Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

ardmacha

I have attended this film, in Asia. Not one of the all time great films, but worth the €3.20 I paid, and worth the Irish price too. Some of the minor premises in the plot are hard to believe, but then the whole thing requires some suspension of belief.

cloud493

nix wrote: »

Aye I've heard it is, or so the rumours are anyway..

It was.

doubledown

Just back from The Savoy.

Loved it. Even better than its predecessor. It gets off to a slow start but pays off later. Forgot I was watching CG apes and just became engrossed in the story. Highly recommended.

ancapailldorcha

Very taken with this. Shame they went with 3D though. Added absolutely nothing to the film.

e_e

It was fine, there really is no poor element to the film but save for an outstanding 360 degree long take it truly lacked wow moments for me. The drama is slightly crippled by a real sense of inevitability and franchise lip service, only feeling like a baby step forward rather than the leap in story and technology that was the original. The film just doesn't move all that much.

A small disclaimer though: Saw it in Cineworld and there was a number of factors that prevented me from enjoying it more (crappy 3D, being far back from the screen, people constantly looking at their phones and rustling bags). I might get more into it when I rewatch at home but for now not up there with my favorites of this summer (HTTYD 2, X-Men and Edge of Tomorrow).

BlitzKrieg

e_e wrote: »

It was fine, there really is no poor element to the film but save for an outstanding 360 degree long take it truly lacked wow moments for me. The drama is slightly crippled by a real sense of inevitability and franchise lip service, only feeling like a baby step forward rather than the leap in story and technology that was the original. The film just doesn't move all that much.

A small disclaimer though: Saw it in Cineworld and there was a number of factors that prevented me from enjoying it more (crappy 3D, being far back from the screen, people constantly looking at their phones and rustling bags). I might get more into it when I rewatch at home but for now not up there with my favorites of this summer (HTTYD 2, X-Men and Edge of Tomorrow).

yeah we had similar issues

loved the movie, but we had so many people arriving late and a really bitchy girl beside us who was clearly upset that the secret movie was apes and not 50 shades of grey and was complaining throughout the movie.

Will see it again in 2D. happy to see that two of the three movies I hoped to be good have been good. Now only need guardian of the galaxies to pull through and I win this year's blockbuster pot.

revileandy

Good solid movie, very enjoyable & tense - an improvement on the previous outing.

As previously mentioned, the 3D was pathetic - aparrently the movie was filmed 85% in Native 3d!

maximoose

Caught it last night in Cineworld also, wasn't expecting much but I really enjoyed it! Story was good, some great tense scenes and the CGI was great.

As others have said, the 3D was completely pointless. Added nothing, the only time I recall seeing anything that looked like 3D was a couple of embers from a flame popping out from the screen. Hurry up Hollywood and get over this **** obsession.

Not too familiar with the franchise at all, and haven't seen "Rise of the..." but I'm definitely going to give it a go now, would like to see Caesar's story.

(It happens to be on Channel 4 this sat at 9pm for anyone else wanting to watch it!)

ricero

fantastic movie it surpasses rise of the apes which i thought would be hard

krudler

Easily the best blockbuster of the year so far, hope it does really well at the box office. See Michael Bay, it is possible to write CGI characters as more than just a distraction. The main apes all have something to do, are given character arcs and moments and you genuinely get invested in them.

Speaking of the CGI, while it falters on some things like the deer near the beginning, the work on Caesar and the other apes is absolutely breathtaking at times. You completely forget you're watching motion captured actors interact and I loved how much time the apes are given to be onscreen together with no human interaction just talking amongst themselves.

It does go down the usual route of having the third act action setpiece (although not quite what the poster promises) but it feels like a natural conclusion not just tacked on for the sake of it, there's consequences to everything going on and it's all the better for it.

BlitzKrieg

To those that saw it anyone know what happened to this: http://youtu.be/DpSaTrW4leg?t=1m51s

I sat right til the end of the credits and I never saw this ship, I thought it might have been right at the end or something. But it never showed.

fitz

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

To those that saw it anyone know what happened to this: http://youtu.be/DpSaTrW4leg?t=1m51s

I sat right til the end of the credits and I never saw this ship, I thought it might have been right at the end or something. But it never showed.

