Review of War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) by Minimoviemaniac — 06 Feb 2019

For starters, this movie is a technological marvel and will hold up for years to come. The CGI of the apes is nothing short of amazing and you never think it’s CGI, you believe those are actual animals with personalities. Even the camerawork makes it even more believable, because you get close ups of these apes and the apes don’t look any less believable which is very hard to do with CGI. The use of real sets and how seamlessly it blends with the CGI is another marvel because in many movies today I can easily see were CGI has been placed, but this movie does a marvelous job of using both practical and digital affects.

Lastly, the king of motion capture, the man, the myth, the legend Andy Serkis! What else can I say about this man that hasn’t already been said about him in these movies. The man gives another Oscar worthy performance as Caesar and shows a totally different dynamic of the character. You see through his performance that Caesar is in a totally different place and has just had it with settling with the humans and fights only to protect his kind. Andy Serkis brings this character to life yet again through his great emotional movements and expressions he brings to life as the king of motion capture. You also see Andy Serkis bring all new, damaged, aspects of the character. You see Caesar still trying to cope with the events of Dawn that Koba caused and him still thinking about what could’ve been if they didn’t happen. You also see a scene where Caesar make a decision that goes against all of his ideals, but you find a way to agree with this decision, and Caesar acknowledges that it’s his own flaw. Andy Serkis deserves an Oscar nomination for this performance, while he probably won’t get one he solidifies himself as one of the best actors in the business. Andy Serkis will forever be the king of all apes only known as Ceasar.

I thought that this movie was a compete masterpiece, but I did have to nitpick some things for the sake of this review. To start off, towards the end while the apes are attempting a mission a lot of conveniences happened so the plan is taking shape. While that cliche is used in almost every movie, it was a little too obvious while I watching the movie. Secondly, the little girl in the movie, while she did a fine job I couldn’t say she was irreplaceable. This being because a kid actor who has to speak with the performance is, to me, automatically compared to Dafne Keen in Logan. When I compared the two performances, Keen’s performance kills the other girls performance, she did do a good job but didn’t shine as much as Keen did in Logan for a child actor. Lastly, I would have to say that Battle for the Planet of the Apes would’ve been a better title because war isn’t the main focus of the story, more like a significant part in the third act that the movie led to.

The last little problem I had with this movie was the act of a good human character in the movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love being with Caesar more than with humans. But, in the first two, you saw certain human characters that made the decision of siding with either the apes or humans harder for me as I was watching the movies. In this movie, it is a little more black and white on who you should side with because there aren’t any humans that you see have compassion for the apes and try to help them besides the little girl. The story could’ve benefited just from a simple look of a soldier that thinks maybe what they’re doing is wrong.

The last little problem I had with this movie was the act of a good human character in the movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love being with Caesar more than with humans. But, in the first two, you saw certain human characters that made the decision of siding with either the apes or humans harder for me as I was watching the movies. In this movie, it is a little more black and white on who you should side with because there aren’t any humans that you see have compassion for the apes and try to help them besides the little girl. The story could’ve benefited just from a simple look of a soldier that thinks maybe what they’re doing is wrong.

I don’t want to go into huge depth about the movie because I want you to experience the movie yourself. All I say is that War for the Planet of the Apes is a masterpiece of a movie and gives you the conclusion to what now will be considered the best trilogy of the decade. You connect with Caesar more than ever, the story is investing and the performances are all great. Along with being a great action movie, the drama is in the forefront and is a great thought provoking movie.