re: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Thoughts with Spoilers; Fricking fantastic)

‘Planet of the Apes’ Goes Bananas at Box Office and Hollywood Exhales

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That puts the sci-fi sequel on pace for a weekend in the $70 million range, well ahead of the projections of analysts and Fox, which is distributing the Chernin Entertainment production. It will end the two-week reign of Paramount's “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” which was a distant second Friday and is looking at a roughly $16 million third week.

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Looks like there will be a third one!

Yep..me and my GF are still talking about it

GREAT sequel

I know, right. This movie is so much better than Transformers, it's laughable.

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fricking transformers made like 3 times more money than this. Americans are retards.

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I'd blame the Chinese for Transformers more than Americans. It's not grossing just a stupid amount of money here as it is abroad. This movie is going to tank in China though, if they choose to release it at all, since the Chinese don't like morally relative characters and prefer for things to be in black and white moral code.

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Thanks.

Here are my thoughts on it. First, I liked it. I've been a fan of the Apes films since I was a kid back in the 70's.

There's little I can say in praise of the movie that hasn't already been said. It was as high quality as I was hoping for.

So I will just share my other thought, where I think the filmmakers may have missed an opportunity.

I think they should have killed Caesar. Here's why: When Caesar went down, the apes went on a rampage, and exhibited the kind of behavior we know from them in the original movies. They started rounding up humans in cages and elevated themselves above them by force. This could have been the whole setup as for when the Apes went off the rails, as we know them after the spaceship lands in "Planet of the Apes."

And it could have set up an interesting moral dilemma for audiences in the next film, who are sympathetic to the Apes. Can you continue to pull for the Apes even when they have clearly gone bad? Will your exposure to how Caesar wanted them to be alter your view of how they actually are, under new, more violent and fanatical leadership?

It would have also been more interesting to see the Ape castes a little more developed, in my opinion. You started to see some of it with the gorilla guards, orangutan teachers and chimpanzee medics, but I think this movie lacked an interesting gorilla character.

That's all I got. Overall, really good. I know better than to let my thoughts of how it "should" have been actually take away from what's there, and what's there is a solid follow up to the last movie.

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I'd blame the Chinese for Transformers more than Americans.

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this, too

transformers didn't even make $100M in its opening weekend domestically. what did this movie gross domestically?

In caesar's mind the humans are done, but I was wondering the same. I think it would have been lame making the plant the point of conflict instead of the mistrust between the two groups.

The fear is many if not all of the apes were held captive by humans

Humans show up and shoot ash

Speaking apes make a show of force...humans are now scared too add to the fact some blame the apes for the virus

Humans have a shite ton of guns...apes have none

That makes for a tensious situation. Caesar would have let them use the plant regardless but I do think it was odd no one protested on the grounds of strengthening the humans position thereby weakening the apes, and it meant increasing and perpetual ape/human interaction. I guess the other relationship factors were more than enough to cause a war and justify ape mistrust of humans being around

I'm not comparing the wrong thing...
Had Caesar said no or even hesitated, there would have been a war instantly. All of the other situational aspects would have been rendered meaningless in terms of stirring up mistrust and paranoia. It would also make everything pretty black and white. Of course the humans would go to war, could you blame them? They need power. It would have made the story less compelling and complex instead of more. Koba would not have any grounds to usurp Caesar, and him being the villain (not Dreyfus) was one of the more surprising and refreshing aspects of the movie. I don't want a statement on human violence and reliance upon technology

I found it to all be logically consistent.

Additionally the conversation between Caesar and maurice in the beginning gives a great insight into caesar's decision making in terms of the humans. To HIM, they kill each other and any concession he grants them won't change what is inevitable in his mind. He views humans as SELF destructive and that view is bolstered in the only rule of their society...ape no kill ape.