Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

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28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
This is truly a great film, I urge people to go see it.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)



Dawn is an intelligent spectacular Hollywood blockbuster

When Rise of the Planet of the Apes was first released, I found myself laughing at the trailers. I thought it was going to be terrible. Boy was I wrong, it turned out to be an engaging thrilling spectacle. I don’t know why I seem to keep underestimating this series because I didn’t expect this sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to be that great. Not only is the film great, it’s probably the best summer blockbuster this year and will no doubt make my top ten list by the year’s end.

FULL REVIEW HERE

What were your thoughts?
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Suspect's Reviews





The only movie where incomplete sentences of dialogue are acceptable.

This movie was much better than I expected. I didn't like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I wasn't particularly excited about seeing this, but I had heard good things about this, so I went to see it. Let me start by saying this movie had my full attention the whole time. It really grabs your attention and doesn't let go. And I enjoyed watching the movie. It's pretty well paced and the story is good and flows. It's good to see both human and ape sides of the story, although I wish there was more development on the humans, especially Gary Oldman's character. There are some really haunting scenes that can actually make you tear up and that surprised me. I did not expect to get that emotionally invested in the story. I really liked the camera work in this film. It's rare that an American action film today has little to no shaky cam in it, and that's one reason I really liked this movie. You can see everything that's going on. All the chaos, the beautiful scenery, the great special effects. It's shown with great lighting and camera work, and I really loved that. Also, the score is great and really fits the film well. There are also some really good unforeseen twists in the story. But there are also some very predictable moments too. I had a problem with a couple of characters. Of course there's the extremely idiotic and impossibly unlikable human character that screws everything up. This character made me mad, not just because he screws everything up, but because I thought that a good movie like this could avoid adding in stupid characters like that. But, I guess they have to move the story along somehow. I liked the villain in the story mostly but at times he was a bit corny and a kind of stereotypical villain. Also, I had a problem with the ending. Caesar has a very sudden character change at the end of the film and it feels a bit rushed and out of place. I was hoping for a darker, more explained and emotional ending but I didn't get one. If Caesar would have changed a little more over time or had an event happen causing him to make this dark change, then I would have liked it better. But the ending is still breathtaking nonetheless, especially when knowing what comes next.

Despite a few problems here and there with a cliched character or two and a rather rushed ending, I really liked Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It certainly held my attention, and I don't regret seeing it. I just wish it had a better ending.



3.8/5
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Nice review. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe at the end of the next one they pick up where the first original one with Charlton Heston began. Not specifically the actual movie, I mean the plot.



I am very anxious to see this movie but will have to wait for it to come out on Netflix.
I have the Rise of the Planet of the Apes bluray and love that movie. I will probably end up buying this one too as I am a huge fan of the whole Planet of the Apes dynasty going back to the first movies.



Minor, minor spoilers.

I saw this last night. Pretty good even if it never really surprised. I didn't have the same character reservations. Of course there are people who blame the apes for the disease, why wouldn't there be? Though why they took him into the apes home is beyond me. I also felt Caesar's change in the end was earned. He sort of knew all along that the ape/human relationship walked a tight edge and it felt completely in character to me. I don't really have much more to add to the conversation because I pretty much agree with everything else that's been said so I'll throw out two things that impressed me.

First, I think it's extremely ballsy of a tent pole picture to have no spoken dialog for the first 15-20 minutes of the film. On top of that, most of the dialog in the film is subtitles of sign language. It's refreshing to see a big release take a chance like that. Maybe one day I'll get the film that the first trailer for Dinosaurs promised (who doesn't want to see a film with photo realistic dinosaurs with zero dialog?!).

Second, the special effects in this film were freaking amazing. I don't know if they used real eyes for the ape characters, but if they didn't they finally crossed the uncanny valley. I never doubted these things were living, breathing beings. Unbelievable.
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Monkeys with machine guns, lot's of subtitles, no James Franco...


Overall, a fantastic flick (despite no James Franco)



Love the scenes with Koba being goofy with the gun guys. Best villain since Joker. This and Lego movie are the only really good movies i've seen this year.
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No James Franco is a plus
Actually James Franco was in it, in a "left behind" video that was found of his character and Ceaser. He filmed that as a cameo. It even was mentioned back in 2012 that it was probably going to happen, but back then Franco was unsure if he was going to do it or not.



Nice review. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe at the end of the next one they pick up where the first original one with Charlton Heston began. Not specifically the actual movie, I mean the plot.
I have been thinking about this. I always thought that eventually they would remake the original Planet of the Apes, same story, but modern day effects. Remember in Rise where there is a little news story about a spacecraft going missing, I think maybe after one more film where the Apes are in complete control, we'll see it go back to that little clip and then remake Planet of the Apes.

Only problem is, is that these new films spoil the twist of the original



To me it didn't have the warmth and depth of emotions and flawless story arc of 'Rise' which was disappointing as I'm a huge fan, having said that, it stood alone and was breathtaking to watch. I had to bite my hand in the cinema not to cry out at (don't want to spoil!) a certain scene, those who've already seen it will know what I'm talking about....it upped the ante with the violence and it was all out war, it was pretty relentless in that aspect. Again, comparing it to 'Rise' but I didn't think the 'Dawn' human characters had the same connection, but there were enough 'moments' to keep me interested. Koba was brilliantly done and the aging Caesar superb. Glad they kept Maurice as well.
I would have liked to have seen a reunion of Will and Caesar but fingers crossed for the 3rd installment...

Oh, and hello everyone!



It's a sad movie and kinda scary. I hate Koda (The one with the scar face)..