Review of War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) by Dirigiblepulp — 19 Aug 2017

A fitting and altogether satisfying conclusion to the new Apes trilogy and the most complete and thematically satisfying one yet. Harrelson is a pure nutjob villain but he at least starts to hint at the some of the broader questions the characters in this universe should be asking more of - namely what does this do to the evolutionary ladder/food chain and what exactly does it mean for God and souls? (this still gets short shrift, probably to avoid alienating audiences). He sees himself as a messiah delivering the human race from a scourge of its own making - he doesn't seem to hate the apes so much as understand objectively what they mean for the human race. He's more complex this way.

There are some homages to the original Planet here too - the little girl is named Nova and the flu has mutated causing humans to become less intelligent (this is not what is meant in the original film but sure - it does can explain why humans don't fight back and can't read). Some of the final scenes are a little too on the nose and ham-handed. Caesar as the real messiah leading his people to the promised land. The gorilla that finally turns good at the end (this scene could have worked but is dumb in execution - Caesar almost dies anyway). The apes survive an avalanche because they climb trees - this is what is meant by an evolutionary advantage apparently. Between that, the mutated flu and the old version of it, this explains how the Planet becomes one of Apes. It works but feels a bit over-engineered.

I really appreciate how this trilogy of Apes films is a character and theme based work first. These films use state of the art CGI in order to create more believable characters and tell a tale not possible any other way (I mean, yeah makeup, which I do miss, but still for the new films this is what works). There aren't many overblown action scenes that dominate and wear down the film. This is what franchise big budget moviemaking should look like.