2014 Summer Movie Season Awards by Matt Harrison

So this is my 100th post on this blog and I thought I'd do something a little different for it. The 2014 summer movie season has been really fantastic in my opinion and I'd thought I'd give my favourite movies of the summer some recognition with awards I literally made up this morning...


Movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Raid 2 will not be awarded anything as I saw them both in late March/April time. I didn't see every movie of the summer but I saw all of the big ones so without further delay let's begin:



Best Hero - Caesar (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Out of all of the characters in the movies which came out this summer, none were more heroic than Caesar. Andy Serkis put in the best performance of his career and gave incredible raw humanity to a CGI ape. The character of Caesar is one of the best ever created and through him channels an incredible amount of human emotion. Plus he's a badass leader, and winner of Best Hero.



Best Villain - Koba (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Toby Kebbell's amazing performance as Koba proved that Andy Serkis has made motion capture a thing which any actor can do. Out of all of the villains this summer Koba had the most menacing presence and did the most evil things. And on top of that you could actually understand what his motivations were, unlike villains like Ronan the Accuser or Bolivar Trask.



Best action scene - The Tank scene (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)


We were blessed with some awesome action this summer. I considered putting in the Quicksilver scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past, the Normandy beach fight in Edge of Tomorrow and the cheer inducing final battle from Godzilla, but this one blew my mind the most. When I first saw it I was in awe of how it was created and stunned when I thought about the detail that must have gone into directing and shooting a scene like that. Please watch it if you haven't already, but you must have seen the film by now, right?



Best comic book movie - X-Men: Days of Future Past

I really liked Guardians of the Galaxy, I thought that the characters were all brilliant, the action was good and I loved just how funny it was and how it didn't take itself to seriously. However, X-Men: Days of Future Past was a much more solid movie with amazing performances from actors who transformed into their characters. It had smart writing, amazing action and real drama and tension similar to what Dawn of the Planet of the Apes had. I loved this movie and thought it was the best comic book movie of the summer.



Best music - Guardians of the Galaxy

Star Lord, Gamora, Rocket, Drax and Groot are awesome and yes the movie was funny as hell so I couldn't leave the Guardians out. So I thought about it for a while before I realised that it had the best music of any summer film by far. The actual score itself was sufficient but the addition of "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" added so much into the film's character and personality. The opening scene with Star Lord still impresses me when I think about it today...



Best animated movie - How to Train Your Dragon 2

It had absolutely no competition. It was easily the best animated film of the summer.



Best comedy - 22 Jump Street

There were a lot of really funny movies this summer like Bad Neighbours and Guardians of the Galaxy. But I laughed the hardest in 22 Jump Street. The chemistry and timing between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum is spot on and the "kitchen scene" with Ice Cube is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.



Best limited release - Boyhood

Richard Linklater's Boyhood proved that good things are worth waiting for. It took him 12 years to make this 2 hour and 45 minute long film and it paid off because it naturally and authentically captured the essence of childhood and growing up better than any film before it. It was an easy watch and deserves some recognition.



Best trailer - Interstellar trailer 1 

A lot of cool trailers landed this summer but none excited me more than the first full length Interstellar trailer which came out in mid May. The thing gives me goose bumps even now when I watch it. I love the way it intrigues you without spoiling anything, plus Hans Zimmer's score which progressively builds up in the background is perfect.



Most anticipated fall movie - Interstellar

It stars some very good actors, has the best musician in Hollywood producing it's score and has the best director working today directing it. Christopher Nolan has made some of my all time favourite movies like Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy. He's yet to let me down and I can't wait to see his next movie despite not knowing a thing about it.



Worst movie - Transformers: Age of Extinction

A Million Ways to Die in the West let me down horribly, Tammy was terrible and The Purge: Anarchy didn't work for me. But I've gone with Transformers as my least favourite summer movie because it was everything that I hated about a Michael Bay film; shit CGI, an incomprehensibly stupid plot, dumb military dialogue, awful humour, weak and 1 dimensional boring characters and that same irritating and epileptic directing style. It's awful and I hate that it has made over $1 billion worldwide.



Best movie - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

It has real human emotion, drama and tension. It has incredible acting and memorable characters. It has an unpredictable story. It has jaw dropping action and CGI. It's a beautifully directed movie and is a marvel to look at on the big screen. It has everything a great summer movie should have. We don't need brain-numbing Transformers action to get a good summer blockbuster, we need everything Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has. This is how you make a blockbuster. It's not only my favourite movie of the summer, but my favourite of the entire year.



That was actually really fun to do! If you agree/disagree with any of my choices please comment below and put your winners for each of the categories. I will be doing a Fall movie preview very soon and I hope I enjoy my next 100 posts as much as I have my first 100. I'll keep up the movie reviews, spoilers and movie news stuff plus I hope to introduce 2 new regular segments for this blog as well in the coming weeks so look at forward to that. What a summer its been and here's to an awesome Fall and Winter!

Thanks for reading,
Matt

SPOILER Review - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I promised a spoiler review for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes at the end of my spoiler-free review so here we are. Only read this review if you have seen the movie as you will find heavy spoilers for the film and I don't want to be responsible for ruining the film for you. You have been warned!

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is my favourite movie of the year so far and is honestly one of the best I have ever seen. I was so heavily engrossed in everything that was going on, and the emotion and tension at the film's core was immensely powerful to me. I honestly cried on 2 occasions and, perhaps more embarrassingly, jumped out of my skin on a few occasions. I was honestly so involved in the movie and simple transitions between scenes, from a moment with the apes to a human firing a gun, made me jump!

The film begins with a series of news casts and snippets from interviews from famous people and it explains about how the simian flu wiped out the human race and for the years after that the endangered human species began to fight amongst each other in order to survive in a post apocalyptic world, run by the apes.

The first 15 minutes of the film is all about the apes as we get to meet up with Caesar again and get emotionally attached to Caesar's tribe. We learn that Caesar is the dominant leader of the group because all the other apes, including Koba, seriously respect him. We also get to learn a little bit about how he has a son, a new-born child and a wife. We learn more about the ape culture for example how they hunt deer in groups from the tree tops and their code of conduct, which includes very strict rules such as "apes together strong" and "ape not kill ape".

And there's something I wanted to mention here which I couldn't in my spoiler-free review which concerns how the apes are only just stringing together sentences. To me it would've been unrealistic if the apes could talk perfect English like they do in the later Planet of the Apes film.

The tension in the first and second act of the movie all happens due to the relationship between the apes and the humans. The humans are living in a dire situation where they're 2 weeks away from relinquishing all of their power. They are bottle necked in this one tower in San Francisco and are, as you would expect, living in fear of the apes who now dominate the planet. And you can hardly blame them considering their 10 years of struggle!

It really begins when that one guy (who I think was in The Walking Dead at one stage?) shoots an ape at point blank range. Obviously Caesar and his apes come rushing down to see what has happened and we get our first stand off between the apes and our group of humans. My favourite part about that scene was where one human said "they're just apes", and Malcolm (Jason Clarke's character) says "do they look like just apes to you?".

Caesar basically says for them to leave and marches on the human stronghold and says "apes don't want war, but will fight if we must", and simply leaves. What I loved about the film was that there were so many shades of grey. Gary Oldman wants to attack the apes and you can hardly blame him! After all, he did lose his family during the outbreak of the simian flu. Koba the ape wants to attack the humans and you can hardly blame him! After all, he was tortured by humans before the flu outbreak.

Malcolm, the human protagonist, and his family then decide that they have to go back to the apes stronghold as the humans need the power from a nearby dam to survive, however the only way through is past Caesar and his apes. This does bring for some extreme moments of tension but Caesar shows his compassionate side by helping the humans. Meanwhile, all of the memories of being tortured by humans is flooding back to Koba, and his relationship with Caesar starts to go south.

That one scene in the boiler room again highlighted Caesar's compassion, but also his brute strength, as he basically beats Koba and has his hands around his neck ready to strangle him. He yields because "ape not kill ape". Koba then proves that not all apes are better than humans by travelling to the human stronghold. The one scene where he is pretending to be silly with those 2 humans before taking their guns and shooting them was just as epic as it was in the trailer. My friend sitting next to me hadn't seen the trailer. Yeah.. you can imagine how that went down!

Koba then comes back to the ape camp, sets it on fire and shoots Caesar and I honestly thought Caesar was gone, dead. He falls all the way down the hillside as Koba blames the humans for the actions which he had just done. This is why Koba is a dick and he needs to die! He then places a gun in the hand of the son of the man (sorry, the ape) he just murdered and orders him to march against the humans. What a dick! The orang-utan Maurice basically tells the humans to haul ass.

The apes then mount their horses and march against the humans, now with shot guns as weapons. The fighting then commences and both humans and apes are getting shot down and blown up. It's really violent and the action in the movie his very hard indeed. That one shot where Koba mounts the tank and takes out those guys while it was spinning around blew my mind! It left my jaw hanging! It was perhaps my favourite shot of the movie. The apes then start to round up the humans and put them in cages. This is also something I wanted to talk about but couldn't in my spoiler-free review and that is the fact that the themes woven into this movie have so much depth. My friend when we left the theatre said that that one scene reminded him of aspects of the holocaust, and I agreed with him. The movie tackles on more themes like power struggle and acceptance of other races and it really merits it because the script, characters and emotion in the film are just remarkable.

Meanwhile the fleeing humans find Caesar, take him back to his old house in San Francisco and operate on him. Caesar lives! Thank God for that! Caesar's son in the middle of the fighting decides that Koba just isn't all that great of an ape when he throws Ash over the edge of a balcony, after he decided not to beat a human to death. He then frees the apes loyal to Caesar and returns to his father.

When they all reunite the apes make a plan to stop Koba and Malcolm decides to follow them. But Malcolm ends up with Gary Oldman again, who plans to blow up the human stronghold. Malcolm understandably pulls a gun on him but Oldman decides to detonate! This in turn half destroys the tower. Now we get to the epic confrontation between Caesar and Koba. The ape who once respected his leader has turned to wanting to kill him all because of an inherited hatred of humans. Caesar doesn't have this as he has experienced the good humans can do. Caesar wins the fight and Koba is hanging off the edge.

"Ape not kill Ape" - Koba. "You are not Ape" - Caesar. Caesar pulls Koba up and lets him go. Koba then entangles himself in some wire, falls onto a crane which then folds in on itself and falls to his death. Koba is dead at last. All hail Caesar! That is my favourite moment of the film by far as it was so goddamn satisfying.

The movie basically ends with Caesar back with his tribe and Malcolm one last time. Malcolm then disappears as the military, who the humans in the stronghold contacted earlier, are on their way. The film ends in the same way in which it began, with an extreme close up of Caesar's face.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is one spectacular film and is what a summer blockbuster should be; enthralling, intelligent and entertaining. The action is breathtaking, the CGI amongst the best ever, and the emotion you get from this movie is as powerful as any other film I've seen. I want to see it again very soon, and I will pick it up the day it comes out on blu-ray.


Thanks for reading,
Matt

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Movie Review

Yes!!!!

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Matt Reeves and is a sequel to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was my favourite movie to come out that summer movie season. The events of "Dawn" take place 10 years after "Rise" and we return to our hero Caesar, who is living in the woods with the rest of his tribe peacefully. However, when a group of humans stumble across the tribe, events are set in motion which will threaten the peace between the last remaining humans and the increasingly intelligent apes.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is just a sensational movie, and is the best to come out so far this year. It is honestly one of the best movies I have ever seen in my entire life and I was not prepared for how awesome the film turned out to be.

I spent the entire movie holding my breath, clenching my fists and with my jaw hanging open, gawking at the amazement the movie gave me. The movie is so good as it moves at a very quick and urgent pace and you really start to feel that every scene in the movie matters for something. But to me what made this movie so special is the fact that every thing is on a knife edge throughout the entire movie. You feel as if it could kick off at any second and this brings for some fantastic tension which lasts from the first scene to the very last. You so want the humans and the apes to co-exist peacefully but deep down you know that certain characters in the ape and human camps will just not let that happen.

After 10 years we get to see how Caesar is getting on and the answer is very well. He has a wife and a son and is the authoritative figure amongst his group of apes. Every second Caesar is on screen is golden. Andy Serkis is a pioneer for motion capture technology and he honestly deserves and Oscar nomination for best actor as his performance is ridiculously real and hard-hitting. There are a few times in the movie where there is an extreme close up of Caesar's face and when you look at it you see the actor and the performance that he is giving. Also they develop Caesar's character sufficiently throughout the movie and there were a few moments when he brought me to tears. I don't cry in The Fault in our Stars but I do in a movie involving a bunch of CGI apes!

But that just proves how emotionally impactful the movie really is. If you couple that with the ridiculous tension you'll get a movie you won't be able to take your eyes off of. The movie affected me so much to the point where I had only drunk 2 sips of my coke during the film.

Also great in the film is Toby Kebbell playing the ape Koba. Koba was the ape in "Rise" who the humans were experimenting on, so he has an obvious deep hatred for human beings and just doesn't trust them. However, he still looks up to Caesar and is in debt to him after Caesar saved him during "Rise". Gary Oldman also nearly brought me to tears during one scene and what I loved about him was that he wasn't a cookie-cutter villain, he had his motivations and you completely understood where he was coming from. Jason Clarke and the other humans were well developed and relatable and contributed to you, as an audience member, being attached to every single character and wanting them to peacefully exist.

The story itself is completely unpredictable and when it looks like it is following a certain route it changes course unexpectedly, so you never really know just what you're in for. The acting of course is just stunning and the characters are all either brilliantly well developed or have a tremendous screen presence to them. Or both.

Matt Reeves was given the task to direct this movie and he did it amazingly. He has also been confirmed to direct the 3rd movie set to come out in 2016, which is amazing news! There were moments in the movie where a single shot would blow my mind and leave my jaw hanging just because it looked so beautiful. The movies editing, cinematography and music did a stellar job at creating the environment and maintaining a consistent level of tension which didn't let up until the screen turned black at the end. Also, the CGI is some of the best I've ever seen and the motion capture work is second to none.

I haven't even talked about the action sequences yet which take place during the film's final act. They're just unrelentingly brutal and hard-hitting (there's that word once again!). There are some fight sequences during the movie where you feel every single punch. I must give credit to the sound designers involved with this movie as they really gave this awesome summer movie an extra dimension which made the movie experience that little bit better!

I love this movie more than anything and I honestly think it is one of the best I have ever seen. The tension was unbearable at times and I could genuinely feel my heart pounding in my chest. This movie is also one of the most emotionally impactful movies I have ever seen and I haven't been as invested in a film since I last watched The Lord of the Rings, my all time favourite movies. This movie is the best, and you should see it right now:


Rating - A+


1 sentence summary - The movie of the summer; where every filmmaking element combines to create a movie with incredibly real tension, raw emotion and an unforgettable experience!


I'm going to do a spoiler filled review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes soon and I can't wait for that. My love for this movie cannot be merely expressed in only one review.


Question: Your favourite movie of the summer so far?


Thanks for reading,
Matt