I did a quick search online during the credits when I went to see it last night to check if there was a post credits scene.
Apparantly, the director decided to cut the scene you're talking about, as he didn't want the next movie to be boxed in by it.

What a great movie.
An absolute lesson in what a blockbuster can be when you focus on character, not just action.
Can't wait for the next one.

expectationlost

good film, good story, a worthy sucessor to the franchise, better than the first, and plausible place to go from

the apes started it

Looper007

Just wow haven't been this entertained by a blockbuster since The Dark Knight, just wonderful from start to finish.

First off praise must go to Matt Reeves and the writers of the film to show that you don't have to dumb down things ( Looking at you Michael Bay) to entertain the blockbuster crowd. My one fault with the film, which Mark Kermode bought up, the underwriting of the female characters. Kerri Russell disappears near the end and isn't seen again, she does her best with what she's given. That's the only negative I have on this epic.

First off Andy Serkis as Caesar is even better second time around, wouldn't be surprised if he gets a few Award Noms for this performance. But he's almost overtaken by Toby Kebbell's amazing performance as Koba

At the start you understand his reasons for not trusting and wanting to start war but once that scene he kills the poor innocent ape by throwing him over the balcony for not wanting to kill the human, you get the most hateable Villain in a good while

this is a star making performance and worth the praise I hope comes his way. The human leads do good with what they are given, Jason Clarke is far more engaging then James Franco and Gary Oldman does shine through in his few moments especially the scene of him breaking down, he is Gary bloody Oldman.

It is a dark downbeat film that you could question bringing your kid to see it, I got some frights

The bear jumping out of nowhere in the opening action sequences. Koba killing the human in the truck and shooting the two other humans are pretty brutal, the killing of the young ape I already mentioned and the battle scenes are not easy to watch and Gary Oldman basically blown himself up

but the ending with that amazing line " You are Not Ape" is epic and the goosebumps as

Caesar stands tall once again even though you know where it's going

is downbeat but glorious ending to a great film.

Anyone a fan of great commercial cinema needs to get themselves to the nearest cinema to catch this amazing film.

titan18

That was fantastic. I think I prefer the first film as a film, but as a blockbuster, this is probably better.

Lamper.sffc

Seen it today. Brilliant from start to finish. Great to watch a film that takes the time to let you know and understand the characters which in turn makes you care about what will happen to them. So many so called blockbusters dont do this anymore. Cant wait to see it again.

johnny_ultimate

A bit of a mixed success.

It took me until

the humans showed up

to warm to it - frankly, the ape family melodrama was far too po-faced and faintly ridiculous for me to suspend my disbelief. Uncanny valley CGI didn't help. I did settle into the world after around ten-fifteen minutes, and adapted to the by-and-large deadly serious tone, the few gags aside (which were IMO a much needed acknowledgment of this franchise's fundamental absurdity). The story was well told and paced, with a tendency to take the easy route on occasion - entire scenes and payoffs could be predicted a very long time in advance, although a good solid momentum was maintained throughout. Shame the action finale was bog standard blockbuster fare, albeit with added apes.

I preferred it overall to Rise, however, although I wasn't all that fond of film (partially due, truth be told, to the deja vu having watched Project Nim a few days beforehand). This has a stronger setting and feels more urgent. Visually it's striking at times - nicely composed throughout with one or two strong 'show-off' long shots. I really liked the touch of

beginning with a zoom out and ending with a zoom in

- not only were they the two strongest technical showcases, but a very cinematic way of emhpasising Ceaser's journey and growth here. Generally, the Ceaser / Malcolm relationship worked very well, taking what I suppose are the main themes and conflicts of the franchise as a whole and exploring them in an intriguing way.

Outside that relationship, though, I felt the film suffered from an unwelcome surplus of characters. This meant the script - even by the standards of a film about a society of talking, intelligent apes - had a tendency to either oversimplify characters (a lot of cartoonishly good/bad apes and good/bad humans knocking around) or to effectively sideline or underdevelop potentially interesting ones (all the females, to take the most obvious example). Or take Oldman's character, who I personally felt wasn't granted enough screentime to really allow the big character beats to hit like they should - hard to feel the impact of an emotional scene when we haven't seen him for a good half hour or more. I guess it boils down to a lack of a strong central perspective - while the two main characters were handled well, it was the ultimately less interesting peripheral stuff Reeves kept cutting away to that for me anyway dragged it down. Purely down to personal preference, but I think a decision to stick with an ape or human perspective throughout could have been a really bold artistically and dramatically speaking. A lot of the major discoveries could have been a lot more effective if we hadn't had so heavy-handed exposition explicitly explaining pretty much everything and pre-empting every surprise.

