War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

 

Genre: Sci-Fi/ Action

Time: 2h 20mins

Director: Matt Reeves

Quick Summary: After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.

*Sobbing*

First the obvious, the CGI is amazing and is truly a technological marvel to cinema. I thought these apes looked good last time so I was absolutely blown away with how good they looked this time around.

Andy Serkis once again plays the ape ruler Caesar and is easily the best movie character in recent years, in each film he has gotten progressively better and in this one it is definitely the best performance. I may have cried a little bit and some of the more emotional and harder-to-watch scenes. This poor guy has gone through it and continues to go through it during the events of this.

The story is great and is well-acted throughout. This movie is also an amazing drama. You know I'm glad they focused more on the drama and emotional side of things as the last two have been very action-packed. It's nice to have a bit of a refresh after all the fighting. Don't get me wrong this does have its action, it's just not as gritty and brutal as the others.

I am in love with the Ape called "Bad Ape". He was absolutely adorable with how he spoke and reacted to things, especially because he dressed up in human clothes. The comedic relief these films needed and you know what, he never got annoying. It was like having a small child or an elderly person join along. 

This also talks about what terrible things people would do in a war if their life depended on it, and honestly, there are some really sad moments. Woody Harrelson's character does what he does because he believes that the entire human race is going to go extinct if he does not act. I found him really interesting and such a compelling villain, a lot of the time I sympathised with what he had gone through, but not what he was doing which created such turmoil on if I agreed with the actions of this guy. This is done incredibly well by Woody and I think he was a perfect pick.

This has an overall sombre tone that the others didn't which explores consciousness and the darker aspects of human/ape nature. It's an emotional journey with heartbreak and uplifting scenes, but there's a lot of symbology towards religion and looking up to a higher power. This is a wonderful mix of things and I love how each of these films does something different to the other.

I did find it really interesting they chose to slowly reduce the humans down to being primitive through a virus, as the original never really explained that, and honestly it's plausible. Again this brings up a lot of interesting moments between both the humans and the apes, people struggling with losing what makes them human, apes finally being on a similar plane to them, and the helplessness it brings on both sides.

Go watch this one as soon as possible. These are constantly improving themselves, and I'm excited to see how they bring more to the story. 

10/10

" There are times when it is necessary to abandon our humanity to save humanity."

"All of human history has lead to this moment. The irony is we created you. And nature has been punishing us ever since. "

"We are not savages. Apes fight only to survive."