Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: will it be good?

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Out July 11.
Final trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpSaTrW4leg

Brio2, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 13:39 (ten years ago) link

Maybe

socki (s1ocki), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 13:40 (ten years ago) link

Dawn of the DeadPlanet of the Apes.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:40 (ten years ago) link

I'm looking forward to seeing this, but that scene with the two guards and the ape is straight out of "Prometheus" dumb behavior.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:53 (ten years ago) link

I hope it'll be good, Rise was great! But it was great largely because of the emotional pull. I hope they manage that again but it's going to be harder since so many more monkey smashing shit up.

akm, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 19:21 (ten years ago) link

getting good buzz from early screenings. i love this series, still weirdly unsettling after all this years.

nauru, Friday, 27 June 2014 19:28 (ten years ago) link

Track listing for Michael Giacchino's soundtrack:

1. Level Plaguing Field
2. Look Who’s Stalking
3. The Great Ape Processional
4. Past Their Primates
5. Close Encounters of the Furred Kind
6. Monkey to the City
7. The Lost City of Chimpanzee
8. Along Simian Lines
9. Caesar No Evil, Hear No Evil
10. Monkey See, Monkey Coup
11. Gorilla Warfare
12. The Apes of Wrath
13. Gibbon Take
14. Aped Crusaders
15. How Bonobo Can You Go
16. Enough Monkeying Around
17. Primates for Life
18. Planet of the End Credits
19. Ain’t That a Stinger

painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Monday, 30 June 2014 19:52 (ten years ago) link

loooooooool

Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 30 June 2014 20:02 (ten years ago) link

Don't you mean Michael Giacchimpo?

Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 30 June 2014 20:02 (ten years ago) link

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes

few tasty reviews coming in

piscesx, Saturday, 5 July 2014 00:24 (ten years ago) link

oh shit - just read the capsule reviews on metacritic... I'm not reading anything else until I see it. ery encouraged by the "if you liked Rise yr gonna love this" tone of the word so far

Brio2, Saturday, 5 July 2014 01:16 (ten years ago) link

does this movie evidence any interest or knowledge in ape society, which is a thing that has been studied? or do they just make the apes a kind of funhouse mirror of humanity? b/c a film that actually engaged with the similarities and differences between human and ape societies (even presuming the hyperintelligent apes that are the basis of the series mythology) would be pretty interesting. i suspect this will be good, but i'm doubtful that it will be that intellectually rewarding.

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 11 July 2014 21:16 (ten years ago) link

that founding mythology is so great, so ripe for a million different treatments. i actually am not a huge fan of the original film (I think Franklin Schaffner's staging is efficient and even elegant, but too stodgy and literal) but it's no surprise that it was a huge success. some of the early sequels have even more evocative premises, even if they aren't fully realized.

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 11 July 2014 21:19 (ten years ago) link

has anyone noted that some critics are going "apeshit" for this new one?

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 11 July 2014 21:20 (ten years ago) link

i still think that caesar's first "NO!" in the previous film is the high point of blockbuster cinema of the past decade or so

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 11 July 2014 21:41 (ten years ago) link

Enjoyed it. Has dead spots, especially everything with the human characters. (Gary Oldman barely bothers to play a character at all, he's just generic Gary Oldman.)

But the apes are great, and the whole thing is well made, visually and technically. I wanted to hang out in the ape village more, was disappointed when the action moved to the city.

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 July 2014 04:28 (ten years ago) link

loved RISE. this was... less. caesar is still a great character but here he doesn't have much to do but noble savage about and Learn some Important Lessons. he doesn't drive the action. we don't follow his POV.

it's never really clear whose story this is because it's really no one's. there's no This Guy Who, just Some Things That Happen on the way to The Planet of the Apes. Still, baby minkey is super cute, the Phantom Gas Station is a nice moment, and Andy Sirkus for Best Actor.

resulting post (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 July 2014 05:05 (ten years ago) link

Serkis obv wth autocorrect

resulting post (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 July 2014 05:14 (ten years ago) link

Afterward we were talking about the inevitable Serkis Oscar debate. He needs his own category.

Yeah the movie hedges its bets by giving good guys and bad guys on both sides of the species line. But it's still really Caesar's story -- he wants things to be one way, but realizes they're another way. It will be an even trickier line to walk in the next movie, unless they just skip ahead past the ape-human war.

