Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The next "Planet of the Apes" film will be called, "Dawn of the..." and its release date is 2 years away, slated for 23 May, 2014.

I wonder if we'll finally get to witness the cataclysmic disaster that destroys human civilization? To me, this should be much more interesting than "Rise".

@Mods: I'm well up for one, all-encompassing "Planet of the Apes" thread (like the James Bond one) so feel free to merge it, if you wish. That said, if every superhero sequel can have it's own thread, then why not more than one for those damned, dirty apes!

Stoo said:

The next "Planet of the Apes" film will be called, "Dawn of the..." and its release date is 2 years away, slated for 23 May, 2014.

I wonder if we'll finally get to witness the cataclysmic disaster that destroys human civilization? To me, this should be much more interesting than "Rise".

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I saw this mentioned on another forum this morning. It didn't fill me with excitement, but it'll be another Ape curiosity.

Stoo said:

@Mods: I'm well up for one, all-encompassing "Planet of the Apes" thread (like the James Bond one) so feel free to merge it, if you wish. That said, if every superhero sequel can have it's own thread, then why not more than one for those damned, dirty apes!

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I'd like to see the originals kept in a separate thread, with maybe Rise and Dawn in their own unified thread.

While the two eras of film-making have a common source, to me they're quite a different animal.



As for Burton's entry, well, it's a movie I just can't abide. Maybe there's space for it among the empty bottles in the skip by back door of The Raven?

I'm quite curious to see where they go with this. From what I gather it'll be somewhere between this last one and full standing upright talking apes. Sort of slippery slope. Can easily come off horrible if not done with care.

2014?!?!?!?! Fuuuuuuuudge *only I didn't say fudge*

Great news! I was a big fan of Rise of the POTA, and felt it was one of last year's best films. It was also my all-time favorite Apes film (and I've been an Apes fan since the early '80's).

I always suspected there would be a sequel to Rise since that did so well at the box office (and was also critically acclaimed), but it's nice to get official confirmation.

I wonder how long after Rise this new film will take place?! I guess details will be forthcoming....

Official Trailer:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3sHMCRaS3ao?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Published on 8 May 2014

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

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That trailer is the best kind of kick in the ass. I'm now going to see this movie opening weekend or die.

Bring on the Ape-ocalypse!

Really looking forward to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - huge Apes fan from way back, and really enjoyed Rise of the POTA. I have a feeling this film may be even better, based on the trailers. Though the Apes looked great in Rise, if anything they look even better here - the CGI is truly spectacular...

Most of the humans are presented as real tools. You are definitely more sympathetic towards the Apes, which is the whole point. It seems like the humans want to "get back" at the Apes because of the anti-Alzheimer's experimental drug that made them intelligent, which in turn caused the virus that wiped out many of the humans...even though humans created this virus in the first place. The Apes just want to be left alone & in peace, and the humans are clearly the aggressors & instigators here. Hopefully the humans will get their collective a$$e$ kicked...

I also like the fact that it doesn't appear that all of the Apes can speak easily; in Rise only Caesar was able to speak, and in this Dawn trailer I believe we only hear him speaking haltingly as well. This makes sense, since the Apes wouldn't need to actually talk to each other to communicate, and they've presumably been living isolated from humans since the beginning of the virus (as seen at the very end of Rise). This is a far cry from the original films; in Conquest all of the Apes were mute except for Caesar - and then, in Battle (taking place 13 years after Conquest) most of the Apes can speak English fluently....despite the fact that in these original films, an explanation was never given as to why the Apes even became intelligent...Yeah, right...

Also, there are several scenes in one of the Dawn trailers where the humans & Apes are looking at what appear to be operational I-phones, I-pads, etc. I wonder where they're getting the electricity to power these after the devastation. Presumably they must have emergency generators somewhere, or another form of power...

Also wanted to let my fellow Apes-fans know that recently the novel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm was released. I haven't read it yet, but it's a prequel to the forthcoming film & apparently documents what happened between Rise & Dawn. Should be interesting.

Here's a review - note that spoilers are included here:

http://agentsofgeek.com/2014/05/dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-firestorm-review/

Don of the Planet of the Apes, summer's next to last potential blockbuster, is rating and tracking well. I know a previous draft (well, 1996) ended with an ape's face on the Statue of Liberty, so I'm trying not to spoil myself of whatever final shot they've chosen or too much else.

Excellent!

Saw an advance screening this evening and LOVED it! Now, I've being going ape over "Planet of the Apes" since 1974 so maybe I'm being a little biased but it's really, really, really, REALLY GOOD. I won't say more until some other people have had a chance to see the movie.

On opening night in 2 days, I'll be back to see it again...this time in UltraAVX 3D!

saw it today...easily the best movie of the summer.

Stoo said:

Saw an advance screening this evening and LOVED it! Now, I've being going ape over "Planet of the Apes" since 1974 so maybe I'm being a little biased but it's really, really, really, REALLY GOOD. I won't say more until some other people have had a chance to see the movie.

On opening night in 2 days, I'll be back to see it again...this time in UltraAVX 3D!

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Thrilled you loved it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see it soon. I do love my Andy Serkis-as-ape movies...

Absolutely fantastic film that has earned a place with the classic series. I loved Rise as well but this really cements this new series in a fantastic way.

The more I see of it the less interested I am in it.

And it comes down to one factor. The apes, by way of their realism, are visually un-inspiring compared to the originals.

Nothing beats the classic 'ape-men' designs.





So much cooler than these guys with their arses hanging out:

Montana Smith said:

The more I see of it the less interested I am in it.

And it comes down to one factor. The apes, by way of their realism, are visually un-inspiring compared to the originals.

Nothing beats the classic 'ape-men' designs.

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Anti-progress, is that yooooouuuuuu???

kongisking said:

Anti-progress, is that yooooouuuuuu???

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In this case, definitely. But only on the grounds of visual appeal. This isn't King Kong, which was visually improved by technology, but a quite different storyline.

I grew up with the imagery of the classic apes - on film, in comics and in the novelizations. It was a thrill whenever they appeared on screen. The rebooted pseudo-real CGI apes don't elicit anywhere near the same interest or support.

2001 A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes. Both 1968 films featuring ape-men.

2001 had the more realistic take:



But at the Oscars it was John Chambers who won the Honorary Award "For his outstanding make-up achievement" for Planet of the Apes. There's just something about those apes that was right, even though they were so obviously wrong.

Where the new films gain is in presenting the aftermath of the apocalypse itself, which CGI is perfectly suited to accomplish.

The reboot series is presenting a very primitive era in the Planet of the Apes, so to me it makes sense that they used Motion Capture. Make-up was great for portraying an advanced culture, but CGI is about the only way to the portray Apes how they want to in these new stories.

I find the ways these actors are able to pour their souls into their digital Ape-doubles is incredible. Motion capture is essentially the new "make-up" because we are still seeing exceptional performances from actors simply covered in a second skin.

I think as this series moves forward we will see the Apes slowly evolve into a more humanoid shape like we saw in the Classic series.

HenryJunior said:

The reboot series is presenting a very primitive era in the Planet of the Apes, so to me it makes sense that they used Motion Capture. Make-up was great for portraying an advanced culture, but CGI is about the only way to the portray Apes how they want to in these new stories.

I find the ways these actors are able to pour their souls into their digital Ape-doubles is incredible. Motion capture is essentially the new "make-up" because we are still seeing exceptional performances from actors simply covered in a second skin.

I think as this series moves forward we will see the Apes slowly evolve into a more humanoid shape like we saw in the Classic series.

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The limitations of 1960s and 1970s technology naturally dictated the appearance of the classic apes. But in the process created something better than reality, even though I questioned how (within the frame of the story) they were already so different from real apes.



I would describe my reaction to this new Apes series in a similar way to my initial reaction to Avatar, whose blue-skinned Na-vi I found wholly unappealing.

But, unlike Planet of the Apes, the creatures of Avatar had no direct precedent. You just had to grow to like them on their own terms ? which is where Rise and Dawn will stand as rebooted Boulle-an material.

And the time paradox is still gone isn't it? Caesar is the product of human experimentation rather than almost two-thousand years of extra evolution?