My Review of "War for the Planet of the Apes"

War for the Planet of the Apes came out in 2017 and boy does it look and sound fantastic compared to the previous movies. I really wasn't expecting this movie to come out because the second movie kind of ended things right. The second movie was far more focused whereas this one crams a lot of stuff into one big movie.

This movie starts off not too long from the second movie. In this movie I think you kind of get more references if you watched the second movie. They reference Koba a few times and that was Caesar's arch nemesis that he had to kill off at the end. They were polar opposite characters but we see Caesar start to see Koba's point of view in this movie.

In the first scenes we have Caesar, his family and his clan of apes fighting off humans in the forest. They have to move because the humans are getting more hostile as they're looking to kill Caesar. They hatch a plan to move out to a new place but time is of the essence and they aren't able to make it out.

A sinister colonel is hell bent on getting Caesar and he is willing to use any tactic to get to him. Unfortunately, one of the colonel's dastardly plans results in the death of Caesar's wife and son. It's a little bit of a shock for some because they were the main stays in the previous movie. This is the catalyst that kind of makes Caesar see red. He starts to see Koba in his dreams and sees how he's turning into him.

The movie then becomes a bit of a revenge movie as he explores the forest to find the colonel. Then the movie becomes a bit of a heist movie when they find out that the colonel has captured the ape clan. After this, the movie becomes a prison escape movie and then an all out war movie. There's so much to content in this movie it's ridiculous and yet it's all comprehensive and cohesive. It's pretty impressive.

While this is all happening there are social commentaries about race relations, how society deals with the weak, discussions about collateral damage in wars, and basically understanding what is the greater good. They do this with a lot of metaphors. There are a ton of religious references sprinkled throughout the movie as well. I'm sure if you had the time you could really pick this movie apart and you would find a ton of things to discuss about.

Entertainment-wise this movie is spectacular. It caps off the trilogy but also makes us realize the trilogy is based on the life and times of Caesar. I liked that it mainly focuses on this and we aren't delineated by this with other confusing side stories. I grew to love Caesar and all of the friends and family around him. That's why everything has a much bigger impact for me in the third than people that didn't see the other two movies.

As I was watching the trilogy I also noticed the remarkable updates in graphical details and audio from the first movie to this one. There were battle scenes that had me hold my breathe because I couldn't believe how spectacular it looked. Yes they were horrifying things happen but the explosions and the realism of the apes in each scene was remarkable. This movie came out not too long ago but yet I find movies don't look this good anymore.

I only had one little gripe about this movie and that was the character Bad Ape. I thought he was too cartoony for this movie. It felt really out of tone with the rest of the trilogy and this movie in general. Sure he brought some comedic impact to ease the tension of the movie but I felt it was out of place.

Overall, I loved this movie but I have to say the second movie is still my favorite of the trilogy. This one comes in as a close second. There's just so much to this movie that I can't help but admire it. I could tell that a ton of time and effort was given to make this movie. That's why I have to give this movie an 8.5 out of 10. I hear the Ape series will continue on next year so I'm curious what that will entail.