War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

[JessePinkman]

In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

I love (LOVE) the first two movies in this series and this trailer looks similar in tone but larger in scope and I'm here for it. 

[spaceytraci1208]

My sister sent me a link to this trailer earlier today and I said "Oh hell yeah!" before even pressing play lol

[Spartan Girl]

"The irony is we created you...and nature has been punishing us ever since."

I had to laugh at that line because they still aren't getting it: they created them AND they treated them like crap. Like, if you're going to create apes with human intelligence, treat them humanely!

Whatever. We all know how this will end.

[victorialenial]

I have seen the trailer too and can't wait to see the movie.

[topanga]

Another one???

[Traveller519]

I did think the first one in the reboot series was fantastic. Second one was still good but seemed a little more disingenuous.

If we're going straight to all battle all the time... I don't know

[benteen]

I saw this last night and thought it was really good.  I'm consistently impressed with the world-building of this trilogy and how they managed to make a great series of Apes movies.

[ApathyMonger]

I thought it was okay, but a bit disappointing after the last one.

The CGI is still great, and Serkis gives an excellent lead performance, but there wasn't much to the story, especially for how long the movie was. And for a movie called "War for the Planet of the Apes," the opening scene is the only one with apes actually warring.

Spoiler

 

Harrelson was good, but he was a much weaker villain compared to Koba, and didn't get a lot to do. His ending was a bit too anticlimactic, after they spent half the movie building him up. I'm sure its on purpose that we spend almost no time with the human characters (they mostly don't even have names), but it doesn't really work for me, and just makes them all feel one-dimensional.

The whole thing with the opposing army felt like it was added because they needed more explosions in the climactic sequence; it didn't add anything to the story, especially as we know nothing about the opposing force, and never even see their faces. Mighty lucky that they attacked at the exact moment the apes were escaping though!

The Apocalypse Now nods didn't help much, especially after the other ape movie made them all a few months ago.

I also don't quite see how a desert is such a great location for apes to live. Don't they need food and water?

 

[AimingforYoko]

What I like about Harrelson's Colonol was that while he was completely batshit, he wasn't wrong. The problem was, his solution even if successful, would've been a mere stop-gap. The die was cast, humanity was already in it's twilight.

[Silver Raven]

Steve Zahn was amazing.  What a funny character.  And Andy Sirkis killed it, again.  The ape rendering is absolutely unbelieveable.

[SeanC]

The strongest entry in the new series, in great part because the writers forego the "good humans struggle to co-exist with the apes" angle that took up a lot of narrative space in the first two films and was consistently undermined by the series' inability to produce compelling human characters. The apes are the sole attraction here, more or less, and that's all for the good.

These are very dour films at this point, so I can see why their commercial appeal has ended up being a bit on the limited side, but the ape civilization depicted here is a phenomenal artistic achievement on the part of the cast and crew. Some of the best, most detailed visual effects I've ever seen.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just got back from seeing this and I'll be that sap because... just because...

FUUUUUUUCK!!!! Did they have to make Cornelius an orphan??!!???????

Bad enough that Cornelia, Blue Eyes and Luca were killed. I wanted Caesar and Cornelius to have each other!!

Zahn saved this for me-if not for "Bad Ape," I would have raged and cried during the whole movie. Everyone in the theatre laughed at his antics- from his "Baaaad Ape" to his taking his dishes from Nova and telling her not to touch his stuff.  And his "oh no! No! No!No!" And him asking why everyone was so small when looking through the binoculars WRONG! To have Maurice put them the correct way and BA's glee st seeing everything so BIG, had me howling ????

They couldn't just end the movie with Caesar looking over his Apes and son, could they? And I don't wanna hear the logical reasons WHY the movie had to end the way it did.

Serkis was nothing short of AMAZING, and in this one I could really see him. 

All those stupid humans just came off as corn for brains morons in a cult, and Harrelson's Colonel was their David Koresh.????

But despite how it ended, I really liked it. The first one was the best for me.

Edited July 16, 2017 by GHScorpiosRule

[ApathyMonger]

11 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

What I like about Harrelson's Colonol was that while he was completely batshit, he wasn't wrong. The problem was, his solution even if successful, would've been a mere stop-gap. The die was cast, humanity was already in it's twilight.