And the score... At several points during the film, particularly the more 'emotional ones' - e.g. when characters burst into tears, which was an overly regular occurrence - I thought 'man, this sounds like someone trying and failing to rip off a typical Michael Giacchino score'. So I got a surprise when the end credits rolled and Michael Giacchino's name was there :pac: Some of the setpieces are well scored, but the 'emotive' piano bits are pretty appalling.

A solid film overall, and as far as I'm concerned an improvement over the last. Still think it's lacking that extra layer of artistry to make it something really special though.

Looper007

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

A bit of a mixed success.

A solid film overall, and as far as I'm concerned an improvement over the last. Still think it's lacking that extra layer of artistry to make it something really special though.

A solid film :eek: a bit of a mixed success :eek:
Sorry lacking a bit of artistry, that battle scene was one of most intense experiences in the cinema since the first 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, you felt every bit of it. Andy Serkis was out of this world as was Toby Kebbell, those performances are a thing of beauty. A smart and intelligent Blockbuster that actually isn't afraid to get it's hands dirty.

The only fault I saw with this movie was the female characters who were so underwritten they might as well not have been there.

barone

absolutely loved it,exceeds the first ,koba,superb..im going again

johnny_ultimate

Looper007 wrote: »

A solid film :eek: a bit of a mixed success :eek:
Sorry lacking a bit of artistry, that battle scene was one of most intense experiences in the cinema since the first 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, you felt every bit of it. Andy Serkis was out of this world as was Toby Kebbell, those performances are a thing of beauty. A smart and intelligent Blockbuster that actually isn't afraid to get it's hands dirty.

The only fault I saw with this movie was the female characters who were so underwritten they might as well not have been there.

And isn't it great that we can all have different responses to any given film

Would have liked to see the film get its hands dirtier, to be honest, there's an underlying darkness to the characters that I felt they only explored in a very careful and safe way. There are some exceptions, like the scene

where Koba shoots his first humans, which was surprisingly brutal.

The main battle scene was well put together, but one moment particularly -

Koba leaping through the fire

- was so cliched and ridiculous that I have to admit my immersion was shattered. Thankfully it was partially forgiven with that great rotation shot at the end of the sequence - that, a neat tracking shot a while later and the opening / closing shots made me wish Reeves and his DP had pushed some of the cinematography further elsewhere. There's some cool compositions throughout, but it's the moments when they really push the technology and camera that stand out above all.

johnny_ultimate

Also: enough Hollywood with these darn 'faux news coverage' prologues. This isn't the first blockbuster of the summer to have one, although I think it worked better with Edge of Tomorrow given that its lore was denser and the setting completely new.

Let the specifics of the setting emerge organically and over time: it's far more rewarding and engages the viewer more actively when they have to put the pieces together rather than being dealt an exposition bomb right at the start. Trust the audience to figure things out for themselves. Although I say that while probably giving test audiences too much credit

tomaussie

Went to see this yesterday having really enjoyed Rise. I thought I'd read what you guys thought as I respect the Boards opinion on the whole.

I thought it was awful. It just seemed cheesey and transparent after the first 15-20 minutes. I was so let down. I was laughing at a lot of it and just couldn't take it seriously. It's a pity because I was really hoping it would be good after seeing Rise.

krudler

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Also: enough Hollywood with these darn 'faux news coverage' prologues. This isn't the first blockbuster of the summer to have one, although I think it worked better with Edge of Tomorrow given that its lore was denser and the setting completely new.

