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

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

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

This is very rong.

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

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.

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

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).

Morbz just hates when people respond reflexively

let me get my hammer

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

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").

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.

xpost

wanted MORE pre-production time

sorry again for typos

http://on.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/apes-raises-a-common-question-about-reboots-why-so-serious/2014/07/14/c6682966-0795-11e4-a0dd-f2b22a257353_story.html?tid=hpModule_1f58c93a-8a7a-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e

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

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

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

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)

Haven't seen the Heston

check, please

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

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

yeah nothing self-serious about that opening text

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

*known

love OG planet of the apes

Most important scene:

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

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?

original film has plenty of adolescent monkey jokes too.

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

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

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.

Cool, thanks Morbs :)

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.

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

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

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

So I ended up watching this last night

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.

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

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"

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

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, 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 try to live up to that spice

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

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.

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!

yeah the more i ponder this the stupider it seems

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.

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

(no bad thing of course)

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

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 would watch a "The Doors" movie with apes.

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

about Jimbo, the ape king.

The Doors movie could only have been improved by more ape

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Invisible pants

Porky Pig Style

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

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.