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War For the Planet of the Apes (2017)

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RIP TO MY BOY CAESAR!

Honestly I'm fine w/o another Apes movie. I'm perfectly satisfied with this.

FULL REVIEW HERE: https://rendyreviews.com/movies//war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-review


One of the great things about this movie is that even after Koba is gone, a lot of his actions still haunt both the apes and Caesar. Throughout the film, you see Koba as Caesar’s guilty conscious which provides an inner turmoil to him and everything he goes through. When he is blinded by his rage, you see Caesar break his own moral codes he applied onto his tribe. As the film progresses you see Caesar become the ape, he never wanted to become; Koba.

 

Don’t think just because this is an intelligent and subtle summer blockbuster; this is devoid of having action sequences. The film opens with a brutal human vs. apes war sequence that feels straight out of Saving Private Ryan (or Saving Primate Ryan). Talk about Gorilla Warfare am I right? You have spurts of blood when an ape is shot with a gun or when a human is shot with an arrow. It emotionally shows the brutality and consequences of war on both opposing sides. Some of the action includes big budgeted explosions, but at the same time, the most intense action sequences it offers are poignant decisions done through silence.

 

For a PG13 film, the onslaught sequences of violence are so intense that at times it brings you to the verge of tears. The film heavily influences sequences out of biblical films such as Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur. Even last year during New York Comic Con, Matt Reeves confirmed that some of the influences are taken from those films besides many others. Though by description it sounds fantastic how it homages those films, the scenes they take from those movies aren’t pretty. It is not only effective, but it is also emotional.

 

War For the Planet of the Apes swung through the vines and stuck that perfect landing. I've never seen a trilogy thoroughly perfect as this. This is a masterful conclusion to one of the best trilogies in film history. Seriously whose ass do I need to kick to get Andy Serkis an Oscar nomination?

So the cast came to my job Tuesday and of course I WAS GOING TO ASK A QUESTION OH WELL HERE IT IS!: https://www.facebook.com/RendyReviews/videos/1456262674466683/

Edited by rjones1325
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Ok movie. Slightly better than Dawn. The pacing in the second half is very slow especially after Caesar is captured. The narration is jerky at times. The ending is good. But the movie is generally dull. Tired of this series. 

 

Rating: B-/C+

Edited by jb007
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6 hours ago, Manchester by the Tree said:

Stunning conclusion to what must now be known as one of the best trilogies ever made. 

 

Star Wars and Lord of the Rings top this, nothing else.

 

There is a lot of candidate:

 

Cornetto 

back to the future

Apu trilogy

3 Colors

Men with no names / The Dollars Trilogy

Human Condition

Godfather

Before trilogy

Toy Story

Evil Dead

Dark Knight

Bourne

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2 minutes ago, Barnack said:

 

There is a lot of candidate:

 

Cornetto 

back to the future

Apu trilogy

3 Colors

Men with no names / The Dollars Trilogy

Human Condition

Godfather

Before trilogy

Toy Story

Evil Dead

Dark Knight

Bourne

 

None of these trilogies are better than Apes except for maybe Godfather and LOTR.  Hail.

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9 minutes ago, Barnack said:

 

There is a lot of candidate:

 

Cornetto 

back to the future

Apu trilogy

3 Colors

Men with no names / The Dollars Trilogy

Human Condition

Godfather

Before trilogy

Toy Story

Evil Dead

Dark Knight

Bourne

Cornetto Trilogy - The World's End is a let down

Back to the Future - the second one sucks

Godfather - part 3 is a let down

Before - yep fantastic trilogy but not quite as good as this one

Toy Story - third one is a let down

Dark Knight - the second one is not very good

Bourne - I don't like any of the bourne films

 

The other ones I haven't seen (or at least haven't seen all 3)

 

 

It's rare to find a trilogy that is consistently high quality, but this is one of those rare occasions. 

 

"Great" trilogies:

1. Star Wars

2. Lord of the Rings

3. Planet of the Apes reboot

4. Before

5. Kung Fu Panda

 

All other trilogies seem to have a weak link in them, in my opinion at least. Like I would love to consider Indiana Jones to be a great trilogy as Raiders and Last Crusade are two of my favourite movies, but Temple of Doom is a let down so that disqualifies it.

Edited by Manchester by the Tree
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Like the previous 2 entry, I didn't like it as much as people seem to have.

