Review of War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) by Jonathan B — 13 Dec 2017

This rebooted franchise has proved to be a steady winner for me. In this latest and final instalment we find Caesar and his band of chimps, oranges and gorillas fighting for their existence against the human forces lead by the deranged Colonel as played by Woddy Harrelson.

The tie-ins with the original Planet of the Apes movie are neat and fir naturally with the plot. We see a slow, steady rise of speech amongst the apes while the humans lose their vocal powers due to the lingering effects of the virus that has swept the world.

There are also nice touches such as the bag of sand bought to the ape camp and telling of a region free of human interference by Caesar's son. The film is big on spectacle but is much more than a simple effects driven blockbuster as it has much to say about mankind and the true face of all that humanity holds dear.

With good and bad individuals on both human and ape sides, fallibility is seen to be universal and the ability to rise above it is the real quality that shows the best of human spirit regardless of the skin it wears.

The wisdom and empathy of characters such as the old orangutan, Maurice is beautiful to behold and extraordinarily realised in this CGI creation. Well done to Andy Serkis and the whole creative team for bringing this intelligent trilogy to a satisfying and meaningful conclusion.