Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)'s comments - page 2

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Joker of Gotham

Academy, nominate, not nominate, it doesn't matter, Andy Serkis is one of the best actors on the planet.
4.5/5

9 years 8 months ago

So much better than the first. The first was a movie about movie scientists acting like morons as all movies scientists do, and really had little to do with the apes. It felt no different than watching Prometheus and yelling at the idiots on screen.

This one was a real drama, that swung between tension, action, and moments of heart. Incredible how much emotion they conveyed through chimpanzees.

6 years ago

tyrion68

I liked the first one better. This one was too long and depended too much on worn out tropes. 6/10

6 years 10 months ago

nxou

The movie from 2011 was great.
This one sux hard, serisously, the movie is sponsored by NRA, it could have turns around many things, but this weapon turn is just pure crap, without talking about weapon munition non sense.

9 years 5 months ago

Tezelian

Over rated movie. So many people complain about weak plots in many movies so can somebody explain what was so special about this plot? Good vs evil, power struggle and nothing new. I didn't cry once so the movie was an emotional failure. I guess the only thing that was good was CGi but yes, will never watch again.

9 years 5 months ago

Shingwauk

Well done but such a boy movie.

9 years 5 months ago

The_Comatorium

ALL HAIL CAESAR!!!

Gah! I just want to see it again!A couple years ago I was shocked by how much I liked the reboot of The Planet of the Apes. I remember seeing the trailer and thinking that they must have just ran out of idea because Tim Burton already ruined a great franchise, but to my surprise Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a fantastic attempt to reboot the whole series. Well, it is almost certain that this is going to last a while because “Dawn” is cleaning house at the box office and just so happens to be one of the best action movies I’ve seen since District 9. I mention that film because it was the last time, other than Inception, that I was blown away by an effects driven action film. I was on the edge of my seat. I was slacked jawed at the entire middle act. I walked away from the theater immediately thinking of when the next time I could go back to see it. I needed a little pick me up this week.

The film starts out with a stage setting sequence that actually doesn’t suck for once as it tells us about the fall of the human race due to our dance with science and the need to help old people with Alzheimer’s. There are few who were genetically immune to the epidemic and survived but are now forced to live in mad max style colony with gas generators and filth running in the streets. This isn’t a human world anymore, at least not near San Francisco. The outer forests of California, which look like the Amazon in this film, are now colonized by a much more advanced society of apes led by the one, the only, fucking Caesar. Seriously, he may be one of my favorite movie characters after this film. The writing staff who worked on this film just nailed the character and all his moral glory. Caesar is still living with familiar faces such as Maurice the giant Orangutan and Koba the scar faced lab ape. Caesar also has a new family comprised of a son and wife, both of whom play a big role in the film. It’s funny but the film picked a great time to be released with all the tension in Israel and Pakistan, but also stuck to serious moral issues of family and friendship. I won’t go to far into the plot because it’s a ride you want to take on your own but the trailer gave most of that away anyway.

I was surprised by how much the story of the film payed homage to Shakespeare, Julius Caesar to be specific, which is a funny joke if you ask me. It seems like it would be at least. A subtle retelling of Julius Caesar about an ape…NAMED CAESAR? It sounds crazy, but it actually worked quite well as we see tension and fighting within the ape colony. This is their film by the way. Do not go into this film thinking that you’re going to get a whole lot of Gary Oldman and Jason Clarke. They are there only to progress the storyline as the natural enemy, meaning being human, of the apes. The real meat and potatoes is all ape baby and the actors behind these apes should be heaped with praise. HEAPED. Andy Serkis continues to be an absolute treasure in a motion capture suit. “Rise” was impressive enough, but this film takes motion capture to a whole new level. There were more close up shots of all the apes doing ape things that made me believe I was watching the real thing. The only ape that looked CGI was Caesar’s son Blue Eyes, who for some reason just could not shake the fact that he wasn’t real. Every other ape, mostly the villainous Koba, looked completely genuine and was helped greatly by their motion actors. Speaking of Koba, Toby Kebbell may have outshined Serkis with his performance. If I was present in front of Koba I would be shitting my pants. His scarred body and menacing jaws would have had me running in the other direction as I was actually pretty frightened in the theater, which doesn’t happen much. The on screen humans, led by a great actor in Jason Clarke, all did a fantastic job hooking me emotionally into the story. There were some moments that just weren’t needed much, mostly having to do with the kid and girlfriend of Clarke, but it didn’t distract too much. Gary Oldman was fantastic as always and had two really great scenes in where he both gave a speech and made me teary eyed. The cast was a home run.

