The Game of Thrones Season Four may have come and gone but its  effects still ripple across our consciousness.  There are more moments that linger on more than others. And in this article, 5 key moments will be highlighted as those that truly stand out and shape the narrative of the rest of the series.

1. The Death of King Geoffrey

The internet erupted when probably the most hated man in Westeroos choked to death in his own blood. His death almost recompenses for the Stark family's losses and few will shed a tear for his demise. 

2. Lannister Tyrion's Defense


The tortured imp gave a passionate speech when he just could not take the orchestrated lies anymore. Like in Eyrie, he asks for trail by combat thereby rejecting the plea deal his brother had made with their father. Who can blame him? After what happen to Nerd Stark, anyone would take such offers with a pinch of salt.

3. The Red Viper Versus The Mountain

This fight is a very memorable scene in the season. It brought an abrupt end to the series favorite: The handsome Red Viper, Prince of Dorne. At a point in the melee, he had a huge advantage, having struck the Mountain with an almost fatal blow. But his hesitation to finishing his mountain off was his undoing. Gregor Clegane, un-balanced him and then proceeded to imploding his brains in one of the most bloody depictions in television.

4. Bran Meets The Three-Eyed Raven.

Bran's story arc had been getting a bit stale for a while. And viewers have been wondering when is he ever going to walk again and find his destiny. The scene where he meets the Three-Eye Raven is a key moment in this season because brings firstly closure to the fact that he will never walk again and secondly, that He will Fly. Which begs the question, will he fly by "warging" a dragon or physically have that ability?  I guess we shall find out in season 5.

5. Lannister Kills Lannister



The jostling between Father and son had been going on for a while. It reached its climax with Tyrion killing his father in the privy. It is tough to justify killing one's father and a sense of guilt will forever substitute whatever must have driven Tyrion to do so. Yes, Tywin slept with Shae, sentenced him to death amongst his numerous other vices against Tyrion but I don't believe Tywin, who was so proud of the Lannister Legacy would have gone through with actually killing his own son.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I don't like movies that the story evolves around animals beating up humans. But something in the latest rendition of the Franklin J. Schaffner's classic movie, shed my age-long prejudice. 

It continues from where the last one ended. The Apes have built a home in the woods and are striving while their cousins, the Humans, are nearly decimated by a virus pandemic. A pocket of human survivors, those immune to the virus, are searching for a dam to restore power to the city of San Francisco.  The problem is that, the dam is located near the Apes home.

They first encounter the Apes at the beginning of the movie and after a skirmish with them which results in a dead ape, causes one of the Apes, Koba, wanting revenge but Caesar refuses as he does not want to be dragged into a war with the humans. This narrative is played throughout the movie until its reaches breaking point, culminating in an all-out war between the primates.

The visual effects were stunning. One can barely tell if the apes were trained monkeys or computer-generated-graphics due to the almost life-like behaviors of the apes. This is due to the impeccable work of Andy Serkis, who over the years, really helped reduce the gap between reality and computer animation. 

Gary Oldman  was severely under-used, just appearing in a few scenes.

There is no movie without its flaws. And because the movie was so good, the mistakes were few and far between and in as much as one would love to forgive them, they were so glaring that one just has to highlight them. Most conspicuously of all was, how a rag-tag army of apes with no weapons and military training could easily over-run a heavily fortified fortress. For Christ's sake, the humans even had a tank! If the 7-1 thrashing of Brazil by Germany has taught us anything, is that passion alone can only take one so far.

The scene where Koba over-comes his animal instinctive fear of  fire is thought-provoking. Although, Koba along with the rest of his chimp army overcomes it in an hate-filled, adrenaline-pumped  way. It begs a few questions. Can a genetically modified animal be more human or be a more intelligent animal? Humans with all their intelligence still have innate instincts that govern their behavior. Or is intelligence something tangible that it allows anything with enough of it to overcome its natural boundaries and fears?

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is well-crafted, intelligent and viewers will enjoy it.

Rating: 7.5/10