War for the Planet of the Apes

War for the Planet of the Apes

  Dir: Matt Reeves

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Andy Serkis*, Steve Zahn*, Amiah Miller

(* motion-capped)

     The "War for the Planet of the Apes" is a boring movie. I worked as hard as I could

 to find an opening statement but couldn't. This third movie in Planet of the Apes prequel

 trilogy opens with US Forces hunting down monkeys who have evolved from the last

 film. Most of humanity has been wiped out due to a deadly Simian virus to make 

 chimps smarter.

     The apes leader Cesar (Serkis) has a family with a young son named Cornelius

 (a nod to the 1968 film). Most of the movie deals with him and his fellow primates

 going on a quest to meet the human dictator known as the Colonel (Harrelson). 
 Along their journey an older ape named Bad Ape (Zahn) joins them and wants
 to help fight the humans. Cesar adopts a human girl they called Nova (Miller)
 who cannot speak due to being afflicted with the Simian flu.

     The crazy Woody Harrelson is the Colonel. He plays a psychotic maniac 
  whose son died because of the ape virus. Because of that, he believes apes
  cannot co-exist with humans and has them locked up in a harsh, gruesome
  concentration camp. Now it's up to Cesar and his monkey friends free them
  before they all die.

  The Good: The score which was reminiscent of the original movie along with 

  cinematography. Bad Ape was my favorite character with his funny quips and

  comedic timing. The grand finale made up for some sparse action scenes during

  this film. I appreciated the nods to such classic war movies such as "The Great
  Escape" and "Bridge on the River Kwai". Woody Harrelson does a cool Brando
  impression from Apocalypse Now.

  The Bad: Somehow despite the battle and going-ons, the pacing dragged on. I 

  didn't like how depressing it felt in tone that deals mostly with genocide which 

  is still going on today around the world. I felt that this movie fell into the war/

  drama genre and just became boring. 

  Overall: Although I'm not a big Planet of the Apes fan, I was rather disappointed

  considering the James Franco Apes movie was really good. It was unnecessary 

  to inject social commentary in a summer flick that didn't need one. Thankfully,

  this is the last in the trilogy and should it continue, a better director is needed.

Grade: C- (6/10) (2.5 stars)