War for the Planet of the Apes

The new 'Planet of the Apes' franchise has been an unexpected and surprising success, easily equaling the quality of its iconic ancestral lineage, or even arguably surpassing it. 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' was always going to be a tough act to follow but thankfully 'War' bucks the trilogy trend of the third film often being a lesser installment. It's not as well executed or as well structured as 'Dawn', but it's an excellent film nonetheless and builds upon an already rich mythology that offers up an elaborate explanation as to how Charlton Heston came back from space to find himself on a damn monkey planet.

Matt Reeves returns for directing duties and recaptures the same foreboding and tension he evoked the last time around. This is a very downbeat and bleak movie, so much so I actually had to remind myself that this is a summer blockbuster produced and released by 20th Century Fox. It's incredible to think that something as dark as this can still sneak under the wire and into the mainstream, and we should all be thankful of that fact. Andy Serkis has graduated across the series from being the plot device of 'Rise', to the dual protagonist of 'Dawn', to the full-on lead character of 'War', and his motion captured performance is truly remarkable. You can even tell it's his face at certain points - a sneer here, a frown there - and I fully believe this performance should qualify him for an Academy Award nomination for Lead Actor. He's the crown jewel of this franchise and he leads the charge from beginning to end this time around. I also have to make room for Steve Zahn's performance as a newly introduced ape, who is about the closest thing to a comic relief this film gets and his comic timing and tender eccentricity allows some breathing room between all the doom and gloom. The crowning achievement of this trilogy is its ability to seamlessly blend technological craft with human artistry. I have always favoured practical effects over CGI, but my god, even I can't deny just how magnificent the visual effects are. This is as close to photo- real you will see.

The title of the film is somewhat of a mislead since it's a much smaller and more intimate story this time around, and I feel there was more of an epic war taking place in 'Dawn'. This is much more of a revenge tale, framed through the eyes of our protagonist Caesar, who we have seen grow up and mature into a leader across the two previous films, which lends a greater sense of dimension and complexity to his character. Watching him and his clan strike back against the remnants of the human race becomes an interesting exercise for us. As human beings we are naturally predisposed to the survival of our species, even in fiction, and usually films set in a post-apocalyptic world tend to lean heavily towards that as the goal. The 'Apes' films ask us to do something else - they ask us to root AGAINST the human race, and that does create a conflict within us as viewers. Not all humans are bad, and we know where this story is taking us once you factor in 'Planet of the Apes' 1968, yet at the same time these apes are every bit as complex and fallible and heroic and dangerous as we are. They have an equal right to live and build a future together. And while this film definitely comes down on the side of the apes, unlike 'Dawn' which showed the failings of both sides to make peace, it is a strange experience rooting for them to win this time around since there are no real human allies like James Franco or Jason Clarke's characters. In any other film, the apes would be the villains and Woody Harrelson's Colonel character makes a good case as to why he sees it that way, even though the filmmakers jettison his humanity in order to paint him as a more out-and-out villain. After all, we, the audience, have to be on side come the finale, especially come the arrival of an unexpected deus ex machina.

This has been an intelligent and emotionally and morally complex series of films that have raised interesting questions about animal rights, speciesism, societal hierarchies, leadership and subservience, communication, conflict and peace. They are not simply mindless sci- fi movies cashing in on an existing property. Both of the previous films have been deeply thoughtful explorations of those aforementioned themes and ideas. So I am very pleased to report that 'War for the Planet of the Apes' proudly carries that torch all the way through to its beautifully biblical final moments.

This War of the Planet of Apes is an intense and exciting film with great visual effects by means of Motion Capture technology . The picture delivers enough energy and turns out to be an impressive flick full of fighting, action , battles and suspense . An acceptable Ape movie with huge production design in which the performers are very fine , and special mention for Andy Serkis who provides the sturdy central pivot the tale surely needs . There concerns Caesar (masterfullly incarnated by Andy Serkis, Gollum alter-ego) , a chimpanzee who gained human-like intelligence and emotions from an experimental drug that rose to a super-intelligent chimp who leads an ape upheaval . As Caesar and his apes : gorilla , chimpanzee and orangutan , are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel . Along the way the apes suffer unimaginable losses and Caesar (Andy Serkis), a Chimpanzee raised like a child by the drug's creator (first outing with Will Rodman: James Franco) . Here Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and starts his own mythic quest to avenge his kind that is being submitted in slavery and apartheid . Later on , Caesar is locked and seeking justice for his fellow primates , as they carry out a riot in which simians turn the tables . As simians , Chimpanzees , gorillas uprising violently every human in sight . As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel (Woody Harrelson) are pitted against each other in an impressive battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

