DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - updated

(2014) 130 Minutes,  Rated PG-13

Mike's Review:  This movie takes place about ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes and was just as good. Andy Serkis does another incredible job playing the lead ape Caesar,  and it was interesting to see how "human" the apes were becoming.  I won't spoil the movie for you by going into the details of how the story plays out, but I will say the ape Koba is one to watch.

I didn't care for having to read all the conversations between the apes, they should have been talking more.

And I didn't care for the huge building death match at the end of the movie, it was just way too over the top.

Best Scene: Caesar's scenes were all pretty good.

Mike's Rating: Worth the price of the ticket.

Joe’s Review:  This movie picks up about 8 to 10 years in the future after the first movie; “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.  But this movie stands on its own and you do not need to see the First movie to enjoy this movie which you should!   

This movie shows how the apes have thrived and built their own society under the direction of their leader Caesar played by Andy Serkis; who does another outstanding job in the guise of a cgi character.  But just when all is calm and good.  Stuff hits the fan!! And battle breaks out between the remaining humans and the apes!! The Human side is well represented across the board from good to stupid!  Relatively unknown actor Jason Clarke does a great job as the concerned scientist and Keri Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee round out the small family unit nicely.   

Gary Oldman is of course very good even though he goes off the deep end and Kirk Acevedo does a great job as the typical human idiot that just keeps fanning the flames of controversy.  This Movie was very well done and very entertaining not just from an action stand point but from a story standpoint as well.  It was one of the best breakdowns of believable ape / human relationships that have come down the pike.

Best Scene:  When the battle begins to the end

Joe’s Rating:  Worth the Price of the ticket

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION - updated

(2014) 165 Minutes, Rated PG-13

Bean's Review: Unfortunately (again!), disappointing.  This movie just did not coalesce like the first and third Transformer movies.    The interaction between Mark Wahlberg’s character, Cade and Nicola Peltz, Tessa, his daughter, was not even close to the so funny interaction between Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and his parents.  Tessa’s character was not needed, as it was just fluff and her boyfriend was even more fluff-with an Irish accent that came and went throughout the movie.  I just found Shane to be annoying.  Also, Cade and Shane just did not mesh in the movie, the banter between the two was forced and not that funny.  I just could not relate to Wahlberg’s character, as I could with Sam’s character.   The script for his character was just not that good. 

  

The side-kick, “surfer dude” (where do you surf in Texas?), Lucas, although, also, not needed at all for the movie, was needlessly and very creepily killed early in the movie. Kelsey Grammer did a fair job, but the badness was over the top.  Stanley Tucci’s role began slow and ho-hum and then got very funny and one you could relate to as in the first and third Transformer movies with John Turturro’s role of Agent Simmons.   Too bad it took so long for the writers to get it right in the storyline.  And the development of his girlfriend/assistant was bizarre, as I first thought Tucci’s character worked for her (Su Yueming).

   

The actual “stars” of the movie, the Transformers, were also lackluster.  Optimus Prime was not as riveting and attention getting as in the prior movies and the other Transformer characters seemed forced or too cliché.  But, the arrival of the dinosaur Transformers helped the storyline.

  

The movie was slow at the beginning and did not really get out of the my “DVD rating” until the last hour or so. 

Best scene:  Stanley Tucci’s role in the elevator sipping the carton of milk, as with Ken Jeong’s character in the third Transformer movie.

Bean’s rating:  Matinee

Mike's Review:  Well to start I pretty much agree with everything in Beans's Review above so I won't get into all of the human problems and character issues with this Transformers movie.  Instead I first want to say the way they portrayed Optimus Prime in this movie was just wrong to the core.  In everything and every version of every Transformers storyline Optimus Prime has always more or less been fighting to protect the humans. They even put it into words in the first Transformers movie (2007) when he sends his message into space inviting other Autobots to join him.  In this movie, he acted more like a robot seeking revenge on humans, when in every other story ,he is the one that always tries to be better than that.

Now onto some of the other problems I had with this movie.  The story line was basically two story lines thrown together which made the movie almost three hours long. Individually these story lines have more or less already been explored in other variations of Transformers tales.  

One part of this movies story line was Megatron's head being used to create basically a new body for himself.  This was first done in The Transformers: The Movie (1986) where Megatron was badly damaged and floating around as space debris and then "reborn" into Galvatron by a more powerful Transformer called Unicron who sent off his new creation of Galvatron to retrieve Optimus Prime's spark. 

It was then redone more closely to this movies version in the  Transformers: Animated cartoon (2007) where Megatrons head was in the lab of a scientist and Megatron was secretly using the scientist to rebuild his body.  

The other part of this movies story line was based on Lockdown who is more or less a Transformer turned bounty hunter.  The first time I came across his story line was in the cartoon Transformers Prime (2010) but it was also more or less the roll Galvatron played in The Transformers: The Movie (1986).  I have no problem with either side of the two story lines, the problem I had is that they put them together and made the movie way more complicated and longer then it needed to be.

Other things I had issues with included the way the Transformers looked.  Most of them were made out to look like Samurai in armor.  I know they are trying to "kiss-up' to the overseas markets, but Optimus Prime is not a Samurai.   

I didn't like the fact that they killed off Ratchet, or the way they did it, or what they did with his remains.

I didn't like the fact they had a Transformer pretending to and/or actually smoke.

I didn't like the Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)/Avatar (2009) rip off of the new element "Transform-ia" or the fact that it acted like a flying liquid metal.

I didn't like the fact that there was zero military involved in this movie.  The first three Transformer movies had some kind of decent military side story to them.  It seems odd that a group of soldiers or something didn't ban together to help out the Autobots in this movie. 

Then there were the Dinobots. Yes they did look slick but they only showed up in the last half hour of the movie and I don't think all their names were ever said, and or the new ones introduced, so you knew what or who they were.  And then they had Optimus Prime threaten to kill them if they didn't help him, again which is totally out of character for Optimus Prime.

I know these movies are huge money printing monsters, but they won't be if they don't stay true to what the Transformers are all about.  If they don't tone down all the killing and find some decent way to continue this franchise it just might become extinct.

 
Best Scene:  There were a few parts of the movie that I did like and one of them was when Bumble Bee came across Stinger.

Mike's Rating: Matinee.

A.C.'s Review: Too old to have grown up watching and playing with Transformers these movies hold no emotional attachment for me. I’ll watch them but I in no way look forward to them with any anticipation so I go in with no expectations.

THE GOOD

No more Shia LeBouf…the actor has proven to be such  a tool in real life that the sight of him in a fictional movie taints his films now. I’m glad he’s not in it but do think some sort of onscreen mention about him from Optimus Prime was warranted.

The last 45 minutes serves up the meat and potatoes of the film. The Destruction Porn in major cities when giant metal robots fight and it did not disappoint. In this movie it was Hong Kong that took the brunt of the punishment.

The new characters were pretty good  specifically  the father, daughter and the billionaire businessman. Strangely the female scientist I had pegged for Wahlberg’s love interest did not connect with him. The girls boyfriend was generic and failed to register.

Loved the little dinosaur trying to escape extinction via a “Seed Bomb” in the opening minutes. He was cure and I felt sorry for him.

THE BAD:

The most annoying character of the best friend was thankfully dispatched early on and his lame attempts at humor that garnered no laughs in the theater were put to an end

I dare anyone not familiar with the Transformers to name more than two of them. The only ones I could name were Optimus and Bumblebee. The movie was poor about giving names to the other ones and I have no idea what they were called. Especially the tiny “comic relief” Transformer.

Titus Welliver. I feel bad for the actor because he apparently was born with a face that hollers “BAD GUY” which was just what he played as Kelsey Grammer’s henchman. Just once I’d like to see a casting director cast him against type and play a good guy.

Best Scene: The heroes trying to navigate cables thousands of feet above the Chicago streets while being pursued by robot/dog beasts.

A.C.'s Rating: MATINEE