Film Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Copyright: 20th Century Fox

This movie is one exceedingly solid piece of cinema. From the first moment director Matt Reeves dabbles with risk by placing the viewers in the shoes (figuratively speaking) of the apes, a species who weren’t decimated by the outbreak of a powerful fly epidemic a decade earlier which practically annihilated humanity.

The apes, led by Cesar, create a vibrant society with different roles and tasks, as well as a completely gestural communication. A chance encounter with a group of human survivors sets these groups on a collision path.

 Reeves chose to show his viewers the apes before he showed them the humans, and this move pays off really well. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, unlike many others set in a post-human world, excels in showing the Earth after our current civilization was wiped out and transported to the past. It doesn’t show a crumbling substitution of a former system, but a crude blossom of something completely new.

Mis-Drop - A short movie by Ferand Peek

Sci-fi shorts are often a proving ground for a CGI oriented crowd, but this film presents something really different. At first, I was doubtful about its length (13 minutes for a short piece is a lot of time) and its ability to hold my attention. But, only after the first two minutes I was hooked. Mis-Drop uses the well known "planetary drop" scenario, which is a staple of the military science fiction genre, and does it with a twist that involves a clever new perspective point. Thanks to good writing, the thing which impressed me the most was the fact that the background chatter provided an awesome reference frame for the entire piece by setting the atmosphere as well as the dynamic moments in the plot. Ferand Peek did a great job with this piece.

Film Review: A Public Ransom

Copyright: apublicransom.wordpress.com

Movies have this distinct problem that the need to be visual. Even if your entire film takes place in one large hall, and all buildings are drawn out on the floor, you have to show all of this. Talking about a movie isn’t the same as creating it, and here lies the crucial problem with A Public Ransom.

If you turn off the video part of this film, and just listen to the audio track, you would probably get the same experience as anyone who watched it. It seems to me that it was conceptualized without making the distinction between a radio drama and a motion picture. Here, there is no motion, except in the narrative sense. Its actors stand around and seem as if awkwardly positioned laptop cameras filmed them.

And, of course, they talk. In A Public Ransom, the talking doesn’t end, and serves the purpose of transmitting information in and continues stream, interrupted on several occasions by music tracks. The entirety of the film is in dialogs, and they don’t hold up.

The story is set around Steven, a writer, who sees a poster depicting a missing child and a telephone number. He meets up with a character named Bryan, who claims that he kidnapped the kid, and will release its captor if Steven produces 2000 dollars.

Alone - A short movie by Dillon Schohr

Dillon Schohr is a filmmaker from LA who made a short post-apocalyptic short film about a lone man trekking through the desert. The film features a very good soundtrack which works perfectly with the barren desert scenery. For me, its biggest drawbacks are an ambiguous storyline which kind of works against it in the end, as well as the final montage. Still, Alone is an interesting short piece, and you can watch it here.

Film Review: Dust of War (2013)

Copyright: Dust of War (2013)

Dust of War is an action adventure that works perfectly in concept. In a distant future, an alien invasion decimated our planet, and now, warring tribes fight over dominance while the mostly unseen, yet much feared alien masters pull the strings. A girl called Ellie is the key for the salvation of the entire humanity, but she is being held in a camp controlled by a ruthless warlord. Two mercenaries are sent on a covert mission to save her from a very unpleasant future, and give man a fighting chance.

Andrew Kightlinger, a veteran of several short features, directed Dust of War as his first feature length film. It’s obvious that Kightlinger worked diligently on the screenplay and polished it to action perfection. Every known and needed element is present in this film, starting with the damsel in distress.

Also, almost every imaginable post-apocalyptic character is in the script, and even the main antagonist called the General has two separate henchmen lieutenants that slowly build up their unique brand of evilness, and are bound to perish in two distinct but gruesome ways. Able, the main mercenary is quiet and lethal, while his older, cynical partner is everything but quiet. There is even a Native American tracker in the film!

Film Review: Godzilla (2014)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

This is a movie which I get, and at the same time I am left wondering if I truly get in the way its creator shaped it. A few years back, Gareth Edwards directed Monsters, a monsters flick, which really wasn’t about monsters at all. In the same fashion Godzilla 2014 really isn’t about Godzilla.

Somehow, I think that this movie is mostly about large-scale things that happen behind actors back, way beyond in the distance. This feeling of “destruction is so large that even those miles away are affected” is interesting, and Edwards really didn’t want to get rid of it (it was present in Monsters too, but everybody thought it was due to a small budget). In this film, he can show whatever he wants, but he still decided to hold back on destruction as long as possible. Godzilla 2014 can even be called a destruction tease.

The story of the film is full of people who just about manage to do something before everything gets annihilated by ancient monsters. Its characters are fluid, and their tasks get filled in when they arrive at a certain place. For example, Aaron Taylor-Johnson character Ford starts out as a loving father and a husband, then he is an angry son who turns into a reluctant explorer, then a bomb technician, a random child protector and savior, followed by a railway scout and finally he transforms into a special forces member.