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 July 2014 11:41 (ten years ago) link

overall this was pretty great. i was 10,000x more emotionally invested in this than any recent franchise film i can remember. i know because (a) i actually teared up at one point and (b) I never got that flash of existential dread that i get halfway through i see any other big franchise film in a theater, where i remember that my life is finite and what the fuck am i doing watching iron man 9?

it wasn't perfect though. i found myself less compelled by it in the last one or two reels. in retrospect i think the issue was this: the film maintains a difficult and impressive balance of motivations for most of the film—each character, no matter how likable or dislikable, has a pretty-much understandable reason for being as they are and thinking as they do. i'm thinking above all of the gary oldman character and koba.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

as the film moves into its climactic phase, the filmmakers move to make koba less and less reasonable, and more and more obviously motivated by jealousy, vainglory, pure meanness, etc. there's a similar if not as pronounced movement with the oldman character. the result is that the movie begins to feel more and more like a more conventional blockbuster-movie climax. there is still the fundamental antinomy of the series, which makes it so fertile. but this episode's particular antinomies (i.e., characters with two emotionally convincing goals that are irreconcilable) are muted in favor of a good/bad dichotomy. we should FEEL for koba, even understand how in all his excess he may have a fundamentally sound point. but they turn him into a more routine baddy, to the point where caesar can say "koba is no ape" and we're expected to agree, even though this makes hash of the film's themes, which until pretty late have been developed with exceptional clarity and intelligence.

anyway, that i even bothered to think about this film long enough to have these objections is testament to its power/effectiveness.

i also thought the filmmaking was smart and elegant and the occasional flourishes (like the tank POV long take) were truly impressive and effective. i've noticed that big-budget films seem to be moving away from the antic cutting and shaky camera, a change i'm grateful for. this film was especially tasteful in that regard.

I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 14 July 2014 04:53 (ten years ago) link

but this episode's particular antinomies (i.e., characters with two emotionally convincing goals that are irreconcilable) are muted in favor of a good/bad dichotomy. we should FEEL for koba, even understand how in all his excess he may have a fundamentally sound point. but they turn him into a more routine baddy, to the point where caesar can say "koba is no ape" and we're expected to agree, even though this makes hash of the film's themes, which until pretty late have been developed with exceptional clarity and intelligence.

this is OTM and would have made all the difference

resulting post (rogermexico.), Monday, 14 July 2014 06:04 (ten years ago) link

Agreed, Koba is for most of the movie a much more interesting character. Even when he confronts Caesar at the dam, his motives still seem legit. Then at a certain point he just becomes Stalin. (Which his name signals from the beginning, but the shift is too abrupt.)

Koba's performing-monkey stuff for the guys at the armory were my favorite scenes in the movie.

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, 14 July 2014 11:27 (ten years ago) link

Koba turning into a monster is actually quite consistent with the type of "emotionally convincing" position he takes. the point doesn't change: "us or them", "military chain of command". as ugly as it gets it still might be the "right" way to handle the situation. scarcity of resources and all that.

the fear and hate on both sides makes war seem inevitable and I felt every ounce of this tragedy in each and every shot of Caesar's face. he has no right to be this expressive! I was tearing up out of intensity whenever he was on screen. don't know if it's all Serkis or not but this is an epochal performance. and yeah, "NO!" is a decade highlight.

g simmel, Monday, 14 July 2014 12:24 (ten years ago) link

Koba's performing-monkey stuff for the guys at the armory were my favorite scenes in the movie.

yeah. people in the theater were laughing, but i thought those scenes were among the most utterly terrifying in the whole series.

I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 14 July 2014 13:35 (ten years ago) link

btw folks who like this film might like "the indian fighter" (and a few other "indian westerns" of the 1950s), it's basically the same plot...

I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 14 July 2014 13:39 (ten years ago) link

btw i like joshua clover's take on the previous film: http://www.filmquarterly.org/2012/01/fall-and-rise/ (it's the last section of the review)

Will is coded in every regard as the good guy, in comparison both to his avaricious corporate boss and the brutal preserve master, played by Brian Cox, with his yellowed veneer of humanity. Will loves Caesar. Surely this is the moment—an hour in, already!—when good joins with good and the malefactors are given what for, in a rousing finale.

This is precisely what does not happen. His cage thrown open, Caesar spots the leash in Will’s hand and, seeming to reach out to him, he instead closes the door, locking himself in. No pretending that even the most enlightened bondage is more tolerable than an iron cage.

It is a heartbreaking moment: the sorrow of serious politics. To understand the real situation is to understand that the categories of good and evil, of humane and inhumane, of compassionate and cruel—the humanist bedtime tales—do not apply. There is an irreducible antagonism between one group and another, and no amount of moral or ethical grace can remedy it. Love cannot help with it. Working to change things from within cannot help with it. There is no yes that doesn’t come with a leash.

