.

 

[JD]

loved RotPotA and this had both Matt Reeves (I liked Cloverleaf and Let Me In) and Gary Oldman going for it. I avoided spoilers and didn't read the reviews - but, I saw that this was getting rave reviews. This seemed to be a no-brainer (at least) above-average flick.

But... this just stayed at average and never really peaked and just dragged. It wasn't terrible, but I found the pace was just terribly slow and dragged on.... with that, it also seemed long. This movie had all the ingredients to be great, but just never went to that level for me.

Some spoilery talk here. I know it's been 12 years since the first movie... but, there were too many talking apes in this one. I know at some point that evolution/mutation has to happen - but the jump from one syllable Caesar to ape conversation seemed to be more than a bit much in that time frame. I also realize that this apes are "enhanced" but even that doesn't seem to rationally explain the talking and their ability to use and aim gums reasonably well -- especially one shot Koba. Speaking of Koba.... sigh, did we really need the cliche return of Caesar? His death and the "rise of the Planet of the Apes" seemed perfectly timed (and shocked me), his return just seemed like lazy storytelling.

 

[crabra comander]

Ha...The movie was awesome. I guess one monkey can stop a show!:lol Yeah, I know, Apes...

Awesome scenes. Awesome cinematography. Not just pretty without a purpose either. I thought it was quite fitting when Koba climbed on top of the US flag pole in tatters. And the scene with the ATV turret was perfection!

 

[comonbub]

This movie was awesome. It paralleled lion king in a way if you think about it and the CGI was flawless. Cannot wait for the 3rd. I bet you the astronauts from the mars mission will come back at some point since that was hinted in the 1st one.

 

[cayman shen]

This movie was awesome. It paralleled lion king in a way.

They're both more or less based on Shakespeare, right?

 

[BlobVanDam]

This movie was awesome. It paralleled lion king in a way if you think about it and the CGI was flawless. Cannot wait for the 3rd. I bet you the astronauts from the mars mission will come back at some point since that was hinted in the 1st one.

Which could bring it back full circle to a somewhat remake of the first movie, since Rise was a loose remake of Conquest, and Dawn is a loose remake of Battle. Or they could continue with the battle between the apes and humans, with the astronauts signaling some turning point.
Based upon the strength of these two movies, I have faith it will be great whatever it is.

 

[nitrox]

I thought it was fantastic.

 

[comonbub]

They're both more or less based on Shakespeare, right?

Meant the whole Mufasa and Scar thing...Ceasar being Mufasa and Koba as Scar...Motives were the same except Mufasa lived in this one.