Let the specifics of the setting emerge organically and over time: it's far more rewarding and engages the viewer more actively when they have to put the pieces together rather than being dealt an exposition bomb right at the start. Trust the audience to figure things out for themselves. Although I say that while probably giving test audiences too much credit

Test audiences are one of the biggest problems with modern hollywood, studios freaking out and asking for reshoots and stuff cos some soccer mom from middle America didn't understand a movie that isn't even aimed at her. There's a doc on netflix called Heckler that goes into it briefly and some of the responses on the cards returned by a test audience for some movie are horrifying.

OwaynOTT

krudler wrote: »

Test audiences are one of the biggest problems with modern hollywood, studios freaking out and asking for reshoots and stuff cos some soccer mom from middle America didn't understand a movie that isn't even aimed at her. There's a doc on netflix called Heckler that goes into it briefly and some of the responses on the cards returned by a test audience for some movie are horrifying.

I think the Simpsons episode with Mel Gibson showed the pitfalls of it.

candy-gal1

Loved this, very much going back to the start as a "planet of the apes" movie - Im kinda a noob to these kind of movies other than the Tim Burton one with Mark Wahlberg back in 2001 so any and all these movies are going to come across as great and different to me - was not dissapointed!

Mickeroo

Thought it was an outstanding film. I really enjoyed the first one and this builds on and surpasses it in every way.

Some of the human characters were a little under-used/developed but that's only really a very minor gripe. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it plays out quite differently to what the trailers I saw implied in that

Oldman's character is not the main antagonist at all.

It's a well told, character driven film made for adults that doesn't pander to the audience in terms of cheesy humour and wall to wall action, which is quite rare for a tent pole release these days. There's not really much action in the film and what is there is high stakes and well earned. There are so many films where you are completely numb to the explosions by the time the finale rolls around it was refreshing to watch a film that let the human/simian (:pac:) drama drive the story.

This tops Cap 2, X-Men and Edge of Tomorrow as the best time I've had at a big budget movie this year. If Guardians of the Galaxy turns out to be good it will round off what, in my opinion, has been one of the strongest years for block-buster cinema in quite a while.

Looper007

Mickeroo wrote: »

This tops Cap 2, X-Men and Edge of Tomorrow as the best time I've had at a big budget movie this year. If Guardians of the Galaxy turns out to be good it will round off what, in my opinion, has been one of the strongest years for block-buster cinema in quite a while.

It tops those films you mentioned for me cause it had a hateable villain

Toby Kebbell as Koba was excellent, the scene when he throws that poor young innocent ape over the balcony you just can't wait for Caesar to kick his ass

Fassbender in XMen was too cool and Peter Dinklage wasn't that great to be fair. Cap 2 you felt for the villain more in that but

Robert Redford

was a good villain.

But where this film wins out for me is it has one of the best heroic characters in Caesar, Andy Serkis really knocks it out of the park in this more so then in Rise. He's the heart of the film and who wasn't cheering in the end when

When he kicks Koba's ass and that awesome line "you are no ape" when he lets him go

.

One thing that bothered me not so much the film itself was it's rating, I would question bringing a young kid to see this, I saw a few in my screening. It had some right violent scenes

The battle scene when you see Apes burning and been murdered, anytime Koba kills someone especially the killing of the young ape is one of the more brutal killings in a Blockbuster movie I've seen

. It's amazing they got it a 12A, it's really pushing it.

maximoose

One thing that just came to mind yesterday as being a bit silly was

the c4 charges. The charges are set to level the entire tower, Oldman sets them off but the only thing that happens is some damage to the cranes at the top.. what the hell?

Mickeroo

maximoose wrote: »

One thing that just came to mind yesterday as being a bit silly was

the c4 charges. The charges are set to level the entire tower, Oldman sets them off but the only thing that happens is some damage to the cranes at the top.. what the hell?

Yeah I was thinking that myself, the only explanation I came up with was he was desperate and didn't really know what he was doing.

Also, looking back through the thread last night I am so glad I didn't watch that last trailer, can't believe it gave

koba gunning down the two men away like that

I was genuinely shocked by that scene and did not see it coming at all.

ancapailldorcha

maximoose wrote: »

One thing that just came to mind yesterday as being a bit silly was

the c4 charges. The charges are set to level the entire tower, Oldman sets them off but the only thing that happens is some damage to the cranes at the top.. what the hell?

I'm guessing that they lacked the expertise to do that properly.