Lest we miss this, the film offers a second fulcrum, ten minutes later. Still in the preserve, Caesar tangles with the gamekeeper’s vile son. After being shocked several times, he manages to grab his tormentor’s arm. “Take your stinking paw off me, you damn dirty ape!” cries the human, reprising in reverse a line from the original. There is a pause, and for the first time Caesar speaks: “No!” He goes on to repeat the word several times as he drags the poor fellow away, sets free his fellow captives, cries havoc, and lets slip the apes of war. Wallace Stevens began one poem, “After the final no there comes a yes and on that yes the future world depends.” Rise sets that formula on its head, or perhaps its feet, with adamantine force.

I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 14 July 2014 13:46 (ten years ago) link

there was an audible shudder through the audience when caesar yells "NO!" followed by one woman toward the back appreciatively yelling "damn!".

I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 14 July 2014 13:48 (ten years ago) link

charles burns must be tickled that black hole is the only comic to survive the apepocalypse.

Philip Nunez, Monday, 14 July 2014 15:05 (ten years ago) link

haven't seen this one yet but I caught the last one on TV again and it's really a good, well-thought out film, it really shattered my expectations (which were quite low, but still)

Maggie killed Quagmire (collest baby ever) (frogbs), Monday, 14 July 2014 15:07 (ten years ago) link

I haven't seen this one yet (won't unless I hit a discount matinee) and hence skipped the spoilerrific stiff, but...

Reeves’ earnestness is the only emotion you’re given to respond to, and the film eventually stalls out, offering dozens of variations of the same scene in which apes misunderstand humans or vice versa. You twiddle your thumbs awaiting the inevitable warfare, a.k.a. the good stuff. In terms of narrative scope, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is similar to the original film, as both choose to represent Earth’s evolving societies through the conflicts of a handful of ape and human characters. The vistas of the new film are, of course, much larger—and lifeless. You look at these decimated cities and see the toil that goes into making a huge tent-pole summer film....

The evolution of the Apes films is as good an illustration as any of how American pop cinema has evolved. Schaffner’s film was made to make money, and there was no shame in it about that. The film isn’t afraid to be amusing, and, though it’s pitched at children as well as adults, there’s a distinct carnality and liveliness to it.... But Planet of the Apes is still essentially a joke, and a funny and occasionally scary one....

There isn’t a single joke in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and the primary romantic couple is played by the attractive and normally charismatic Jason Clarke and Keri Russell with so little sense of sexual tension that one could easily mistake them for siblings. There isn’t a line of dialogue that’s memorable....

The contemporary blockbuster takes pride in pushing derivative doomsday aesthetic expansiveness at the cost of playfulness—filmmakers don’t seem willing to risk money on the implication that an audience might pay to simply enjoy itself, and it’s easier to numb than to stimulate anyway. The blockbuster justifies that fifteen-dollar theater ticket by pummeling you: You’ve seen something, but what? Are American blockbusters now catering to your sense of nihilism, or vice versa?

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/monkey-business

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:14 (ten years ago) link

That last paragraph could be Pauline Kael talking about west side story

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 14:26 (ten years ago) link

Or anybody talking about Cecil b demille

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 14:27 (ten years ago) link

he was an excellent filmmaker (I'm guessing you've seen Ten Commandments '56 and ...?), so you're wrong again

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:29 (ten years ago) link

You left off the addemdum to that review, Morbs:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6841249186_627d8fc0f9.jpg

Soggy Spongy Moist & Messy (Old Lunch), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:31 (ten years ago) link

I'm old enough that I'm not without sympathy for "it was better before," just noting that if you're accusing the cinematic blockbuster of being apocalyptic pummeling for the sake of pummeling you don't have to say "contemporary" because that's always been the accusation

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 14:32 (ten years ago) link

There isn’t a single joke in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,

This is very rong.

brimming with misplaced confidence (Phil D.), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:35 (ten years ago) link

morbs, i'm glad to hear that you endorse a review of a film that you haven't seen that flatters your own prejudices

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:35 (ten years ago) link

the review is pretty vague (it seems to deliberately stay at a very generalized level, without a single citation of a particular moment from either film), but i think it's saying something about the contemporary blockbuster stewing up intimations of "significance" and "seriousness"--and yeah, that's a thing. it sucks much pleasure out of the christopher nolan batman movies foe me. but it's not new to this decade. and i don't really thing it applies to "dawn of the planet of the apes," or at least not to an objectionable extent. i don't see (or enjoy) movies b/c of their "messages" or "significance," i thought this was a fairly engrossing, compelling film that was not w/o its flaws.