The action was just top notch. There was one scene involving a tank that seriously almost made me stand up and clap. It reminded me of shots that Alfonso Cauron would construct in Children of Men. It’s easily my favorite shot of the year and may be my favorite shot since Gravity came out. The gigantic ending set piece which climaxed the film was pretty awesome but seemed to mirror the final set piece in “The Amazing Spiderman” too much. I was into it, but it just seemed to similar. The whole est of the film was so unique that the ending that the ending battle just let me down a tiny bit. Oh, and finally, we arrive and end with Caesar. The opening and final shots of his face are just perfect. Perfect!

As you can see, I loved the film. I want to see it again. Hopefully I’ll see it again because it was a blast to watch and a serious contender for my top films of the year. I’m so glad it’s making money because Matt Reeves is a talent behind the camera and really seems to have a grasp on this franchise. Hell, Nolan couldn’t even make two outstanding Batman films back to back. He made a Dark Knight sandwich with two stale pieces of bread. This is the making of a serious sandwich fit for a king. An ape king. FUCKING CAESAR!

4.5/5

www.thoughtsfromthebooth.com

9 years 9 months ago

CinemaDump

I still remember the day I went to go see Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011. The power went out and everything went black in the cinema, robbing me of the last 25 minutes of the movie. Man was I disappointed. At least there was that employee by the emergency exit handing everyone out free passes to another movie but still. I'm a stickler when it comes to finishing movies so I dragged my girlfriend to go see RotPotA again to see the conclusion as well as give Cineplex just a little more popcorn profit.

It was definitely worth it because Rise was definitely better than expected. My major problem with RotPofA is the cardboardness of human characters compared to the apes. It was still very solid and a worthy entry in the Planet of the Apes series. I was a bit concerned during the preproduction of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes because Rupert Wyatt wasn't coming back and neither was anyone else really besides Andy Serkis. Matt Reeves was also a bit of an unknown to me besides having done Cloverfield.

It's 2016 and the ALZ-113 virus has killed off a lot of the world's human population. Governments don't exist anymore and to Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his colony of apes, humans might as well be completely extinct. No biggie, this allows them the freedom to grow as a species and live peacefully. One day however, Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) and Ash (Doc Shaw) stumble upon Malcolm (Jason Clarke) and his small team on their way to restore power to a hydroelectric dam for their human colony in the ruins of San Francisco. Ash is shot in the altercation, which catches the attention of all the male apes. Caesar orders the humans away from their colony. So begins a very tense relationship between the apes and humans who really need to get that dam up and running before they run out of fuel.

What I'll say right away in regards to my criticism of Rise of the Planet of the Apes is that Dawn has more than corrected the situation. Malcolm's story and his situation is extremely interesting and didn't make me miss just watching Andy Serkis being an ape. Malcolm is mirrored in Caesar in terms of how they both have family and they both want to keep them safe. There's some real gravity in performances of all the human characters and it's a welcome improvement. They're not cardboard and you care about their well being. One thing I also find is that the story is good at making humans seem so fragile and weak which is freaky I think for all of us. What are we without our electricity, our weapons, the clothes on our backs? I shudder to think.

Watching Andy Serkis and his fellow apes is just as mesmerizing in Dawn, if not more than before. It goes without saying that the effects are fantastic and the apes look so real. Human characters interact with the apes correctly and not like they're trying to look at something that's not really there. There are actually some really touching moments that bring some good drama into the mix and are totally convincing. Dawn is so far from being a run-of-the-mill summer CGI bonanza, that's for sure.

I definitely loved the story through and through. There's tons of tension and it's able to get by on little dialogue from the apes side of the equation. Action is well controlled and fun to watch as well. I also liked how it dealt with the antagonists. spoiler

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a great step up from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. One thing I loved is that there's a nice little shout out to the scarecrows in the original Planet of the Apes as well as some accompanying creepy music courtesy of Michael Giacchino that elicits Jerry Goldsmith's score a bit. Dawn has the perfect mix of action and drama along with a thrilling story that doesn't let up. There isn't a single boring moment and the motion capture performances are wonderful. I'm really glad to hear that Matt Reeves will be back for the next installment of Planet of the Apes and here's to hoping that at least some of the magic of Dawn can be recaptured.

8/10

9 years 9 months ago

MathianSim

Dawizz is one of the most stupid yet inadvertantly funny commenters I've ever seen on this site. Please learn that a ` is not an ' and note the Apes in the movie are genetically modified as seen in Rise, they talk, that's why it makes sense that they were "ridding" horses with M16s.

8 years 11 months ago