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War for the Planet of the Apes - Review thread. (RT= 96%)
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
Sums up a lot of the problems I had with the second one. I guess I'll pass this in cinemas and watch it later.
Discotheque
Banned
the Imax prologue was one of the best things I saw in theaters all of last year. Worth the ticket price for that weak ass Star Wars movie.
the marketing and WW2 side of things surely isn't doing no favors drawing in the audience, but considering its aiming for more of a Gravity/Fury Road style of blockbuster I think it will be damn good in theaters.
RBelong2Us
Member
I dislike the trailers but saw the extended clip during the IMAX screening of Wonder Woman and man....it looks incredible.
I think it'll top Interstellar...both critically and box office .
ChubbyHuggs
Member
It's pretty surprising that this trilogy did well. I remember going to the theater with low expectations and just thinking, "Oh shit. This is actually good."
Messofanego
Banned
I hope the action is as interesting in the cinematography as it was in Dawn.
MegaSackman
Member
Nemesis121
Member
Just a warning, this Trailers ruins a lot, shows too much, wish i didn't watch that..
Inferno313
Banned
Didn't they already put out a trailer that they specifically titled "Final Trailer"? Haha.
Heh, yeah.
Big Green Anus
Member
I just watch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for the first time and movie was really good. Exited for this one!
RyougaSaotome
Member
This was the last franchise I expected to see rebooted well.
And yet here we are.
And yet here we are.
Thanks! Will not watch. Will go dark now.
Razzmatazzer
Member
Thank you for taking one for the team, lol. I'm going to try and resist, just no point. I know I'm going to (and have to) see this movie.
RandomHopeInc
Member
This has been a trilogy of solid thought provoking movies, good to see
RBelong2Us
Member
One of the older trailers shows Woody Harrelson with what appeared to be a gorilla as his sidekick ....
How do you possibly stop that combo ?
How do you possibly stop that combo ?
DreadfulOmen
Member
Just finished watching Rise of the planet again. It's probably been 3 years since i last saw it. I will most likely watch Dawn again tomorrow. Caesar is such a bad ass. Can't wait for war.
tekumseh
a mass of phermones, hormones and adrenaline just waiting to explode
If you have Directv, both are downloadable in their no charge on demand collection right now.
Ghost_Messiah
Member
Best film trilogy in recent memory. Loved the first two, and doing a re-watch of them both in preparation for War. Comes out in about 10 days in the UK. Hyped!
Fast Forward
Member
Re-watched Rise, and Dawn today on Vudu. Rise does a great job of building the foundation, and Dawn does GREAT work with said foundation.
Hyped as hell for War.
Hyped as hell for War.
Honestly, still think the teaser is still the best of the teasers/trailers. One of my favorite teaser of all-time FTM.
Sgt. Kabukiman
Banned
I liked Rise but thought Dawn was far superior. According to critics and some gaffers who've already seen War, this might be the rare trilogy that actually gets better with every new entry.
Fast Forward
Member
IMHO, better, but honestly, depends on what you are looking for in a movie.
For me? Just looking to be entertained. I love anything from a "thinking person's Sci-Fi" to "mindless action Sci-Fi," and anything in-between, and personally, I enjoy Dawn even more than Rise, which also was very good.
BarringGaffner
Member
I loved the first film but I am not sure what is turning me off this one. The more serious they try to make these the less serious I take them. Also the amount of marketing money they spend trying to get Andy Serkis an oscar for these is also annoying to me.
Still... might see it in theatres
Still... might see it in theatres
Fast Forward
Member
Even though I have not seen War, that very well may be the case.
Not just the critical praise that has me hopefully. Not just Rise, and even better Dawn that has been hopefully, which was probably my favorite movie of 2014, and so far, yes, these movies are getting progressively better, and that's something, considering these movies started on a very good note.