This awesome film is a brilliant and intelligent sequel that contains fights , thrills , frenetic action , go riding , violence , breathtaking scenes and a strong denounce about animal mistreat . Dramatic as well as spectacular film in which simians undergo a rebellion against humans and winding up at a climatic final . Recent sequel in the series based on Pierre Boulle novel initiated by the mythical film ¨Planet of Apes¨ (1968) by Franklyn J. Schaffner that at time of its release regarded as the most extraordinary Scifi in years . It deals with a Chimpanzee hero called Caesar well played by Andy Serkis , this is the third film in which Andy Serkis plays an ape, having previously portrayed 2005's version of King Kong and he was also the motion capture actor for Gollum in Lord of the Rings . Highlights of the movie are the spectacular ending scenes when happens a fierce confrontation between a human army and the simians commanded by Caesar . As Caesar leads an animal revolt against his human captors and mankind in which humans battle the apes led by the intelligent ape . The flick plenty of metaphysical significance with thoughtful reflexion about vengeance , apartheid , upon origin of human being , racism , and mistreating ; though also packs action , adventures , intrigue and entertainment . Being mostly a decent follow-up of the former stories , with big moments of energy remaining throughout and it results to be , particularly , a breathtaking Sci-Fi movie full of frantic action , battles, suspense and top-notch FX by Oscarized team who made Avatar and Lord of the Rins . The performers , particularly Andy Serks and Woody Harrelson are pretty good , the characters are well drawn and in spite of excessive computer generator frames all of them are still oddly convincing . Although several elements of the screenplay strain credibility to the limit the story turns out to be pretty interesting and amusing . This film is considered to be the third live action film to have its main hero as a thoughtful, feeling , self aware animal . Andy Serkis's distinctive features prove to be recognisable even under ¨Motion Capture¨ FX images . One of the first feature films to use motion-capture in a so-called 'on location' setting , formerly , motion-capture was limited to special studio set up with special ¨motion-capture¨ cameras in very clearly defined surroundings . Similar the previous films, this is an Apes movie to have CGI apes and with arm extensions . Remaining cast formed by Gorilla , Chimpanzees , Orangutans and other apes are nice , in spite of overlong scenes in Motion Capture they are still nicely and compellingly made . Writing credits by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver , along with Mark Bomback and Matt Reeves himself , their screenplay is just clever and including interesting issues about human being and animals . One of the important attributes of this work, is the magnificent and luminous cinematography by Michael Seresin . Epic as well as emotive musical score by Michael Giacchino , it's full of fury and sound . Motion picture was well directed by Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes , Let me in , Cloverfield)

Other adaptations based on the characters created by Pierre Boulle are as follows : The original and the best is ¨Planet of Apes¨ by Franklyn J. Schaffner with Charlton Heston , Roddy MacDowall, Kim Hunter , followed by "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970) with James Franciscus , Linda Harrison , Maurice Evans ; it's followed by three inferior sequels : Escape from the planet of apes , Conquest for battle of Apes and Battle for Planet of Apes. A reboot Planet of Apes 2011 by Tim Burton . And new remakes : Rise of the planet of Apes 2011, and Dawn of the Planet of Apes (2014) .

A quick look at the bad reviews shows that most of them were written around the same time, mid July 2017 and most all of them are 1 star ratings, an obvious attack on the movie makers and nothing to do with the quality of the film. I urge you to ignore these fake reviews and read instead those written after the summer of 2017!

Sometimes, when I read reviews about movies on IMDb, I see patterns in the writing. Similar text, similar structuring and similar indignant shouting. Read enough of them and you see that quite often there is an underlying reason why the reviews are marking a film so low. Be it political or religious. Very rarely is it actually about the quality of the film. More often it is about a personal issue that the reviewer has - and so he vents his anger in the only way that's he knows how - a screaming one star rating and a list of reasons why the film is the worst he has ever seen. Makes you wonder what kind of a strange person would do that.

However, if you read past all the silly 1 star ratings you often get to the truth. And the truth as far as this film is concerned is that it is a cracker. It draws you in like none of the other ape movies - it's pacing is superb, the visual effect stunning.

I would suggest that you ignore the ranting 1 star reviews and take them for what's they are - a few individuals with multiple accounts and strange views on the world.

...of an Academy Award.

A lot of people felt Serkis should have won for his portrayal of Gollum, but he puts that performance to shame with his turn as the not-so-poker faced leader of the apes, Caesar.

It's the understated emotion that really bubbles to the surface in Serkis' depiction of the reluctant but always resolute Caesar.

It's not easy to give a performance through a CGI ape and convey to the audience through vocal intonations and an extremely limited speaking script the hurt, the ambition, the hate, and the pain that Caesar feels, yet paired with an incredibly talented special effects team, Serkis manages to pull it off.

I suppose I can't give all the credit to them, because the script for this film is way above par. It works on so many different levels, and it's really quite something because I just got done watching Godzilla vs Kong, and oh boy is there such a stark difference in screenplay quality between the two films.

All while watching War For The Planet of the Apes I was thinking to myself "Why couldn't the Transformers get this sort of on-screen characterization and treatment?" The Hollywood excuse is always "No one wants to see robots fighting for two hours!" and yet that's always the best and only parts worth watching when it comes to the Transformer films.

Here, however, director Matt Reeves flipped the script (I suppose you could say literally) by putting the focus on the CGI apes instead of the humans. The entire story is about Caesar -- everyone else plays second fiddle to Caesar.

It basically proves that you can make a quality, character-driven film without tacking on some ridiculous human sub-plots just to pad out the time or tie together action scenes.

In this particular case War For The Planet Of The Apes is probably misnomer given that this is not an action film. Yes, there are action scenes, but this is all character drama, with a few action set pieces to payoff the trilogy.

I thought the original Dawn of the Planet Of The Apes was an okay film, nothing too memorable. I didn't care all that much for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. However, I have to say that I adore War For The Planet Of The Apes.

The difference boils down to bringing the emotion out of the leads (who are all CGI apes), giving the main antagonist a complex and multi-dimensional approach to his self-proclaimed "purpose" and a few twists you likely won't see coming.

I can understand why a lot of people may not like the film because it's methodically filmed and paced. This isn't The Fast & The Furious, and if you go in expecting more "War" rather than "Planet of the Apes" then I suppose you'll be sorely disappointed.

However, if you're looking for a movie that's actually really well directed, better written than it has any reason to be, and a lot more emotionally driven than most other Oscar-bait dramas, then you'll definitely enjoy War For The Planet Of The Apes.

And it still irks me that Serkis wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for his performance. I didn't bother checking to see who won best actor for 2017, but I'm finding it hard to believe anyone turned in a more layered, heartfelt, and multi-dimensional performance than Serkis did with Caesar.