 

The score was really impressive, bold and confident like pretty much everything in this movie. A bit of a lesson on what the mpaa will let pass as PG-13 if you cut away soon enough.

 

But the last third felt a bit contrived (or I didn't not understood the current state of the world, like humans were able to flight chopper all this time ? or what the army was eating all this year the way they were moving that easily, nor the presented situation very much)

 

I did not understood the last action sequence very well, the time and space, the apes didn't achieve to make much ground it did seem to me, why were they still exposing themselve to bullet after all this time, why the donkey shot is grenade to the soldier instead of shooting the gaz tank just after the movie clearly show him understanding the plan, huge unnecessary risk that felt was there just to have the protagonist be the hero and have is awesome getting shot by the soldier moment.

 

I did not understood the geography of the new army arriving and how the apes stuck between the 2 escaped and the avalanche cleaning everything felt like a Deux Ex type cop out.

 

The wall building did seem to me to be of too low quality to spent all this time, trouble and resource into keeping the apes alive, specially in the context of fearing them and virus base cataclysm. Specially that they clearly show they still have internal combustion engine working.

 

I felt they made the humans too mustache twisting cartoon villains, in the 1968 version no one is a villains, the donkeys too I'm not sure the movie sold their decision much (outside by talking about it, not showing). On the other way around they made the hero a very mixed one that abandon is surviving child to is rage, maybe that why they felt a need to push the villains side here.

 

The apes a lot of the time felt weightless a bit, they look really good now but their movement and the environment reaction to their interaction and weight felt lacking.

 

Some of the moment felt going toward the cheesy side

 

I would have not cared one second for any of those, probably they would not even come to my mind if I would have like the movie more, still worth a watch with some good emotional moment.

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At first it's great, beautiful, engaging, and touching. I was really digging it.

 

But the bad humans held the idiot ball so often it lessened the impact.

 

Spoiler

None of the guards saw Nova for what reason? No one except one guy noticed the Apes were gone? Why make it tense if NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION? That doesn't make it tense.

 

The guard who kept following around Harrelson, I remember when he was cast and was excited that he might have a prominent role, but no, I see what they were angling to but the story is so much Caesar's you forget this guy is there.

 

Also the music cues they kept reusing, especially the twinkly music when something tender happened, it was nice, but we could have cut out at least one. But the drumming motif, THAT was awesome. Seriously, what track is that on the soundtrack. I want to buy it.

 

The spoiler lessened my enjoyment but I was still interested in the film, so it's not all bad. Some of it was surprising. B

 

Edited by Morieris
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On 7/14/2017 at 10:25 PM, WrathOfHan said:
Spoiler

Caesar's death feel obligatory. It's just kind of like "Oh yeah, I have this wound and I'm gonna die. Bye!" The whole execution of it feels so rushed.

 

 

This is another thing that kind of confused me - 

 

Spoiler

How long did it take them to get to the desert, they did mention it was a fairly long walk in the beginning, right? It seemed kind of .... random to have him die so far past the battle like this.

 

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5 hours ago, That One Guy said:

 

None of these trilogies are better than Apes except for maybe Godfather and LOTR.  Hail.

 

Youre most definitely wrong about that.  The Apes trilogy is solid the whole way through, which is impressive, but it's not all-time great (only War was truly great imo).

 

Indiana Jones Trilogy

Before Trilogy

LOTR Trilogy

Original Star Wars Trilogy

Dollars Trilogy

Toy Story Trilogy

Godfather Trilogy (knocked down by last movie)

The Gibson Mad Max Trilogy

Evil Dead Trilogy

Back to the Future Trilogy

Dark Knight Trilogy

Apes Trilogy

The Mariachi Trilogy

Bourne Trilogy

Cornetto Trilogy

 

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I'm finding this one hard to review--I'm still thinking about it so my thoughts here are a bit random:

 

First off, the SFX are mind-blowingly good. Serkis should get an Oscar at least for his body of work so far.

 

Having been a while since I saw the last apes movie, I was a bit lost on who was who, and I had to work especially to tell the chimp-characters apart. One thing this movie has going against it I think, is that if you have not seen the previous two films, I think a LOT will be lost to you. If I recommend this to somebody, it'll be with the caveat "You have to see the other two first". Unlike some trilogy movies discussed so far, this is one you can't jump into and expect to know everything that's going on.

 

The other is that this movie gets really slow in some places. I found myself checking my watch a few times.