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:40 (ten years ago) link

sorry for typos, i'm on pain pills and typing is a little strained.

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:40 (ten years ago) link

My distaste for the "contemporary blockbuster" isn't centered on this movie, but what I experiences whenever i succumb to seeing one: atomized incomprehensible "action," nonstop high volume, the pompous "darkness" exemplified by the Nolan cartoons, etc. These things have NOT "always" been present in big mersh films no matter how reflexively you claim so.

I quite liked the last Apes film and was surprised this one has a different director (whose Let Me In I like better than the Swedish original).

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:50 (ten years ago) link

Morbz just hates when people respond reflexively

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 14:51 (ten years ago) link

let me get my hammer

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:53 (ten years ago) link

Go watch the monkeys do their thing, Morbs. It's a terrific picture.

Soggy Spongy Moist & Messy (Old Lunch), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:54 (ten years ago) link

i wrote above that i usually have a pretty bad reaction to contemporary tentpole/franchise movies, and didn't have that reaction to this one. there's a certain kind of self-seriousness present in some contemporary blockbusters (i'd posit the last superman movie in addition to the nolan films as obvious examples) that might be new-ish, but there are other forms of self-importance that beset the blockbuster since its earliest days.

the director of the last film wanted for pre-production time (i.e. more time to write the film) and was replaced since they wanted a new film this year (honestly, three years seems like more than enough time to make a movie to me). it would be easy to use that fact to lambaste the new film but i think it's surprisingly thoughtful. might be even better made, from a stylistic standpoint, than the previous one. the big emotional moments are less unexpected and unusual than in the first one (no big "NOOOOO!" scene, more "so sad, he misses his family").

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:55 (ten years ago) link

there's something about the juxtaposition of the sheer size/length, pointlessness, and self-seriousness (or at least bombast) of contemporary blockbusters that causes me to have a really bad reaction in the theater—usually in the form of a temporary existential panic. i didn't feel that way watching either of the recent planet of the apes films.

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:56 (ten years ago) link

xpost

wanted MORE pre-production time

sorry again for typos

I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:56 (ten years ago) link

I laughed all throughout this movie (double guns kobo on horseback a+++) but Noah was funnier.

Philip Nunez, Friday, 18 July 2014 15:45 (ten years ago) link

So weird to complain about self serious reboots and never actually compare and contrast the current ape movies with the originals

Haven't seen the Heston but I'm under the impression the ending is a little self serious at least

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 15:47 (ten years ago) link

also bet jj abrams was flattered to learn he has a deft touch

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 15:53 (ten years ago) link

You should see the Heston. And yea, she doesn't really compare this one to the originals, just to other reboots (Star Trek and Batman)

curmudgeon, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:02 (ten years ago) link

Haven't seen the Heston

check, please

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:05 (ten years ago) link

promise you won't hang around asking for water refills?

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:15 (ten years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjcpRHuPjOI

yeah nothing self-serious about that opening text

da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:18 (ten years ago) link

Screenplay by Rod Serling, definitely not know for self-seriousness.

brimming with misplaced confidence (Phil D.), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:21 (ten years ago) link

*known

brimming with misplaced confidence (Phil D.), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:21 (ten years ago) link

love OG planet of the apes

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:43 (ten years ago) link

Most important scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udDZ2PTGs3o

Soggy Spongy Moist & Messy (Old Lunch), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:48 (ten years ago) link

as somebody who read and loved the book as a kid, i can tell you it is pretty self serious and occasionally funny.

are there any good books about the making of it?

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:16 (ten years ago) link

original film has plenty of adolescent monkey jokes too.

who is crushed that croup and i didn't meet up in LA?

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:23 (ten years ago) link

I think the criticism involving Batman being self[sic]-serious is BATMAN IS BULLSHIT DONE BEST BY ADAM WEST.

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:25 (ten years ago) link

not a making-of story (tho that's covered), but a splendid book I own, oft cited by Armond White too:

http://www.jewishjournal.com/images/made/30031e0e49eb3602/618155-L-1_233_356_c1.jpg

There's also a doc emceed by Roddy McDowall about the original five's production that was made for a '90s video release, Behind the PotA, which you can probably find fairly easily.