It probably wouldn't have helped that his entire camp seemed to have only one woman in it.

[Jediknight]

14 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

What I like about Harrelson's Colonol was that while he was completely batshit, he wasn't wrong. The problem was, his solution even if successful, would've been a mere stop-gap. The die was cast, humanity was already in it's twilight.

I don't think he was right. 

Nova still had an incredible amount of intelligence.  She was only with Caesar, Maurice, Rocket, and Luca for a few days, but she learned sign language.  The virus took away people's ability to speak, but it wasn't taking away their intelligence.  Hell, notice the Colonel when the virus took his voice, he was drinking, had the photo of his son, and wanted death.  He realized that he still had his intelligence, and he had killed his son for no reason at all.

Fantastic way to end the trilogy.

[healthnut]

I loved it. I found it compelling, extremely well written, and fitting end to the series. I loved that every plot point had a purpose and it tied all three movies together. Nothing was forced. It was long but it didn't feel too long. I found a lot of real life parallels in the movie: slavery, Nazi Germany...It was amazing that as an audience you really root for the apes to win. 

Loved Bad Ape, Maurice, and Rocket. Even Lake was a good character in her limited scenes. Winter betraying the apes was sad but Donkey coming through in the end was all kinds of awesome. I kind of expected the ending so I was okay with it. At least this lays to rest any future films. 

[Silver Raven]

I was surprised that Preacher didn't wind up siding with the apes.

[benteen]

Steve Zahn was amazing as Bad Ape.  He gave the film some much needed comic relief.  Director Matthew Reeves said it was to show apes outside of Caesar's community and that future movies might explore that subject.

Clever bit with soldiers having on their helmets stuff like "Monkey Killer" and "Endangered Species" but my favorite was the soldier who had written on his helmet "Bedtime for Bonzo."  Brilliant.

[GHScorpiosRule]

To me, it looked like Caesar didn't mean to kill Winter-he just wanted to keep him quiet so that Winter wouldn't give them away. And none of us were supposed to believe his "Oh Noes! Donkey hit me and escaped!" right? Because I sure didn't.

[Silver Raven]

I kept waiting for a reveal at the end that the soldiers who were coming to fight the Colonel were apes.

[TigerLynx]

I liked all three of these movies.  I love that they managed to work most of the characters from the original movies into these movies in one way or another.  I also liked that humans were responsible for all of this.  From their experimenting on apes and other animals, to their mistreatment of them, to creating the virus and setting it loose, etc.  It goes back to what Dr. Zaius said in the first movie of what he knew of man, paraphrasing here, "Because you're a man! And you're right. I have always known about man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand in hand with his idiocy. His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a war-like creature who gives battle to everything around him...even himself.  He will make a barren wasteland of both your home and his."

[Silver Raven]

I was kind of offended that they gave credit to the creators of the first movies, but not even a mention of Pierre Boulle, who wrote the book that all of this is based on.

[spaceytraci1208]

This was a very fitting conclusion to the trilogy; heavy, but that was to be expected. I actually liked "Bad Ape"...I expected him to get on my nerves after awhile, but he was used just right. I wasn't really satisfied with The Colonel's end; but I guess having Caesar and the other apes treat him like he deserved would go against the overall message of the series. 

When the lead "Donkey" finally came to his senses, I almost expected him to have a big dramatic moment similar to Caesar's in the first film and scream out "My name...is not...DONKEYYYY!!!" LOL 

Oh, and fuck Winter...raggedy bastard 

[catrox14]

Finally saw this tonight on HBO. 

What a great film. I thought it had everything.  Terrific performances from the entire cast and Andy Serkis seriously needs a Lifetime Achievement Oscar. 

[Spartan Girl]

On July 16, 2017 at 1:39 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Zahn saved this for me-if not for "Bad Ape," I would have raged and cried during the whole movie. Everyone in the theatre laughed at his antics- from his "Baaaad Ape" to his taking his dishes from Nova and telling her not to touch his stuff.  And his "oh no! No! No!No!" And him asking why everyone was so small when looking through the binoculars WRONG! To have Maurice put them the correct way and BA's glee st seeing everything so BIG, had me howling ????

I fucking loved that part. Bad Ape was the best, and I also loved Maurice and little Nova.

Good end to the trilogy but Caesar 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