Road to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - War for the Planet of the Apes Review

 

Well, here we are, the final part of the Road to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

War for the Planet of the Apes is a sci-fi action film, the sequel to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, thus making it the third installment of the reboot series. It was produced by TSG Entertainment and Chernin Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Fox. War for the Planet of the Apes was written by Matt Reeves and Mark Bomback and directed by Matt Reeves.

The story is, it's been two years since the events of the battle in San Francisco, and Caesar and his apes have been forced into a deadly conflict with humans who are being lead by a ruthless leader. After suffering unimaginable losses Caesar is struggling with his darker instincts, and these instincts will lead him to a journey that will decide the fate of both apes and humans.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

The only slight issue stems from the pacing. While some scenes have perfect timing, there were a few times when things felt too slow.

• Positives

One pro to the movie is the special effects, more specifically, the effects on the apes. For Rise, I mentioned how good they looked even if there are some iffy moments, with Dawn, there was great CGI but there were also some not-so-great CGI. With War, no. The CGI looked spectacular throughout. I dare say this is the best the apes have ever looked.

Once again I give praise to Matt Reeves' directing. I don't know what else to say other than to repeat what I said in my Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and what I said it's clear that Matt Reeves is putting nothing but his best with each shots.

Each film in the reboot series has had nothing but a story, mainly with their characters. And War for the Planet of the Apes is no exception. The story is really strong with Caesar (of course because main character and all) and the villain, Colonel J. Wesley McCullough, or simply The Colonel. First with Caesar. At first I was wondering where else could they possibly take his character? Then the revenge story came into play. First it's pretty standard. The tragedy happens and Caesar goes on the warpath. But it's very scary because he's slowly turning into the last movie's villain that being Koba. But instead of just Caesar being effected by his want of revenge, not only is he suffering, but so are his fellow apes including his own family. Basically Caesar goes through what's called a "fall arc" or "negative character arc", whichever term you prefer to use. Caesar's arc is he has fallen, he's lost not only his power but his people have turn their backs on him. So now Caesar once again has to rise. It's a good story for him and the ending while sad, does give Caesar some form of happiness. Then there's The Colonel. While he does have limited screentime, what we do see is nothing short of amazing. His backstory is he saw how the virus that first appeared in Rise mutated. Instead of killing us it has now turned us primitive, and one of the people he saw infected, was his own son who he had to kill out of mercy. Now that is a very sympathetic backstory, but make no mistake, he's still a ruthless man. While being motivated by fear of the virus, the events of this world has caused him to view this as a fight for survival. But what I found most interesting about his character is, while he doesn't by any means like the evolved apes and he was clearly saddened by his son's death, he's not taking this personally. He even states this during a confrontation with Caesar by saying "You are impressive. Smart as hell. You're stronger than we are. But you're taking this all too personally. So emotional!" So yeah, The Colonel is good villain.

War for the Planet of the Apes is a good conclusion to the reboot series. Sure, I found a slight issue and many people probably have more issues with it than me, as far as third chapters in a trilogy go, this is one of the better ones.

My final rating is, Great.

Now I'm both curious and worried how they'll possibly top this with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? Oh well, just gonna have to wait until May 10th to find out. But that's all for today. Come back on Thursday, Apr 18th for my review of.....Velma. Oh boy, that's gonna be a painful one. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.