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:31 (ten years ago) link

Cool, thanks Morbs :)

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:34 (ten years ago) link

Screenplay by Rod Serling

Apparently mostly concepts, Liberty ending and a few lines left from Serling's script -- he bowed out when the budget was slashed and the movie would no longer take place in a mechanized society. Ex-blacklistee Michael Wilson did the major rewrite.

son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:35 (ten years ago) link

heston would have made for a good serious-but-leavened batman

Philip Nunez, Friday, 18 July 2014 18:53 (ten years ago) link

picturing that in my head...it's super weird

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 July 2014 20:20 (ten years ago) link

"villains are a superstitious, cowardly lot..."
http://parallax-view.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/1345_still01_small.jpg

Philip Nunez, Friday, 18 July 2014 20:35 (ten years ago) link

So I ended up watching this last night

cardamon, Sunday, 20 July 2014 10:52 (ten years ago) link

The idea that 'the apes are like people!' doesn't come across very well when the apes are in fact, not just 'like people', but 100% the same as a sentimental blockbuster's sketch of a person.

cardamon, Sunday, 20 July 2014 10:55 (ten years ago) link

That undercuts the thing the film seemed to want to do, which was to ask, in blockbuster language, whether two different types of being could ever live peacefully together ... but that question falters a bit when the two are so similar

cardamon, Sunday, 20 July 2014 10:57 (ten years ago) link

i liked this a lot! but I also realized afterwards that I was so transfixed by the apes I didn't really notice that there's really not much character development going on, the people are v one dimensional, even cesar is kinda one note. oops

also mr veg was all "wtf why would you stay in sf. nothing works!! why not go to the central valley where you can at least grow food"

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 20 July 2014 14:40 (ten years ago) link

The movie establishes that humans and apes agree that the most desired things are watching family photos and videos on iPads or cameras and graphic novels, so maybe there are still apple stores and comic book shops in post-apepocalypse SF

Philip Nunez, Sunday, 20 July 2014 15:14 (ten years ago) link

And I thought they didn't really follow through on the threatening first sight you get of the apes swinging silently through the trees hunting deer - if they were that scary all the way through, then the question 'Can humans live with these beings' would have been sharper

cardamon, Sunday, 20 July 2014 15:18 (ten years ago) link

cardamon, i like the spice that is your namesake. i really had rice flavored with cardamon at a persian restaurant and it was really good. just so you know.

I dunno. (amateurist), Sunday, 20 July 2014 17:16 (ten years ago) link

I try to live up to that spice

cardamon, Sunday, 20 July 2014 22:32 (ten years ago) link

I'm willing to admit that I might not have 'got' this film

cardamon, Sunday, 20 July 2014 22:32 (ten years ago) link

I enjoyed this. Not as much as Rise which is great because of the sweetness and the character development. This seems very much a second-in-a-series film, and it's over the top with the explosions and action, but it was still awfully good. One, it looks amazing. This is the best CGI in a film so far, the only poor point being when Felicity interacts with the baby ape (presumably there was no mo-cap for that). I'm interested to see what the 3rd movie does; if it's just an all out war, I think that will be boring, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are going to go somewhere unexpected.

akm, Monday, 21 July 2014 16:41 (ten years ago) link

ok, this diplomatic mission is our one last desperate chance to rescue this whole sorry affair. i want my gf, my kid and let's see we need one more guy... hey! you! hotheaded dude with a rifle, a hair trigger and a massive chip on your shoulder who got us into this mess! get in the truck big shooter!

sktsh, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 23:26 (ten years ago) link

yeah the more i ponder this the stupider it seems

I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 23:26 (ten years ago) link

if it's just an all out war, I think that will be boring

maybe not if it was directed by james cameron... in 1987.

I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 23:27 (ten years ago) link

the climactic crane'n'girder fight was very die hard i thought

(no bad thing of course)

sktsh, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 23:31 (ten years ago) link

They handwaved that with some mumbo jumbo about needing his technical knowledge but yeah, that just underlined that it was BS

resulting post (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 23:35 (ten years ago) link

they explained he was the only one who knew how to fix the hydroelectric dam, otherwise they would have gotten rid of him

i guess it's a screenwriter's trick but it didn't bother me too much

I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 23:42 (ten years ago) link

that didn't really bother me as much as having injured wheezing caesar talking instead of signing.

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 00:35 (ten years ago) link

so many criticisms about a movie about monkeys fucking ruling the SF Bay

akm, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 01:28 (ten years ago) link

never wanted to go to muir wood til now THANK U CAESAR

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 02:00 (ten years ago) link

protip: "muir woods" is in vancouver

resulting post (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 03:09 (ten years ago) link

buzzkill much rog?