Honestly, this movie I've been waiting for since childhood. Since the original POTA series TBH.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
For me Dawn is so overwhelming superior to Rise that in no instance would I put any facet of Rise above Dawn. While I do like Rise, I never felt its direction, script, and performances were consistent enough to elevate it to something truly great. I loved its premise and the concepts it explored, and it's home to some wonderfully emotionally resonate narrative beats, but I also found it regularly regressing to a kitschy, adventurous silliness. And that's cool, maybe even deliberate given the subject matter, but the believability and authenticity of what I was watching was lost to me and for personal taste that takes it down a notch.
I honestly feel Dawn is one of the most accomplished blockbuster science fiction films of the last few years. It balances its themes and strengths borderline immaculately, and there's an alluring elegancy to its exploration of its underlining themes; namely ideological conflicts and social instability within communities when faced with threats to survival.
Dawn miraculously took an otherwise goofy setup and expressed it with such nuanced authenticity and maturity that I never once felt anything less than totally invested in the entire arc. The characters are simply enough to be accessibility, yet complex and morally grey in that their villainy and mistakes can be empathized with even if still condemned. To breach this not just for the human cast, but more importantly the CGI cast of damn dirty apes is a massive accomplishment in my eyes.
It's such a tense, brooding movie that to me is reminiscent of The Dark Knight in how a long, unsettling fringe of conflict simmers under the surface for so, so long before erupting in an incredibly climax. And it helps that the directional work, particularly the cinematography and colour grading, is just so goddamn gorgeous and captivating. The kind of cinematography that can make a bunch of primates charging a human encampment appear legitimately tragic and volatile. That long shot on the vehicle is just wondrous.
I fucking adore Dawn so much that I cannot fathom War even being in the ballpark.
I honestly feel Dawn is one of the most accomplished blockbuster science fiction films of the last few years. It balances its themes and strengths borderline immaculately, and there's an alluring elegancy to its exploration of its underlining themes; namely ideological conflicts and social instability within communities when faced with threats to survival.
Dawn miraculously took an otherwise goofy setup and expressed it with such nuanced authenticity and maturity that I never once felt anything less than totally invested in the entire arc. The characters are simply enough to be accessibility, yet complex and morally grey in that their villainy and mistakes can be empathized with even if still condemned. To breach this not just for the human cast, but more importantly the CGI cast of damn dirty apes is a massive accomplishment in my eyes.
It's such a tense, brooding movie that to me is reminiscent of The Dark Knight in how a long, unsettling fringe of conflict simmers under the surface for so, so long before erupting in an incredibly climax. And it helps that the directional work, particularly the cinematography and colour grading, is just so goddamn gorgeous and captivating. The kind of cinematography that can make a bunch of primates charging a human encampment appear legitimately tragic and volatile. That long shot on the vehicle is just wondrous.
I fucking adore Dawn so much that I cannot fathom War even being in the ballpark.
Spyder_Monkey
Banned
I forgot about this movie.
Caesar should have Matthew McConaughey as his sidekick.
Fancy Clown
Member
Dawn is one of the best blockbusters of the decade, so it's no surprise Reeves maintains his edge for the sequel. I'm expecting big things from Batman.
Between this, Baby Driver, and Spider-Man I can't hold all these good movies, mang.
Between this, Baby Driver, and Spider-Man I can't hold all these good movies, mang.
mariachi507
Member
While I anticipated the new film I had zero hopes that it would live up its predecessor. At best I figured it would be derivative of Dawn, retaining a similar vibe and look while trying to make everything bigger and better (action and set pieces) which is what too many underwhelming sequels go for nowadays. According to the critical consensus, I might be eating crow the same way I did with Toy Story 3.
I also had serious doubts that Spiderman would be nothing more than a decent way to kill a couple of hours. Hollywood has made me all pessimistic for some reason.
crackhead_bob
Member
Anyone who followed Rise and Dawn, was there anything symbolic in the way that both antagonists are dispatched? They're both sort of done in ways that are designed to allow Caesar to morally absolve himself of taking each of their lives. I just got through re-watching them and took notice of those moments. You could make the argument that in giving Koba the go ahead to do with Jacobs as he saw fit that he ends up being punished for the rest of the trilogy. So what symbolic law has he broken that we as the viewer are supposed to glean from? His ethos, or the ethos passed down to him by his human surrogate played by James Franco?
the-pi-guy
Member
I can understand the frustration.
