Review of War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) by Michael M — 14 Dec 2017

I had a weird moment of clarity in the climax of this movie where I was able to step back from it and realize "these are monkeys...I'm watching godamn monkeys." Yeah yeah I know their apes not monkeys but shut the hell up anonymous voice in my head correcting me because the point remains the same. It's downright ridiculous how seriously these movies take themeselves. What's even more ridiculous is that it actually kind of works. Right from the get go I was invested, eyes glued to the screen. With such a b-movie premise there's a surprising ammount of tension and heart to the whole thing, like we saw in the previous two. WIthout going too much into spoilers, this movie does work as a final chapte in this arc of the reboot series, and it could stop here as a solid trilogy. Because of this there's a great deal of tragedy and some genuinely moving moments. It's not really a war movie, more a revenge movie/prison escape movie, and it freaking works. The music totally sells the mood, the directing and artistic style is top notch, and the apes have never looked better. It's easy to forget the apes aren't really there, because they are such distinct characters, and old and new they really work.

That being said, I do think this is probably the poorest of the reboot trilogy. That's not to say it's bad, it just didn't really up the ante enough for me. It's a solid story, I was fully invested in Caesar's journey, and Woody Harrelson makes a good antagonist. It's even got a pretty cool twist involving the virus that killed off most of humanity between the first and second movie. However, as a potential final chapter, it just didn't really give me all I was hoping for. It's a nice story, but not what I needed it to be. Maybe once the fourth movie comes around (and you know there will be a fourth) my opinion will change, but for now I couldn't help but be let down a bit.

In terms of tone and story I'd argue Rise is still the best of the trilogy. In terms of artistic direction though, this could be the best though. It's got a lot to love. It doesn't exceed it's predecessors, but it keeps on par. Might be needing a second viewing from me, but on first viewing I was really impressed, but a little underwhelmed.