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 03:16 (ten years ago) link

pretty sure yr buzz will not be killed in vancouver

balls, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 03:34 (ten years ago) link

three weeks pass...

I loved the first movie, was pretty much unmoved by this one. I got a modestly at best important text message 10 or 15 minutes before the end and decided, hey, fuck it, I'm just going to bail. I hate that every blockbuster these days just leads up to two groups shooting machine guns at each other. Also, almost every human being in this movie was miscast and poorly written. People make fun of Franco, fine, but he was essential to the first movie. This, half the dudes seem cast for their punchability. And really, gah, "hey, there's this paranoid hot-tempered guy who hates apes and wants to shoot them, let's take him along to negotiate with the apes, who requested no guns and don't trust humans!"

I was also amazed that Keri Russell was in this, but didn't get anything close to a close-up like 20 minutes in. I kept thinking, oh, is that Keri Russell? And then after I realized it was her I didn't care, because who was she in this? Some doctor? A barely-written cog in an ape-wheel machine that didn't need her?

Great ape effects, though. Hope the next one is all apes and sign-language, because I hated how these smart apes essentially spoke like cavemen crossed with Tonto. "Me no like this movie. This movie tread familiar ground. Me do something else with time."

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 16 August 2014 03:12 (ten years ago) link

i will raise my hand in favor of more keri russell, more keri russell close-ups

I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 16 August 2014 03:40 (ten years ago) link

"ape no like helping verbs!"

I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 16 August 2014 03:41 (ten years ago) link

two years pass...

THIS TIME IT'S WAR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEP1Mk6Un98

At this point I will watch Woody Harrelson do anything, so.

and this section is called boner (Phil D.), Friday, 9 December 2016 15:14 (seven years ago) link

well, yeah

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Friday, 9 December 2016 20:16 (seven years ago) link

this was so close to being a good trailer until the quasi-title drop

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, 9 December 2016 20:21 (seven years ago) link

if all big Hollywood CGI fests were as good as the previous two Apes films, we'd be in paradise. hoping this one doesn't let us down

Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Saturday, 10 December 2016 02:45 (seven years ago) link

although I'm concerned this will be more like just the last 30 mins of the last one. too much shooting and not enough cool ape stuff

Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Saturday, 10 December 2016 02:48 (seven years ago) link

this was so close to being a good trailer until the quasi-title drop

that was the best bit

Number None, Saturday, 10 December 2016 12:06 (seven years ago) link

seven months pass...

Never saw Dawn until last night; pretty good, even though the war-movie last act is too long and familiar, and Keri Russell is just doing her concerned-mom thing from her TV show w/out the lethal edge.

that scene with the two guards and the ape is straight out of "Prometheus" dumb behavior.

Never saw Prometheus, but that was one of the more knowing bits of social satire I thought.

Serkis has pioneered this motion-capture thing for actors, obviously. I might even pay to see the new one.

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 16 July 2017 17:12 (seven years ago) link

why wd you title the first movie Rise and the second Dawn, rather than the other way round?

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 16 July 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link

that bothered me too lool

the new one is the least of the three though it has its moments

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 16 July 2017 18:01 (seven years ago) link

yeah the naming struck me as a bit weird too

Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 16 July 2017 18:07 (seven years ago) link

Brunch of the Planet of the Apes

Number None, Sunday, 16 July 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link

Return Of The Planet Of The Apes: Apes Webinar

Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Sunday, 16 July 2017 18:17 (seven years ago) link

Redistricting of the Planet of the Apes: Tenderloin

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 16 July 2017 18:25 (seven years ago) link

although I'm concerned this will be more like just the last 30 mins of the last one. too much shooting and not enough cool ape stuff

No doubt I have a post saying this upthread, but the last film I made it until maybe up to the last 10 or 15 minutes or so, looked at my watch, then just decided I was so sick of watching monkeys shooting machine guns that I just left.

Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 16 July 2017 18:44 (seven years ago) link

Planet of the Apes: SoPA

Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 16 July 2017 18:58 (seven years ago) link

the new one mostly features apes using arrows and shit

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 16 July 2017 19:02 (seven years ago) link

Planet Of The Apes Lite

Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Sunday, 16 July 2017 19:12 (seven years ago) link

they could do a faithful mid-budget version of the original novel now, w/ a high-tech CG Ape City, but of course it is a talky satire and hence of zero interest to Fox.

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 16 July 2017 19:18 (seven years ago) link

I was so sick of watching monkeys shooting machine guns

does not compute

bitumen: the animated series (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 16 July 2017 19:34 (seven years ago) link

yeah cannot comprehend

Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 16 July 2017 19:55 (seven years ago) link

I recognize that on paper it makes no sense. But perhaps the monkey CGI is so good that I stopped thinking of them as humanoid monkeys and more just people firing machine guns like any other action movie.

Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 16 July 2017 19:57 (seven years ago) link

still not following u

Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 16 July 2017 20:26 (seven years ago) link

this was great, good ending to this part of the story. if they go on it would be interesting to see what they do, but they don't need to, as this kind of sets things up for the original film.

a few questions: 1) I assume that guy wasn't the girl's father because she shows no emotion at seeing him dead, as compared to the tears she sheds over the dead monkey about 20 minutes later 2) the virus robbing people of speech: she seems fine despite having no speech, so my guess is that it only affected the ability to talk, it didn't do anything else. but how long do we think she was like this? 3) it's never really clear how bad the rest of the world is. they seem to be travelling across Utah to Colorado at the end and don't encounter any people, so by this point, is most of humanity wiped out?

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 13:22 (seven years ago) link

it's never really clear how bad the rest of the world is. they seem to be travelling across Utah to Colorado at the end and don't encounter any people, so by this point, is most of humanity wiped out?

honestly despite the annoying opening crawl there was a lot about the world and even just the spatial logic of the movie that was completely lost to me

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, 17 July 2017 13:23 (seven years ago) link

^^ this. i'm like are they headed to tahoe?

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 17 July 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link

i assumed this took place between northern california and washington (it looks like Muir Woods again at the beginning and looked like Muir Beach where they found the girl) but they seemed to move very far north pretty quickly, I guess monkeys have faster velocity than I thought.

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 21:10 (seven years ago) link

There's a reason for the saying "fast as a monkey."

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 July 2017 21:13 (seven years ago) link

oh also the special effects in this movie are probably the best and most realistic I've ever seen.

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 21:35 (seven years ago) link

I've heard that from a few people, but I also thought that about the first and second movies, so I'm not sure what could make the effects better. An even more believable talking monkey running around with a machine gun?

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 July 2017 21:40 (seven years ago) link

you will absolutely believe these monkeys are real and you will care deeply.

but everything else is pretty amazing too. There is a very large environmental event that happens at the end of the movie which is breathtaking.

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 21:44 (seven years ago) link

well of course the one w/ Woody Harrelson wd have an environmental event

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, 17 July 2017 21:52 (seven years ago) link

it's not quite like that. I just didn't want to spoil what it was by being explicit.

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:19 (seven years ago) link

Do the monkeys throw their poop?

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:22 (seven years ago) link

Yes

nate woolls, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:23 (seven years ago) link

Sold!

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:33 (seven years ago) link

haha yes they do, one of the best scenes

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:37 (seven years ago) link

monkeys = feces flinging

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:38 (seven years ago) link

i assumed this took place between northern california and washington

I wasn't so much talking about the real-world geography as much as where events took place in relation to one another

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, 17 July 2017 22:40 (seven years ago) link

trajectory appears to be from marin to sierras to camp at the california/nevada border

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 17 July 2017 22:48 (seven years ago) link

then what was the desert?

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:48 (seven years ago) link

why can't these monkeys provide a map

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:49 (seven years ago) link

how does cornelius get all the way to new york

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 22:49 (seven years ago) link

lol akm i stopped at the camp for a reason

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 17 July 2017 22:55 (seven years ago) link

"and then they crossed Nevada by foot and set up in Salt Lake City"

Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 17 July 2017 22:55 (seven years ago) link

when are all the monkeys going to start wearing clothes

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 23:03 (seven years ago) link

these things keep me up at night

akm, Monday, 17 July 2017 23:03 (seven years ago) link

when are all the monkeys going to start wearing clothes

Ask Chewbacca.

