La Planète des Singes : L'affrontement

J’ai un faible pour ces histoires de singes. Pour diverses raisons et par un concours de circonstances, l’original fut pour moi une expérience exceptionnelle. Je considère la suite très réussie également, mais elle n’a pas la même force d’impact. Il me semble que le scénario n’a pas pu être suffisamment dégrossi, la première partie tirant un peu en longueur et certaines scènes n’ayant pas leur place dans le métrage final. Je craignais que Jason Clarke ne parvienne pas à assumer le rôle principal positif, mais il m’a très agréablement surpris. Gary Oldman, par contre, ne pourrait en aucun cas me surprendre, vu qu’il excelle à tous les coups. Une impression générale très bonne, donc, avec quelques petites réserves. (11/08/2014)

L'introduction pré-numérisée de quelques minutes suggère que la suite mise sur un cheval différent que le premier film. Dans celui-ci, les singes numériques ont créé une histoire chargée d'émotion et de sensibilité dramaturgique sur les humains et les animaux dans le monde humain (et vice versa). C'était un film du genre pur à la Spielberg. Le deuxième film se noie dans le numérique, il est actionné et visuellement sombre, conformément aux tendances actuelles établies par Nolan. Cela ne serait pas en soi préjudiciable si tous ses personnages avaient une place significative dans l'histoire et si les émotions ne se déclenchaient pas par un sentimentalisme bon marché. De Matt Reeves, j'attendais vraiment plus qu'une simple enveloppe de blockbusters efficace. (16/10/2014)

People. Apes. Hominids. Mammals. Scum. Everybody. Speak. Lots. CGI. Lots. Blockbuster. Thought. Seemingly. Superficial. Black and white. Too simple. Half-assed. First. Better. Suspense. Subliminal. Silence. Storm. Sequel. Different. Very. Overtone. Current. Inevitability. Pretend. Worse. No. Better. Different... And as a bonus to the short-spoken speech of animals, you get the origin of the shrew legal loophole in the apish lawbook committed on Rambo the Ape. (15/07/2014)

This time there’s no CGI in the service of perfectly crafted emotions, honest monkey looks, and precise directorial construction of a simple plot, as Reeves sees the film's basic thrust on the exact opposite spectrum of blockbuster rules. Work with the characters is at zero, and plot predictability is at the max. As the minutes ticked by, I honestly felt so bad for every moment I guessed in advance that I wanted to turn in my movie ticket and get my money back. Fail of the year. (27/07/2014)

Dense, emotionally very rich, layered, fun and charming work with effects and "inhuman" protagonists, who take most of the space from their counterparts made of flesh and bones, which we simply don’t get to see that much (a slightly "sketched" Oldman, for example). Reeves has a more distinctive style than Wyatt, and it must be said that the use of long steady cam rides or a static camera in a few larger action sets is very refreshing, while giving the world of Planet of the Apes a prudence that goes beyond frenetic blockbusters. The tricks do not act as a self-serving tool for arousing astonishment, but rather as a deft means of characterizing characters with limited ability to express themselves verbally. In the same way, the action forms part of a compact and intertwined whole, which is characterized by surprisingly sensitive work with a detail of a monkey's face (not only a symbolically mirrored introduction and conclusion), but the film is brought down a bit by some partial clumsiness in the narrative. The film does not focus on simply entertaining, but truly strives to create a functioning universe, the possibilities of which deepen with each film. Also exciting is the way in which it "distributes" sympathy for "non-people" and makes them the bearers of our own historical dilemmas and failures (Caesar and Koba - sic! - as two faces of the revolution and the effort to create a functioning community). That's why Planet of the Apes is currently the most interesting "running" blockbuster series and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a film that stands out enough in this year's fierce competition to call it the best high-budget affair thus far. For me, it’s even a bit more convincing than the first film. [90%] (14/07/2014)