DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

I was looking forward to watch this movie but I must say I was disappointed by it. Starring Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell and so on, it continues from the 2011 movie "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" starring Andy Serkis and James Franco.

It was quite a long movie and the story took place in San Francisco, ten years after the Simian Flu Virus that escaped from a research facility following the first movie spread throughout the world. Caesar, the leader of the Apes, and his community had not seen humans since two winters ago and thought all of mankind perished until they came across a few human survivors led by Jason Clarke's Malcolm. The storyline was weak and didn't quite pick up after that and it was a letdown all the way to the end, even with Andy Serkis and Gary Oldman around.

The ending was once again open-ended, possibly as a lead up to any possible sequel. However, judging from this movie, I doubt the box-office takings would be optimistic enough to warrant a continuation of the this movie. Thank goodness James Franco didn't act in this movie.

Andy Serkis's Caesar, leader of the Apes

Koba, the ape who only learnt hate from the humans

Malcom and his team in search of the dam to restore power to the city

Malcolm

a visibly older Keri Russell of "Felicity" fame as Ellie

YOUNG DETECTIVE DEE: RISE OF THE SEA DRAGON (狄仁杰之神都龙王)

This is a prequel to the earlier Detective Dee (狄仁杰) movie starring Andy Lau and Carina Lau. I read that it did very well at the box office in China.

In this movie on the younger Detective Dee directed by the famous Tsui Hark, the stars appear to be a slew of young male actors, instead of the female actresses. The three male leads Mark Zhao (赵又廷) from Taiwan as Detective Dee, Feng Shaofeng (冯绍峰) and Lin Genxing (林更新, better known as the fourteenth prince in the China TV production "步步惊心") from China helmed the movie together with the pan-asian looking Yang Ying (杨颖, better known as Angelababy) from China, Carina Lau (刘嘉玲) from Hong Kong and Kim Bum (金汎) from Korea.

I read in the chinese newspapers recently that Tsui Hark made a joke that the pay that Andy Lau commands is more than the pay of the three male leads added together and is enough to create the special effects of the sea dragon. It was notable that amongst the thespians, Carina Lau continued to enjoy the meaty role of playing the Empress Wu Zetian after acting the same role in the earlier movie. Never mind her humongous and outrageous headdress or crown, she still commanded a lot of respect and attention as a serious and formidable force to be reckoned with. 

The young Detective Dee first arrived in the Imperial Capital of Luoyang and soon found himself embroiled in a plot that involved extermination of the entire imperial family and officials. I will not give the story away but I definitely enjoyed the movie for its great martial arts action sequences and special effects. The cast was great and there was a lot of eye candy in the form of the actors themselves.

As I was watching the movie, I was thankful that such movies still exist today. In the light of modern technology and the space age, there are a lot of movies out there on aliens, superheroes etc and only China, Hong Kong and Taiwan make such period dramas. I wonder if a decade or two later, would we still be able to see such movies anymore? I certainly hope so because I have always been a fan of such and hope I don't have to wait too long to see the next sequel.

Mark Chao, Feng Shaofeng and Lin Genxing

Feng Shaofeng, unknown cast, Mark Chao and Lin Genxing

Mark Chao and Lin Genxing

Angelababy and Mark Chao

Carina Lau

Angelababy

Angelababy and Kim Bum

Kim Bum

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

This is another trilogy that precedes "The Lord of the Rings". Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis etc, it tells the story of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, at a time before chaos and darkness set upon the Middle Earth.

The wizard Gandalf tricked Bilbo to go on an adventurous journey to help a remaining team of thirteen dwarves, who were from a prosperous kingdom of dwarves from the Lonely Mountain until Smaug the dragon stole their treasure and drove them out and indirectly caused the downfall of the kingdom of dwarves after a battle with the Orcs. Along the journey, they encountered stone giants, goblins, elves, Gollum and met the white council comprising Lord Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman.

As expected, Cate Blanchett was so mysteriously and charmingly beautiful as the mightiest and fairest royal elf from Middle Earth. Andy Serkis had a much larger part as the Gollum in this movie, compared to the earlier "Lord of the Rings". I don't know which part of Gollum's face is real and which is fake but I must say Andy Serkis was brilliant as before as the ghoulish and emaciated creature who was once a hobbit until he was corrupted by the infamous ring. In real life, Richard Armitage is not a dwarf but as the courageous King of the dwarves, he has a charismatic and commanding presence.

It was a long draggy movie but in order to watch the entire trilogy, I guess it is essential to endure this unexpectedly arduous journey of ups and downs.