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Author Topic: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-18-2014 12:55 AM                        The result of the choice of the aspect of the ratio of the image of the movie of the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was not good.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 07-18-2014 05:38 PM                     Let's all bow before our new grammar overlord: Simple Joe.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-18-2014 08:43 PM                        Up with that I will not put  |  IP: Logged Stu Jamieson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 524 From: Buccan, Qld, Australia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 07-19-2014 09:22 PM                     Directly picking up where the previous film left off, the end credit sequence for Rise of the Planet of the Apes becomes the title sequence for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The plague created by Will Rodman's Alzheimer's "cure" has spread throughout the globe and decimated the human population and, presumably, empowered ape populations worldwide. Caesar's simian refugees build a growing community in the redwood forest while a splinter group of human survivors eke out an existence within the ruins of San Francisco. The humans' diminishing fuel supplies required for electricity generation inevitably bring them into contact with Caesar's community who presides over a derelict hydroelectric facility. This loose remake of Battle for the Planet of the Apes (the final film in the original franchise) betters it's already excellent predecessor in most respects with more frequent action, intriguing plot and admirably balanced political themes. It's a grown up film which accepts the complicated reality that good guys and bad guys are not divided along social, racial or indeed special lines; that, despite the best intentions of our heroes for peace, there is an inevitability of conflict in the world and an, albeit reluctant, place for violence within it. We all know this, of course, but in movieland we like to believe that all issues are in simple black and white. At least that's what the money men behind the movies tend to think. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is here to show us that audiences are indeed capable of, and will happily digest, complicated real world issues as forms of high end entertainment and that it can be done to a high degree of quality. Quality films require quality performances and the key roles deliver here. It's nice to see Jason Clarke in a hero role and be effective in it. Andy Serkis is, as always, amazing with the physicality of his performance as Caesar and, as usual, you would never know it were him were his name not in the credits. Gary Oldman is sleep walking through this but even a slumberous Oldman is rarely worth complaining about. No mention of the performances would be complete without commenting on the apes in the film which are amazingly realistic. Whether they be real, make-up or CGI (likely a mixture of all three, I suspect), the effect is phenomenally convincing. The film does fall down a tad in it's overblown climactic battle which is incommensurate with the intelligent plotting and action within the film thus far. But despite this tendency towards Transformers in the final act, the film remains, on the whole, a highly entertaining blockbuster with an intelligent social commentary. 9.5 out of 10 P.S. If I may weigh in on the aspect ratio debate, I actually thought a couple of times throughout this movie that it should have been in scope and that the cinema may have been presenting it in an incorrect ratio. There were one or two shots in there where I thought the picture was cropped a little aggressively. One of the shots was when Caesar was atop his horse and the top of his head was cropped.  |  IP: Logged Mike Frese Master Film Handler Posts: 465 From: Holts Summit, MO Registered: Jun 2007 posted 07-21-2014 09:21 PM                        AMC Desert Star 15, Baraboo, WI (near Wisconsin Dells), 2d Presentation was very good, sound was the perfect volume, very comfortable seats $5 tickets! weekday matinee price, pretty good attendance for a 4 pm show, wish this my local theater (8+ hours away from me), could pricing be a factor for the good attendance? I know I would go see a lot more movies at the theater with $5 tickets. Liked the movie a lot. Well paced. Never looked at my watch for the time. The bad, a little kid kicking the seat next to me. And his dad having to read the subtitles to the kid because the kid could not read.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-21-2014 10:23 PM                        So wouldn't Dawn come before Rise? You have to dawn before you can rise. Screw these movies they clearly suck.  |  IP: Logged Stu Jamieson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 524 From: Buccan, Qld, Australia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 07-21-2014 10:39 PM                     I usually rise before dawn.......  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-22-2014 02:05 AM                     quote: Lyle Romer The chips are 2048 pixels wide and only use 1998 for flat. I assume in these common width, non masked setups, they are chopping off those 50 pixels in scope. Ever notice the lens rotate and zoom down when the scope cue engages? Scope image zooms down to fit within the 2048 pixel width. Just that the height misses the HD requirements of 1080 with being only 858 pixels high. Now, with 4K, we have no problems meeting HD requirements in any format. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 07-23-2014 07:08 AM                     Saw it at Atlantic Station Regal on their RPX screen(Dolby Atmos). The face value of the ticket was 17 bucks!!!! But I ended up paying only 13 since I had a Regal discount pass. Visually, I preferred the first movie shot in the wider aspect ratio. Colors were more vivid in the first movie. Then again, the muted approach to colors were probably because of the tone of the second movie and the use of 3D. The Atmos mix was good, but Gravity has spoiled me as to how great that mix can be. Also Gravity may be the best movie I have watched in terms of 3D enhancing the movie. I watched Gravity on HBO recently and it was so clear that watching it on home video even if you had a great home theater was a distinct step down from watching it in a multiplex mini large format with Atmos. Compared to that, I don't think watching Dawn of the planet of the apes in a good home theater in 2D and a smaller format won't be such a step down. Narratively, this is a worthy sequel. I loved the first movie on par with the original Planet of the Apes(the only apes movie I didn't care for was Burton's ridiculous reboot). Koba's character was hilarious. My quibbles with the 3D drawbacks in this movie: Scenes where Keri Russell is talking to Jason Clarke's son. The profile of the person whose back is to us appears like an indistinguishable blur. Also transition scenes where there is an overlay of the prior scene with the new scene just didn't work in 3D whereas it would have been seemless in the 2D version. Also the scale of Caesar seemed to vary a lot in the 3D cinematography. Overall, hopefully Hollywood will remember from movies like these that you do not need to make every big budget movie based on a comic book or old cartoon show.  |  IP: Logged

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