This week we saw War For The Planet of the Apes, the third film in a franchise where we consider its 2 predecessors Rise and sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes both 5-star movies in our opinion and already part of our film collection.
So War was definitely on our must-see list and it completes a quite frankly brilliant trilogy that had us leaving the cinema with mixed feelings, excitement at what the film’s director Matt Reeves Batman film will be like but also concern that news that plans for a fourth film are planned, as we feel it’s not needed!
The film starts with soldiers coming across an Ape camp, which by chance happens to be where Caesar (Andy Serkis) is. Amongst the soldiers are Red (Ty Olsson) a former Koba (Toby Kebbell) follower who helps carry and load weapons for the humans.
The attach angers Caesar, who had offered peace in return for apes being left alone, however we soon learn a human known as The Colonel (Woody Harrelson) who is determined to kill all apes, in revenge for a new strain of the rise virus which took his son.
When the soldiers report back to the Colonel that they have found Caesar, he attacks killing Caesar’s wife Cornelia (Judy Greer) and eldest son, Blue Eyes (Max Lloyd-Jones) leaving only his youngest son Cornelius (Deyn Dalton) alive.
This enrages Caesar, who with the aid of flashbacks from Koba, seeks revenge and wants to kill The Colonel, sending the rest of the apes to what he believes is safety, including his youngest, he sets off with Maurice (Karin Konoval), Luca (Michael Adamthwaite) and Rocket (Terry Notary) to serve what he believes will be justice and protect the rest of the ape colony.
Along the way they are attacked but manage to kill a human who they learn has the new strain of the Rise virus which stops them being able to talk, on the human camp they find a young girl with the virus who is named Nova (Amiah Miller) and another talking ape, who is a survivor of the San Diego zoo, he is named Bad Ape (Steve Zahn) who gives the film a comedy edge as he is a bit more simple than the other apes, but is never as annoying as say a Jar Jar Binks.
This small patrol eventually come across a compound where The Colonel has captured many apes, including Caesar’s village he sent to safety and has them in a life of slavery, with no food or drink building a wall as the Colonel is expecting to be under attack from other human military who also want to kill him, for his radical views of killing all exposed by the Rise virus.
Caesar must win back the trust of those apes, who blame his quest for revenge as reason for them being captured and plan an escape which will see many casualties, human and ape in the film’s big finale.
Quite frankly if you liked the first two, rush to see this one, the film works as a science fiction movie but like Aliens, it works as a great war movie too, as it shows the casualties and damage they cause.
You can see the trailer here:
Buy the film from Amazon:
