Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will hit all Theaters on May 23, 2014

[Hector]

I liked it...and preferred the internal personal conflict between honorable Caesar and ugly arse Koba...than the actual apes vs humans thing.

I thought the motion-capture was pretty solid...a few glitches here and there...but solid nevertheless.

I also like the lead human actor...Jason Clarke. But found the usually great Gary Oldman...a bit disappointing...his character was kinda cliche and bland.

Excellent popcorn flick.

[apes3978]

Another interview with director Matt Reeves:

http://www.zakiscorner.com/2014/07/time-warping-with-dawn-of-planet-of.html

This is what the UK will be able to buy when DAWN is released on DVD over there:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Caesars-Warrior-Collection-Set--Exclusive-Amazon-co-uk/dp/B00LO95JUM?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1405448853&sr=1-1&keywords=Caesar%27s+Warrior+Collection+Box+Set&tag=bluraycom-21

[palitoy]

Well seeing as it held steady to the box office for a second weekend, a third movie seems a lock.

[Mego Milk]

Loved it!

[torgospizza]

Just caught a matinee today with a buddy, and we both agreed it was the best sci-fi flick we've seen in a while. I actually sympathized with Koba's perspective to a degree, until...well, I don't know what the spoiler rules are for this thread. I didn't think the characters were all that flat. There has to be some shorthand involved when dealing with a cast of that size in a movie.

[MIB41]

Saw it today with my bro Chris (Emeraldknight), and we liked it but definitely felt let down by some of the narrative lapses and backpedaling the story direction took in the final chapter. Please skip the next comments if you do not want to read potential spoiler material...
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In a nutshell I thought the movie took the primary plot from Battle for the Planet of the Apes and repackaged the movie. I never liked the "humans" in this film because they all felt like extras in a disaster film. None of them came off terribly convincing to care about and most had a flip regard for dangerous situations like victims in a horror film. I didn't feel like Malcolm did much of anything to really earn Caesar's trust, so that was too easily gained. I also felt like the writers weren't sure what to do with the final chapter. With Caesar appearing to go home to die, the momentum of that direction was deflated when they decided to spare him and have him SOMEHOW face off against Koba, even though he was suppose to be nursing a critical injury.

For me, sparing Caesar took away that momentum to take them to war against humans. The ape collective learned that one of their own had tried to kill Caesar which in Battle for the Planet of the Apes brought humans and apes together. In this film, it's dismissed as a learning lesson for Caesar and Malcolm, but Caesar believes war between apes and humans is inevitable anyway? That seem like a throw away rationale at the end. It also drains the story points for another tale. If Caesar (the wisest and most educated leader of the apes) foresees no future for harmony amongst apes and humans, then what story is left to tell if no one learns from this betrayal in their own ranks? We know the rest of the story from here.

[clemso]

Watched Dawn of Planet of the Apes last night, actually thought it was pretty good. Andy Serkis was awesome as Caesar.

[apes3978]

Here's an article about the upcoming sequel:

http://www.hallels.com/articles/9811/20141016/planet-apes-3-release-date-cast-news-more-koba-s.htm

PS: It's not set to be released until 2016, so anybody who reads this might have forgotten about this article by then... That said, it has info that could "maybe" be seen as a spoiler, so read at your own risk...

[apes3978]

For anybody who's interested, "DAWN" is available for digital download today:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes/id888194597

[apes3978]

Here's a little speculation as to how many films they might end up with:

http://collider.com/planet-of-the-apes-trilogy/

[apes3978]

I'll always see these new ones as a rebooted franchise... There's too much different between the old and new for them to be prequels and it's not just makeup appliances vs. CGI... (And this is my own opinion as to how I look at them, I don't expect anyone to agree or disagree with me...)

[apes3978]

Thankfully they won't be doing anything as drastic as remaking PLANET:

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Planet-Apes-Franchise-Never-Remake-Original-Here-Why-68529.html

Then I hope they redo Planet and Beneath. That would cement that.