 

I think unlike some people, I actually really liked the long dialogue scene between Ceaser and Harrelson, even if it was a bit exposition heavy. Ceaser seems to be at a really interesting level of intelligence and language ability in this movie, so I was really let down by two things:

1. I wanted to hear more of him either talking to people or apes.

2. He kept coming up with bad plans and he did things contrary to his intelligence; like why didn't he warn his family or others when the soldiers went down the waterfall?

 

The other thing about this movie is that there are so many deus ex machina moments, when it seems the apes could have planned their way out of them.

 

I liked "bad ape" and the humor he brought, although it bordered on being over the top in a couple places.

 

The action was confusing. A lot of times I was lost and didn't know who was who or where I was.

 

I'm giving this a B for now.

 

As for box office performance: I think the trilogy problem is going to keep a lot of new viewers shut out despite good WOM and high-critic ratings--they just might wait until they can see all three movies later on their own time. (plus the previews didn't make this movie stand out from the previous one in any notable way, probably because to the non-fans it does seem like the same movie). The overall depressing tone of the movie plus its pacing and length will probably really reduce the number of times people will watch it again. I feel that only dedicated fans will be interested in seeing it more than once in the theater, otherwise they'll wait until it's released later.

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- the part with the girl walking into the camp.  I figured as a clothed human she just blended in and everyone was so war torn they just did not care.  It is like in Rogue One when the imperial droid could just sort of exist on both sides. 

- I am really glad Maurice made it

- the close up vfx of the faces were too good.  maybe it was just makeup and prosthetics

 

at the end before the avalanche when all the white dressed soldiers started to storm the base I was like OMG they are going to be apes   it would have been a good twist.  they never reveal anyones body parts.  I could have sworn i saw some ape fur under the clothing of one of the soldiers. 

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9 hours ago, Morieris said:
  Hide contents

None of the guards saw Nova for what reason? No one except one guy noticed the Apes were gone? Why make it tense if NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION? That doesn't make it tense.

 

 

Yeah, this kind of got to me too. I was thinking to myself "man this is nitpicky" during the movie but for real. They're fucking around right there. They're in plain sight. Like c'mon, how are you not seeing that?

 

It was pretty minor but still. Definitely bothered me a bit.

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9 hours ago, Matrix4You said:

at the end before the avalanche when all the white dressed soldiers started to storm the base I was like OMG they are going to be apes   it would have been a good twist.  they never reveal anyones body parts.  I could have sworn i saw some ape fur under the clothing of one of the soldiers. 

 

Hey same here!!!!

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oh yeah, my crowd was at 90% in a 400-seater including front row (which makes the theater look sold out in the back half of the auditorium).

They were engaged with the bad monkey parts which I was surprised because I thought everyone was asleep during the movie.

It was a 3:50 matinee where tickets were $6.50...the matinee ends at 4:00pm and goes to $9.75 and this was the second largest theater so alot of people probably had this particular showtime as a must. 

And....surprisingly....heavy applause at the end. 

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I really didn't like it all that much.  This is a depressing film and not one I enjoyed sitting through.  I hated seeing Caesar getting whipped like a slave.  I hated seeing the apes dominated and being deprived of food and water.  The first 90 minutes of the film is pretty much the apes getting their asses handed to them.  And then, after they get their freedom, what cheery way do they end it?  They kill the one character everyone loves.  The only thing worse would have been if they killed Maurice as well.  

 

I think the writers got too cute or too stupid or too brave or something.  I wanted a war and what I got was the subjugation and torture of the characters that I have grown attached too.  And like some of the reviewers mentioned, having Nova walk in undetected was pretty ridiculous.  They are on high alert waiting for the army to come in.  But somehow a little girl can get past their defences and get into the compound?  I didn't like that.

 

Also, you do everything you can to make Woody Harrelson one of the meanest SOB's I've ever seen on screen, and them how do you kill him?  By him committing suicide.  Fuck that.  This is a man who killed his own son, killed Caesar's family, kills and tortures apes, whips them, deprives them of food and water and shelter and he kills himself off screen.  By this time, you need closure with him and Caesar should have torn him to shreds.

 

Not a great conclusion at all.

 

6/10 

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On 7/16/2017 at 6:45 AM, Manchester by the Tree said:

Stunning conclusion to what must now be known as one of the best trilogies ever made. 

 

Star Wars and Lord of the Rings top this, nothing else.