I would say that you could think of it like
Rise is when people are "rising" to make something happen. (It's tricky because you could apply this same word to a bunch of different situations.)
Dawn is when it actually has happened.
Ghost_Messiah
Member
Just re-watched both Rise and Dawn and they both hold up as spell-binding, amazing films. Rise is a great action-thriller, whilst Dawn is just mesmerising.
Preparing for War since it releases here (UK) in about a week and a half. Hyped.
Preparing for War since it releases here (UK) in about a week and a half. Hyped.
Corpsepyre
Banned
I quite liked the first one, but was iffy on the second. Came out of the theater a bit disappointed. It felt like so many other films if you take out the apes. Seen a few too many of those and it flowed with the same beats and twists. Hoping this third one's a better film.
Rise.
DirgeExtinction
Member
Wow, some of these recent blockbusters are actually pretty good it seems. I'm glad.
Discotheque
Banned
What a stupid post.
The QBComics
Member
So, I got a chance to see this last night.
It's pretty good, though it's not a perfect film by any means.
The CG in this film is so unparalled that it's ridiculous. There are some shots where the lights will bounce off the ape characters, and it looks so real that I thought they were puppets.
Vague impressions, but I'll spoiler them nonetheless:
All in all, I like it, despite its more obvious flaws.
It's pretty good, though it's not a perfect film by any means.
The CG in this film is so unparalled that it's ridiculous. There are some shots where the lights will bounce off the ape characters, and it looks so real that I thought they were puppets.
Vague impressions, but I'll spoiler them nonetheless:
Very curious to see audience reaction to this film, as it is absolutely not an action film. Outside of the opening and the ending, there pretty much isn't a single other major set piece, which is pretty surprising for a 2 and a half hour film.
On one hand, I think it's great that a director (with studio backing) didn't feel the need to force an action scene for the sake of adhering to blockbuster conventionality. On the other, the opening war sequence is so fucking stellar in its scale and how Reeve's frames everything, that I was sad that we didn't get more of it. Seriously, the opening left my jaw agape.
The second section dragged a bit for me, but the performances from the apes are convincing enough to carry it. I really liked Bad Ape's character.
The cinematography is pretty damn good. Dunkirk will probably look better, but as of now it's far and away the best shot blockbuster of the summer. The way they capture a lot of these environments adds a lot of texture to this world.
The third act is a mixed bag. The actual war sequence is pretty much background dressing. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely gorgeous background dressing, and really captures an amazing sense of scale. But it did feel a bit unsatisfying to have that battle not be directly between apes and humans. And I'm sure for a movie with "War" in the title, people are going to be disappointed that we really only see the apes fight in that opener.
On one hand, I think it's great that a director (with studio backing) didn't feel the need to force an action scene for the sake of adhering to blockbuster conventionality. On the other, the opening war sequence is so fucking stellar in its scale and how Reeve's frames everything, that I was sad that we didn't get more of it. Seriously, the opening left my jaw agape.
The second section dragged a bit for me, but the performances from the apes are convincing enough to carry it. I really liked Bad Ape's character.
The cinematography is pretty damn good. Dunkirk will probably look better, but as of now it's far and away the best shot blockbuster of the summer. The way they capture a lot of these environments adds a lot of texture to this world.
The third act is a mixed bag. The actual war sequence is pretty much background dressing. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely gorgeous background dressing, and really captures an amazing sense of scale. But it did feel a bit unsatisfying to have that battle not be directly between apes and humans. And I'm sure for a movie with "War" in the title, people are going to be disappointed that we really only see the apes fight in that opener.
All in all, I like it, despite its more obvious flaws.
Aren't there chase scenes in this movie? And what about some scenes of apes taking on humans in the dark and some other isolated areas? I'm going off the trailers based on that.
The ending of Rise explained the reason why the apes became so intellignet.
You not understanding that is your fault.