[ZMOQ]

Saw it today with my bro Chris (Emeraldknight), and we liked it but definitely felt let down by some of the narrative lapses and backpedaling the story direction took in the final chapter. Please skip the next comments if you do not want to read potential spoiler material...
/
/
/
/
In a nutshell I thought the movie took the primary plot from Battle for the Planet of the Apes and repackaged the movie. I never liked the "humans" in this film because they all felt like extras in a disaster film. None of them came off terribly convincing to care about and most had a flip regard for dangerous situations like victims in a horror film. I didn't feel like Malcolm did much of anything to really earn Caesar's trust, so that was too easily gained. I also felt like the writers weren't sure what to do with the final chapter. With Caesar appearing to go home to die, the momentum of that direction was deflated when they decided to spare him and have him SOMEHOW face off against Koba, even though he was suppose to be nursing a critical injury.

For me, sparing Caesar took away that momentum to take them to war against humans. The ape collective learned that one of their own had tried to kill Caesar which in Battle for the Planet of the Apes brought humans and apes together. In this film, it's dismissed as a learning lesson for Caesar and Malcolm, but Caesar believes war between apes and humans is inevitable anyway? That seem like a throw away rationale at the end. It also drains the story points for another tale. If Caesar (the wisest and most educated leader of the apes) foresees no future for harmony amongst apes and humans, then what story is left to tell if no one learns from this betrayal in their own ranks? We know the rest of the story from here.

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" finally hit Redbox video rentals, so I rented it a few days ago.

I am sooooo glad that I didn't see it in the theater. Although the apes were done fantastically well, my overall impression of the movie is "Meh".

I've been a longtime fan of POTA since the early 70's.

"Dawn" also struck me as having a lot of similarities with "Battle for the Planet of the Apes". But, in "Dawn", because of the script, it was really hard to figure out who to cheer for. "Tiny band of human survivors fighting off alien/zombie/monster/ape invasion" is a classic sci-fi gnere, and audiences would generally root for the humans. But, in "Dawn", the humans are not the good guys. They have trigger-happy idiots amongst them. The apes? Not really. Caesar is a noble figure, but the apes are clearly only at the beginning of their evolution into a true civilization. And they're still at the primal, unpredictable, hard-to-control, vicious "tear your face off" stage.

Some thoughts:

1) Maurice teaching the young apes that "Ape not kill ape" by writing it on a wall. Why? The apes are at a pre-verbal stage. Why teach them ENGLISH when their primary language is sign language? This was a nod to "Battle", but in "Battle" the apes spoke English, so teaching them to read and write in English made sense.

2) Zero continuity with the human characters. We'd never seen Malcolm nor Dreyfus in the previous POTA movie, and they're dropped in as the primary human cast in this one. Who the heck are they?

3) Caesar is barely able to speak. This makes it hard to identify with him and see him as the hero of the story. We are unable to discern his thought process, or how complex his thoughts are, because he lacks the ability to articulate them.

4) Caesar's mate is named "Cornelia" for no obvious reason. It's not as if Caesar's father was named, say, Cornelius, so that name doesn't really have a significance here. In "Battle", at least Roddy McDowall's Caesar was able to express his longing to see and hear the tapes of his deceased parents and it made sense that he named his son "Cornelius".

5) After the ape invasion of San Francisco, the heavily armed humans meekly surrender and allow themselves to be herded into a makeshift prison. Why? This looks like a clumsy merger of "Battle/POTA"'s dangerously armed mutants and weak, enslaved humans as the SAME group of people in "Dawn". It wouldn't make sense for "Dawn"'s contemporary humans to surrender like that, knowing that the apes are not sufficiently evolved to grant surrender terms, nor guarantee their safety. If I were them, I'd be terrified that my face would get torn off by an angry ape, and I sure as heck wouldn't put down my gun.

6) Although the San Francisco set pieces, such as the Federal Reserve Bank, the clock tower at the Ferry Bldg and the City Hall rotunda look fantastic, the human population looks all wrong. San Francisco, unlike the rest of the US, or New Orleans (where the movie was filmed), is 30% Asian. The human survivors have hardly an Asian amongst them. You'd think the film makers would do some research on demographics if they were going to set their movie in San Francisco?

7) "Dawn" doesn't look like a fun movie to base an action figure line from. I ran a Yahoo search and found out that there really was a series of 6"-7" figures. Now back in the 70's, I remember how much fun it was to have apes toys, improvise "mutants" and "astronauts" and make up new adventures. But what to do with these? Have pre-verbal, primitive apes attack perfectly normal and decent humans who are just trying to survive? Have idiot wannabe mercenaries attack mostly peaceful apes that should just be left alone in the trees? Have both sides make peace treaties?

I'm hoping the next movie in this rebooted POTA franchise is an improvement.