# Dawn of the planet of the apes



## soliloquy (Jul 14, 2014)

anyone catch this yet? came out last friday. reviews seem positive. though i was expecting that seeing the first one was incredible!


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## AndrewFTMfan (Jul 14, 2014)

Saw it last night, 'twas awesome!


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## toiletstand (Jul 14, 2014)

pretty amazing.


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## Vostre Roy (Jul 14, 2014)

Nothing bad to say, was pretty good.


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## Daf57 (Jul 15, 2014)

Not yet! Keep seeing the ads on TV but I've yet to get out to see it.


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## Bloody_Inferno (Jul 15, 2014)

Related:


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## ferret (Jul 15, 2014)

Saw it with the wife on Saturday, enjoyed it.


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## mongey (Jul 15, 2014)

also took the wife last weekend. we both really liked it. I'd say its as good as the 1st one. if you liked it you'll like this 

its not flat out aciton, its more of a drama which I like


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## groverj3 (Jul 22, 2014)

Saw it. Thought it was awesome!


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## wankerness (Jul 23, 2014)

I was blown away by a few scenes in it. The big battle scene in the middle is some of the best effects work I've ever seen. Typical of Matt Reeves, there is one stunning long shot involving a fixed camera rotating around, giving a really intense view of the goings on and really making you feel like you've gone through the ringer. It's the trillion dollar version of the car shot from Let Me In, basically. It's one of the best effects shots I've ever seen. And that scene is masterful in its control of tone - despite the spectacular effects, you really feel the impact and the ugliness of the violence and when it was over I felt emotionally drained. The explosions sending bodies flying, for example, look like something out of a serious war movie more than an effects blockbuster. 

The climax doesn't quite reach the same heights, but the apes are completely convincing throughout (not that they look like real apes, but I always felt like I was looking at solid objects in the real world instead of a pixar movie). The other immediately obvious standout scenes are the ones with Koba doing his silly chimp routine to fake out the guards. The second one in particular worked like gangbusters and I'd say might be the single best scene of the movie.

Just as importantly, it's really admirable from a writing standpoint. It's set up with mirror images on the human and ape sides, basically 4 different characters that all just drive the story in a tragic direction, while the writers give all of their viewpoints weight and ensure nothing is black and white. Gary Oldman in particular would probably have been a one dimensional character if this same story had been written with the care of a standard summer blockbuster. It's a story where the action all comes out of the characters. It still suffers from a little bit of bloat (they could have done away with a couple bland scenes between the humans, particularly the mindnumbing exchange between Keri Russell and the teenager about her daughter), but its character-driven plot where nearly everything serves to drive the movie toward its climax is almost unheard of in a mega-budget action flick. 

Gotta say, I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut afterwards. It's a VERY harrowing, dark movie and I can sympathize with the negative reviews saying "jesus christ, lighten up a little!" I don't agree with them, though. 

Great movie, basically. My initial reaction is that I liked it more than the first, but I'll have to give it some time. The first one got you incredibly involved in Caesar's development, while this one's bigger in scope and as a result feels a bit less personal. It succeeds on so many levels, though, that it really might be the better of the two. It also smartly spends far less time with the humans than the first movie did, though I feel like they're even blander this go-round and thus it threatened to grind to a halt whenever there were no apes on the screen. Not all the human scenes are bad (Gary Oldman has a good one with an ipad), but it was odd how the entire theater was rapt with attention through 90% of the movie but would start shuffling impatiently whenever we'd get a humans-only scene. I guess that just goes to show you how great the effects team and the ape actors did their job. 

9/10?


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## soliloquy (Aug 28, 2014)

still speechless with the movie. 

not sure which i liked better. the first or the second. i LOVED the first due to how dramatic, subtle, and emotional it was. great build up. 

i loved the second as its so chaotic and hectic. 

now i wonder if the third will be a nuclear holocaust


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