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

*Cue Lord of the Rings "running across landscape" music*

Happy Thursday to all. I'm out of town starting tonight and not back 'til Monday at noon so I figured I'd go ahead and end the Apes anthology of reviews today and start fresh with something else next week!

Well this is it. The past ten or eleven weeks' worth of reviews have come down to this. This is the final entry and the final Apes movie released so far, and boy, it really was a good one. Dawn was good, had defining moments, but this one just kicked it up a notch. I'd say it sits at a solid second, between Dawn at third and Rise at first, when it comes solely to this reboot series. It's just like the opening narration of the film states: First we had the Rise... then as the ape civilization came to be, it was the Dawning of a new era, that ended with the apes and humans preparing for War. That's right. Welcome to War for the Planet of the Apes. Andy Serkis is back as Caesar, and supposedly for the final time. This is Caesar's greatest challenge yet as he leads the ape people (Ape-le, if you will? idfk). Let's dig into this solid sequel and kick back for some action-packed-ness. I'm FULL of making up useless combined words today!

"Uncle Colonel wants YOU for ape-killing madmen
militia killers...we'll pay for your post-apocalyptic
college education!"

Our latest sequel picks up during a time where a ruthless colonel (Woody Harrelson) leads a militia to find Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his intelligent apes. A platoon assaults an ape outpost and the paramilitaries are captured. The tribe releases the survivors to show a desire for peace. There are apes derogatorily called "donkeys" serving the militia. Caesar's eldest son, Blue Eyes (Max Lloyd-Jones), and friend Rocket (Terry Notary) return from an oasis while searching for a safer home. The colonel leads a team in infiltrating the apes' home and kills Caesar's wife Cornelia (Judy "I'm Still Here" Greer) and Blue Eyes after mistaking him for Caesar. So now you're Caesar... you're just trying to enjoy your life, and some nutjob posing as an army nut shows up, kills your wife and eldest son, and what do you do? It's time for WAR. *Cue Edwin Starr's "War"*

Rocket, Maurice (Karin Konoval), and Luca (Michael Adamthwaite) accompany Caesar to serve as a decoy as the tribe journey. Caesar kills a paramilitary in self-defense and find the man's mute daughter (Amiah Miller) whom Maurice befriends, giving her a rag doll. Other paramilitaries were abandoned and left for dead. A man who was shot reveals that he is mute like the girl. Caesar's group chases someone who has stolen one of their horses and is surprised to see that he is another intelligent ape, named Bad Ape (Steve Zahn). You might be wondering who Steve Zahn is... I know I saw him before in Eddie Murphy's Daddy Day Care... that's all I remember him from. Lol no disrespect Steve! Bad Ape informs them that the militia is at a quarantine facility with an arsenal in the mountains. Luca is killed and Caesar is captured when they try to get close, his tribe was captured and is being forced to build a wall.

"What you think, little girl?" ".........." "Oh,
right, that's the fifth time I've forgotten
you can't talk."

The militia is barricading the facility to fend off the United States army because the Simian flu (that wiped out most of humanity as presented in Dawn) has mutated and the infected become mute and devolve, they killed carriers before they could infect other people. The U.S army is searching for a cure through the manipulation of nature again. Caesar is kept starving to force the tribe to work. The mute girl, named Nova by Maurice (OH MANY ANOTHER THROWBACK, God I LOVE THESE REBOOTS), sneaks into the facility to give Caesar water and her doll. Rocket allows himself to be captured to prevent Nova from being seen. The colonel later confiscates the doll. Caesar and Rocket free the apes via an underground tunnel leading out of the facility. The facility comes under attack by the U.S. Army, and Caesar sneaks into the colonel's quarters. He finds himself about to shoot the Colonel but realizes that poor ol' Woody has become mute after handling the doll. Unable to yell obscenities at Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone in Zombieland 3, Woody decides to commit suicide.

A lot of escaping apes are caught in the crossfire. Caesar attempts to blow up a fuel tank to take out the militia from behind but is shot by Preacher (Gabriel Chavarria), one of the paramilitaries he set free. Red (Ty Olsson), a "donkey", has a change of heart and kills Preacher but is immediately killed by another paramilitary. Thank you for your sacrifice, noble donkey/gorilla. Thanks to the distraction, Caesar blows the tank, triggering an avalanche that kills the militia and the army while the apes carry Nova and survive by climbing nearby trees. The apes and Nova reach the oasis. As Maurice and Caesar watch Nova and Caesar's son in their new home, Maurice discovers Caesar's wound. He promises Caesar that his son will know who Caesar was and what he did for the apes before Caesar dies...

"How many apes did we kill, giant gorilla?"
"Ten". "How many humans died doing it?"
"Twenty-seven." "Shit to hell..."

So yeah, Andy Serkis's final hurrah from the Apes reboot series. Unless he decides to show up in a flashback or some kind of Mufasa-esque mentor role to his son in the next movie. Even after Harrison Ford said he was done with Han Solo twice, he came back twice. Never say never, my friends. Certainly if the price is right.

So for War for the Planet of the Apes, I very much enjoyed this movie. It was a little dark here and there, that's for sure. Watching Woody cap an ape for Caesar's disobedience and seeing Caesar get starved/tortured is unsettling, but it's the third movie it had to get some more dark and unsettling material in there right? Couldn't go more lighthearted. Yeah forget movies like Back to the Future Part III and Return of the Jedi, doesn't have to maintain a level of comfortableness, has to get darker. Lol. I must also point out that Woody Harrelson plays a hell of a bad guy. I hated this guy's merciless guts when I was watching this movie, and seeing him get his comeuppance was all the more satisfying. That's how you know you've got a good bad guy. There was also a ton of gunplay, which in today's landscape is something you see less and less of, what with all the shootings going on in the United States. This movie didn't shy away from the final battle, watching humans and apes getting capped left and right. Pretty violent stuff here and there.

I did once again think Caesar's evolution was depicted very well in this sequel. I spoke about how in Dawn Caesar's English had developed from Rise one-two word sentences to a very broken language. Now, in War Caesar speaks perfect English and his sidekicks/subordinates speak the broken English language. It's cool to see the development proceed and watch it in action. Fascinating to see, even.

"Oooooooooh" "Bad Ape, please stop showing me
your 'oh' face." "OHHHHHHHHHHHH".

Go watch War for the Planet of the Apes, especially if you've seen Rise and Dawn. It's a lot like the third movie in most any trilogies; you don't really want to watch, but hey you've come this far. After all, you'll want to see the conclusion to the reboot series as it stands now. I very much enjoyed it, found it a little dark and a little laggy at times, but ultimately it was a fun movie and another solid sequel. So far the reboot series has impressed me more than the classic series. I just found them more gripping and a far more cohesively told story, but yes, I recommend.

...and lastly, I'll see you all in 2024 when it appears the fourth movie in the reboot series... now titled Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes... will release! Until then, peace!