Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Grading & Discussion

So, while I grant that the apes probably haven't done a lot of exploring outside of the forest they never really noticed that a large human settlement had formed in SanFran? When Caesar is talking to the orangutan it's said humans hadn't been seen for a couple years. But it turns out there's a great many of them across the bay in the city!

So the apes never went into the city over those couple years and noticed humans in the city, manning the blockade, or, hell, the humans were perfectly silent all of this time having never caused any kind of meaningful ruckus, fire, or gunfire?

 

Not much that hasn't already been said. Just a fantastic movie, with a really well told and well thought out story. And incredible CGI that was truly photo-real at times.

I have to say though, after this movie I'm kinda ready to skip ahead much further in time, to see what the more evolved versions of these apes might look like, and to see what their future civilization might look like.

I'm not sure I really care to see this "huge war with the military" that was hinted at the end of this movie. I mean, we get it. There will be helicopters and tanks and lots of explosions. But that just doesn't sound very interesting to me.

 

Well, think about it. Caesar's original plan was probably just "Apes stick to forest." Under those circumstances he and the other apes would have no reason to go into built up dead areas of human cities, whereas only mad dog survivalist humans would have any reason to venture into the forests, so it's perfectly understandable that the apes hadn't seen humans in two years, since the smarter humans probably thought "Hey, them scary apes from the bridge are in them trees, man!" and stayed the hell out of the forest.

By the way, the line of the movie, when Old man takes a headcount of the apes: "That's a hell of a lot more than eighty!"

 

Except being a bit long in the tooth at some places, I liked it almost as much as the first. I expected to see the apes growing towards their future dominance over their territory and that was delivered. Can't wait to see the next installment.

A-

 

Once in a while, a sci-fi movie with a heart or a brain emerges, like District 9, whose cinematography is only a means to tell a good story and to comment on the human condition. DotPotA is a sci-fi film with soul and humanity, albeit focused on the titular characters. A sequel to 2010's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it tells of the struggle between a colony of intelligent primates living in the forest of northern central California and a community of human survivors in a postapocalyptic San Francisco, a decade after most of humanity has perished from a deadly pandemic known as the Simian flu.

Caesar is the wise and brave leader of the apes. When Malcolm and a group of humans seek passage within ape territory to gain access to a dam in order to restore electrical power to their community, mutual cooperation is soon followed by mistrust and chaos due to the hatemongering by Caesar's close friend and lieutenant Koba, and everything goes apeshit afterwards. The movie focuses on the dramatic conflict between mankind and its super-evolved cousins, whose one chance at peace is threatened by blind hatred and suspicion.

The digital rendering of the Simians was done superbly, though they looked a bit too human for me. Andy Serkis is the king of motion capture acting.

I gave it a solid B.

 

I was a little surprised at how I wasn't all that engaged in this movie like I was for the first one. Maybe it was the 10 year jump, or it was the 3D (Which you don't need to see this movie in 3D, That was just a convenient time for me) but there were parts of the movie were I was a little bored. Still a great movie and the end battle scene was great and Ceaser was as great here as he was in the first, but there were some parts of it that didn't quite click.

I gave it a B.

 

We saw the film last night in regular 2D. My girlfriend doesn't like 3D, and I couldn't recall if this had been shot in 3D or converted after.

Critiques:

Gary Oldman's talents are wasted in four or five cookie-cutter scenes that anyone who took a year of drama in college could have performed.

Kirk Acevedo's "asshole" character Carver was stereotypical and completely unoriginal.

The whole point about Dreyfus trying to blow up the tower in order to kill the apes was silly; he winds up killing himself and Werner (the tech guy) and the other soldier but the damn tower barely sufferes from the explosion. Pointless.

Where the film really succeeds is the CGI performances of Caesar, Koba and Maurice and especially Blue Eyes when he finally finds Caesar alive and well in James Franco's dilapidated home.

Anyway, it was a fine film. Nothing mind blowing, and certainly with its faults, but also certainly not terrible. Having slept on it, I think I prefer "Rise" over "Dawn" though.

 

I agree, but label this the best film YTD is a stretch. I liked the moral complexity of the film - not all humans or apes good or bad. It's i ironic how this message is currently resonating throughout the Middle East. Israel v. Hamas and what's happening in in Syria and Iraq.

It was a good film, sorry I saw it in 3D - what 3d effects?

Perhaps it was the man in the 7th row who couldn't put his smart phone down throughout the fim that made me more of a critic. Btw to anyone who cannot put their cell phone down after 3 PSA's to do to - dude stay home please you are simply too busy to go to the movies.

nit pics -

* we had endless nit pics on the viability of gasoline on the WD. Waiting. In this case two years for cars and generators still working since one of the apes comments it's been two winters.

* ever been to SF? I have. The presidio would be insufficient environment to grow food for a 100 people versus what looked like thousands. Canned food would have been long exhausted. It's urban.

* one damaged relay fixes the dam? Oh and the electrical grid survives un damaged between the dam and SF which appears to be miles away. Uh huh. I don't know where you live but here in ATL after one season between thunder storms, rain, and general neglect much of it wouldn't work.


Bottom line: good movie with lots of interesting moral complexities, but with a shit load of plot holes

 

It'd been two years since the apes had last seen people.

It'd been 10 years since the events of previous film.

 

Excellent film! The first one was surprisingly enjoyable (though almost completely setup) but this one really exceeded my already high expectations. I thought the movie was going to be apes invade the city due to tragic misunderstanding; I didn't expect an ape civil war which was very cool.

And the CGI! My god! The characters looked absolutely real in every shot. They had a physical depth and presence. And eyes with soul in them. What an achievement! I also really liked how they mostly communicated in sign language with subtitles.

 

Watched "Rise" again tonight. Yeah, I think the new one is better. Rise is still good and all but "Dawn" seemed to have more interesting stuff going on and seemed a bit more plausible on what was happening (and didn't have the needless callbacks.)

Also, during the big battle on "Rise" in SanFran on the GGB it does seem like there were an awful lot of apes gathered considering all they'd have in numbers are the ones from the zoo and the ridiculously populated ape-detention center.

 

Saw this today. I agree with doubleohfive (good God, did I just write that?); this is a good movie but not a great one. Much better CGI and far better, more detailed characterization of the apes--which is very interesting; I much preferred the ape storyline to that of the humans. The overall plot, however, is very run of the mill with stock characters and some illogical motivations. "Rise" had a far more interesting story; with "Dawn," I knew exactly what would happen and why, so I wasn't watching with anticipation. I was just waiting for the next event, which made it a bit dull for me. I gave it a B.

 

Saw "Rise" today as well, but I didn't need to to know the absence of James Franco automatically makes "Dawn" better.

Also, Syfy showed a marathon of the oldies, and now I see "Dawn" is essentially the improved version of Battle for TPoTA.

 

Actually the population of the "ape-detention center" really wasn't that ridiculous. My mom follows a bunch of real, nice sanctuaries and there is one in Florida that is on a group of islands and houses over 300 apes.

 

And? We had endless nitpicks about how the gasoline would have gone bad on TWD but people seem to be overlooking this huge plot hole in order to make the plot work.

Obviously that community lacks the resources to refine gasoline.

 

Oh no, believe me, it's a problem for me. Gasoline shouldn't have been useful to them and moreover considering the overgrowth of plant-life I doubt the power-grid would have been greatly intact. Nor do I even think the Golden Gate Bridge would have been standing after 10 years of no maintenance. There's a great number of problems with this post-apocalyptic premise.

 

Not really sure how I'm supposed to interpret that.

 

^ Lion: (yawns) I'm tired.
Lamb: (yawns) Me too.

(They lie down.)

 

All in good fun, bro.

 

Ah ok.