Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

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.

Tom.D.BJJ

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?

They hadn't finished setting the charges.

Tom.D.BJJ

Saw this last night in Blanchardstown. The aircon was broken/being repaired/upgraded so it was hot and very uncomfortable. I think that took something away from the film, because although i really enjoyed it, i ddint love it.

Did they ever introduce Ceasars wife as Cornellia? Maurice was a strange name for an Orangutan.

Mickeroo

Tom.D.BJJ wrote: »

Did they ever introduce Ceasars wife as Cornellia? Maurice was a strange name for an Orangutan.

Dunno about the wife, but Maurice was given that name when he was in the circus I presume.

conorhal

Mickeroo wrote: »

Dunno about the wife, but Maurice was given that name when he was in the circus I presume.

I'd imagine he was named as a tribute Maurice Evans who played Dr. Zaus in the original film.

johnny_ultimate

I would totally watch a sequel to this with Maurice as the protagonist :pac: The real hero of these prequels!

ancapailldorcha

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I would totally watch a sequel to this with Maurice as the protagonist :pac: The real hero of these prequels!

I was so relieved when he didn't get killed by the falling debris.

Duggy747

I really enjoyed it, might be a bit biased because I love all things primate-related so I got a kick out of the really exceptional CGI (fell down in some places but was mostly great) and their mannerisms on show.

Had a few cliched moments and characters in it, knew pretty much immediately that Kirk Acevedo would be a spiteful character who would relentlessly hate the apes and probably cause problems. Keri Russell didn't have much to work with besides just shed a tear in about 4 or 5 scenes in a row and tell people not to do things because she's worried, the usual female blockbuster character.

Definitely my favourite blockbuster this year, not perfect but had some exceptional scenes and work from the likes of Serkis and Kebbell.

I liked how they didn't go the route with the humans starting the fight with the apes, that instead Kobas was being a sneaky shìt and wanted to enslave the humans for what they did to him. The trailers had painted Oldman as some type of evil antagonist hellbent on monkey destruction when he was a character with reasonable worries about the presence of them.

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?

They hadn't finished setting the charges, Oldman was forced to detonate with what little ones they had set up.

I ignored that last trailer from the warnings but watched it after I saw the film, can't believe just how much they showed and in sequence.

Akabusi

Seen this last night and was thought it was only average. I'd put Edge of tomorrow above this. While some of it was done well i thought

the way Koba shoots Ceaser was done very poorly. Koba is able to sneak into the Ape town and shoot Ceaser in front of all the other Apes with no other Ape seeing him and then say it was some mystery humans that vanish but leave there gun behind. Also the humans are able to leg it out of there and hide before emerging and carrying on down the mountain to stumble across the wounded Ceaser. He was shot in the middle of Ape town and fell into the middle of the forest

Also as stated already don't bother with the 3d

gucci

Went to see this on Saturday night.

I would put it in the “decent” category. I much preferred the first movie, as it had more of a sci-fi element to it, whereas this was all out blockbuster action right from the start, but that would be my personal taste.

To put it in the category of blockbuster action movie, it ticks every box both visually and action wise. The animation and movement is very impressive (surprising what a step up from the “Rise of” actually) . Great Sets and a superb Rivalry between good and evil of Caesar and Koba. It speaks volumes about the quality of the animation and the dynamics of the shooting that you can be gripped so well by characters with very basic dialogue and body language. Just my own two cents was

when the monkeys were fighting each other, they seemed to fight in a lot more of a human fashion, than an animal method e.g. Caesar choking Koba in the power plant

. But I will leave that gripe for someone who knows more about nature than me, or perhaps it was to show how they had evolved into more than animals.

The biggest gripe I had were typical of many action movies SPOILER

completely hammy actors and dialogue, as duggy mentioned the “I hate apes” guy etc, at times it felt like it was some sort of Terminator / Predator with Apes. The Apes really carry the movie! The doctor character was a typical action movie weeping widow, and the awkward but brave son was cringy too. Gary Oldman was not on camera enough to establish any kind of presence as to establish himself as his “Leader” role in the township. BTW I am not claiming the first one was acted exceptionally better (ie. The love story etc)

Also regarding the plot:

If the people in San Fran had generators etc for 10 winters, why had they not used the generator power to communicate with the greater world?