Monkeys seem to do OK in climates both cool and tropical, so unless modesty is a concern they probably don't have to worry too much about cover. I bet given a choice they'd get a trim in the summer, though.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 11:49 (seven years ago) link

How is food production going in this post-monkey apocalypse? What is the North American monkey diet? Yes, we have no bananas.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 11:52 (seven years ago) link

btw Cornelius would get violent if you called chimps "monkeys"

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 11:53 (seven years ago) link

(bcz they are not)

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 11:53 (seven years ago) link

"Monkeys seem to do OK in climates both cool and tropical, so unless modesty is a concern they probably don't have to worry too much about cover."

yeah I know but Cornelieus and Dr. Zaius wore full on tunics.

akm, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 12:31 (seven years ago) link

Affectations, most likely, but I think they mostly wore them to hide the zippers, tbh.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 12:34 (seven years ago) link

apes wore clothes in the Boulle book

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 12:38 (seven years ago) link

apes wore clothes in the Boulle book

yeah it's the humans who wore no clothes to make clearer the distinction/inversion : civilized/animals (but also lol@"mostly wore them to hide the zippers, tbh.")
this latest movie seems pretty good with WH going full Brando/apocalypse now, apparently.

AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 12:58 (seven years ago) link

and I guess it allowed to throw more gratuitous nudity too !

AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 12:59 (seven years ago) link

ape nudity

akm, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 13:36 (seven years ago) link

the more I think about the new movie, the less I like it

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:14 (seven years ago) link

So having just seen the trailers, this seems like another one, like "King Kong," jammed full with Vietnam-referencing imagery. Or at least Vietnam movie references. Or maybe just First Blood references.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:19 (seven years ago) link

honestly Skull Island handled the Vietnam angle better

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:26 (seven years ago) link

And yet in Skull Island it was afaict totally pointless.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:29 (seven years ago) link

ape nudity

ahah, I was thinking about the 68 movie !
somehow that makes me think about things like Disney : why does Donald, for instance, wear a top but not a bottom ? anything else would make more sense (fully dressed, wearing only a bottom or nothing...) !

AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:35 (seven years ago) link

There is a steamroom scene w/ Dr Zaius and the gorilla general in Beneath, the first sequel to the original.

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:37 (seven years ago) link

And yet in Skull Island it was afaict totally pointless.

I disagree! I think "pointless military adventures are bad" worked just fine as a throughline. Hell, the residents of Skull Island were basically commies.

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:38 (seven years ago) link

meanwhile this movie literally has "Ape-Ocalypse Now" scrawled on a wall

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:39 (seven years ago) link

In any 2017 movie about voyaging to a distant secret island to capture a giant ape, Vietnam allegories are totally superfluous.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:42 (seven years ago) link

I'll take that over 100 minutes in Ape Auschwitz.

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:53 (seven years ago) link

"There is a steamroom scene w/ Dr Zaius and the gorilla general in Beneath, the first sequel to the original."

yes. sadly the conservatism of the time made them edit out the mutual ape massage scene that was in there.

akm, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 14:59 (seven years ago) link

"meanwhile this movie literally has "Ape-Ocalypse Now" scrawled on a wall"

that was so good. obv the references are over the top and over done but it is a movie with sentient monkeys

akm, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:00 (seven years ago) link

how subtle do you want it to be

akm, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:00 (seven years ago) link

I would watch a "The Doors" movie with apes.

AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:02 (seven years ago) link

love me two times baby
pnce cuz i'm an ape

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:03 (seven years ago) link

about Jimbo, the ape king.

AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:04 (seven years ago) link

The Doors movie could only have been improved by more ape

akm, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:04 (seven years ago) link

how subtle do you want it to be

I don't need subtle, I just found that the wink-nod stuff and the extreme grimness made for a really odd and kind of offputting tonal mismatch

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:05 (seven years ago) link

The Doors movie could only have been improved by more ape

honestly I would watch just about anything remade with the humans replaced w/ photorealistic apes. instant improvement

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:06 (seven years ago) link

i can't wait until we can get rid of SAG completely and make all upcoming movies with CGI ape

akm, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:27 (seven years ago) link

don't even need to get rid of the acronym, it can be the Screen Apes Guild

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:28 (seven years ago) link

will no one think about the live apes who are losing jobs?

Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link

why does Donald, for instance, wear a top but not a bottom ? anything else would make more sense (fully dressed, wearing only a bottom or nothing...) !

This is a good joke in Friends: something like, why does Donald wear a top but no bottoms, yet ties a towel around his waist when he gets out of the bath?

nate woolls, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:39 (seven years ago) link

Invisible pants

Neanderthal, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:41 (seven years ago) link

Porky Pig Style

mark s, Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:51 (seven years ago) link

ahah, topic covered (and very good point about the towel) !

AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 19 July 2017 10:34 (seven years ago) link

I was reading that AV Club thing with David Warner, and they mention his role in Planet of the Apes, and I kept thinking, huh, I don't remember that character at all. Then I realized I had completely forgotten the Tim Burton movie existed.

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 27 July 2017 17:13 (seven years ago) link


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