Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the best movie of the year so far. There's no other way of saying it, it's just that good. The film is directed by Matt Reeves and stars Andy Serkis, Toby Kebbell Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, and Gary Oldman. This movie is just so well made and well thought out I actually had trouble finding any negatives. Matt Reeves did a terrific job with directing this film, his vision for it makes it possibly one of the best sequels ever made. But I'm getting ahead of myself, there's an actual review in here somewhere.
First off, I have to mention the fantastic special effects for the apes, and the performances behind them. WETA continues to do great work in the realm of motion capture, helping convey the emotions of the actors given performances as primates. Andy Serkis is so great in the role of Caesar, and it really shines through every time the character appears on screen. Another great motion capture performance comes Toby Kebbell, or Koba, as he is known in the film. I could honestly spend hours writing about how good Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell were in Dawn, but again, I'm getting ahead of myself. The story also did a very good job of keeping the viewer guessing as to which direction the story would take. And like most people, I was glad it did not turn out like Avatar, which I do like but this movie would have suffered a lot more if it didn't have the story it had (that's all I can say without spoilers). As for the human performances, Jason Clarke and Keri Russell are good in their roles, nothing special really. Gary Oldman, for the few scenes he had, gave a great and kind of heartbreaking performance.
The only negatives that I could find in this movie were in the script. While for the majority of the movie, the script is really good; however, there are those expositional moments that just kind of feel forced. Showing not telling is usually the way to go, but it doesn't happen that much in Dawn so I let it slide. Other than that, I had no other problems with the movie.
There are a good number of movies that I have really enjoyed this year so far, but this has to be my favorite so far. It might not be the smartest movie I have watched all year, but to have this good of story, characters, effects, etc., I can't help but love it so much.
5/5
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Deliver Us From Evil Movie Review
Deliver Us From Evil is another supernatural horror movie from Scott Derrickson, director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinster. It stars Eric Bana, Joel McHale, Edgar Ramirez, and Olivia Munn.
When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was intrigued by the trailer, which had some good scares within it. While the movie was not as good as the trailer, it was still a serviceable horror movie. The overall story is relatively decent, it comes off as very by the numbers. The performances also come off as by the numbers which doesn't help the movie, but it doesn't hurt. What really makes the movie enjoyable is the atmosphere Derrickson creates with the dilapidated apartments and creepy visuals. While some of what helps the atmosphere is flashing lights, there are some very well executed shots of scary things happening (one scene in particular happening after hours in a mental institution).
Some of the negatives with the movie are with the scares, most them being jump scares. Many of the jump scares are "false alarms" and unintentionally hilarious. Derrickson already had a creepy atmosphere, he didn't need a jump scare every ten seconds. The only performance that I had an issue with was Edgar Ramirez. For the majority of the film he just seemed robotic and uninteresting. It wasn't until the end when I started to enjoy his performance.
I would recommend Deliver Us From Evil, but have medium expectations going in, do not expect something like Sinister. It's a by the numbers horror film that does it job well.
3/5
When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was intrigued by the trailer, which had some good scares within it. While the movie was not as good as the trailer, it was still a serviceable horror movie. The overall story is relatively decent, it comes off as very by the numbers. The performances also come off as by the numbers which doesn't help the movie, but it doesn't hurt. What really makes the movie enjoyable is the atmosphere Derrickson creates with the dilapidated apartments and creepy visuals. While some of what helps the atmosphere is flashing lights, there are some very well executed shots of scary things happening (one scene in particular happening after hours in a mental institution).
Some of the negatives with the movie are with the scares, most them being jump scares. Many of the jump scares are "false alarms" and unintentionally hilarious. Derrickson already had a creepy atmosphere, he didn't need a jump scare every ten seconds. The only performance that I had an issue with was Edgar Ramirez. For the majority of the film he just seemed robotic and uninteresting. It wasn't until the end when I started to enjoy his performance.
I would recommend Deliver Us From Evil, but have medium expectations going in, do not expect something like Sinister. It's a by the numbers horror film that does it job well.
3/5
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