Overall I did enjoy it immensely, even with the above. I agree with the discussion about the ratings, it was pretty heavy at times for a 12a.

One little chuckle both myself and mrs Gucci had

when the baby monkey was being all cutesy for the doctor and the teenage son was we couldn’t help but both think it was a like a big screen ad/copy of the ads for McVittes Jaffa cakes!!

7/10

Mickeroo

gucci wrote: »

Also regarding the plot:

If the people in San Fran had generators etc for 10 winters, why had they not used the generator power to communicate with the greater world?

They weren't there for 10 years with power, going by what a lot of the characters say, and also the short films that were released, the coming together of those people into some sort of orderly society was a pretty recent development. Society had completely collapsed and the survivors are only just starting to pick up the pieces.

Hyzepher

But the fact remains that they had power before the dam generated electricity - why not use some to try and communicate before.

Mickeroo

Hyzepher wrote: »

But the fact remains that they had power before the dam generated electricity - why not use some to try and communicate before.

I guess

the power levels from the generators weren't enough.

krudler

Hyzepher wrote: »

But the fact remains that they had power before the dam generated electricity - why not use some to try and communicate before.

Maybe they did,

maybe nobody else had power to hear their radio broadcasts before now, or there wasn't enough range

DrumSteve

Probably my favourite film of the year... They should start throwing awards at Serkis/Kebill.

marklazarcovic

this is my fav movie of the year..if you liked the first id say you will love this

NinjaTruncs

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?

Those charges were never going to take down the build. They would need to be placed inside of the columns to even come close to taking down the building. So the result was fairly realistic, except for the fact that Malcolm survived it, no way was he walking out of that.

goob20s

how do i unhide spoilers. i dont mind readin them

Mickeroo

goob20s wrote: »

how do i unhide spoilers. i dont mind readin them

Just highlight the text.

goob20s

Mickeroo wrote: »

Just highlight the text.

cool thanks. You learn somethin new every day

smellmepower

Pretty average blockbuster really, the CGI for the apes was very good in fairness though.

cloud493

I liked it more than I expected. Coulda done with more bridge building scenes between the apes and the humans.

Frozenassets

I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars, good movie. Don't understand the hype though.

death1234567

Poorly acted and about 45 mins too long. Also there was too much tacked on emotional scenes that were completely unnecessary and added nothing to the movie. The sad thing is this is about as good as Hollywood can do now given that every other film is a crap comic book knock off.

Alfred Borden

Very enjoyable film. Have to go see the first now but film of the year for me so far.

OU812

Not loving the reboots. Much prefer the originals.

A Greedy Algorithm

Overrated. Just another action movie with a predictable plot.

the_monkey

I have to say I was a little dissapointed, I loved the 2011 one, maybe because I expected nothing and got an excellent reboot - I loved the little nods to the original story - like the "Lost in Space" newspaper headline - brilliant ..

The problem is I listened to the media too much for this one and got into the hype and was expecting a better movie - gets higher mark on imdb etc ..

Some of the dialogue aswell was really bad - especially between Caeser and Koba - "Ceasar weak , Koba weaker" :rolleyes: .... like 2 kids ... cringeworthy.



Still a good film though and a lot better then most of the tripe Hollywood producing.

I wonder where the story goes from here - is there a point doing another one in this timeline ? may as well FF 300 years and have the Astronauts back on Earth - maybe a cool ending with the Statue of Liberty buried in a beach .. :P

OU812

the_monkey wrote: »

I wonder where the story goes from here - is there a point doing another one in this timeline ? may as well FF 300 years and have the Astronauts back on Earth - maybe a cool ending with the Statue of Liberty buried in a beach .. :P

I'm really hoping that's where it's going... Get them to the blast off stage & leave the loop there.

Saipanne

That final bit with Koba made me think "eh, he's a chimp"

Good movie though, if a little cliche.

the_monkey

btw slightly of topic, but what episode of Mad Men did he take his kid to see Planet of the Apes ?