 

Captain America... :ph34r: 

 

Anyways fantastic conclusion to a great trilogy, it was super emtional and quite dark for a PG-13. but there were a couple things for me that kept it from a perfect grade. still a masterful films and I am super excited to see what Reeves can do with The Batman. Because he is super strong on a point I always found Noland weak on: Emotion, Please give us Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson (which all points seem to be leading to that anyways) and make a Bat-family drama film Reeves.  

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1 hour ago, baumer said:

I really didn't like it all that much.  This is a depressing film and not one I enjoyed sitting through.  I hated seeing Caesar getting whipped like a slave.  I hated seeing the apes dominated and being deprived of food and water.  The first 90 minutes of the film is pretty much the apes getting their asses handed to them.  And then, after they get their freedom, what cheery way do they end it?  They kill the one character everyone loves.  The only thing worse would have been if they killed Maurice as well.  

 

I think the writers got too cute or too stupid or too brave or something.  I wanted a war and what I got was the subjugation and torture of the characters that I have grown attached too.  And like some of the reviewers mentioned, having Nova walk in undetected was pretty ridiculous.  They are on high alert waiting for the army to come in.  But somehow a little girl can get past their defences and get into the compound?  I didn't like that.

 

Also, you do everything you can to make Woody Harrelson one of the meanest SOB's I've ever seen on screen, and them how do you kill him?  By him committing suicide.  Fuck that.  This is a man who killed his own son, killed Caesar's family, kills and tortures apes, whips them, deprives them of food and water and shelter and he kills himself off screen.  By this time, you need closure with him and Caesar should have torn him to shreds.

 

Not a great conclusion at all.

 

6/10 

 

All of the reasons you said you didn't like the movie are the reasons I thought it was fantastic, funny.

 

It detached the audiences from reality in order to tell them a story about the realities of war.  It takes the focus out of the actual conflict and shows you where a lot of the real pain is.  It's not in the clashing heads of Harrelson and Caesar, it's in the innocent victims of both sides.

 

It shows the unfair genocides/exterminations of groups of people, and he poor reasoning from the regime leaders behind it (who often end up hypocritical).  And it shows you how the winning side of history gets to tell the story and lift their passed away leaders up on a pedestal they may not deserve.

 

Harrelson's death was fitting, Caesar completed his arc of mercy, and it paralleled reality.  It also gave him a small moment of humanity, because you can see in his eyes that he becomes what he hated and realized how wrong he was about what he thought should be exterminated from the world.

 

It's not an action tentpole though, so if you go in wanting that, I can see how it could disappoint.

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1 hour ago, baumer said:

I really didn't like it all that much.  This is a depressing film and not one I enjoyed sitting through.  I hated seeing Caesar getting whipped like a slave.  I hated seeing the apes dominated and being deprived of food and water.  The first 90 minutes of the film is pretty much the apes getting their asses handed to them.  And then, after they get their freedom, what cheery way do they end it?  They kill the one character everyone loves.  The only thing worse would have been if they killed Maurice as well.  

 

Plus the apes escaped, but then hung around standing next to perfect gun cover only to get mowed down?  Whaaat?

 

 

1 hour ago, baumer said:

I think the writers got too cute or too stupid or too brave or something.  I wanted a war and what I got was the subjugation and torture of the characters that I have grown attached too.  And like some of the reviewers mentioned, having Nova walk in undetected was pretty ridiculous.  They are on high alert waiting for the army to come in.  But somehow a little girl can get past their defences and get into the compound?  I didn't like that.

 

Good point--I wanted to see how the soldiers would react to her. She's cute as button so I imagined that they would initially take her in, those guys get infected without realizing it, then some would revolt if they were ordered to kill her. I don't know why the writers didn't go that way.

 

1 hour ago, baumer said:

Also, you do everything you can to make Woody Harrelson one of the meanest SOB's I've ever seen on screen, and them how do you kill him?  By him committing suicide.  Fuck that.  This is a man who killed his own son, killed Caesar's family, kills and tortures apes, whips them, deprives them of food and water and shelter and he kills himself off screen.  By this time, you need closure with him and Caesar should have torn him to shreds.

 

Not a great conclusion at all.

 

6/10 

 

Same--I wanted to see Woody suffer after all that! And apparently that virus works really fast, which begs the question why wasn't the girl's father/guardian infected?

 

This film is a great example of how even a really well-reviewed movie won't necessarily have good legs, because even though the fans hit it up in the first weekend, a depressing movie scares away a lot of viewers and even a lot of fans won't see it again no matter how good it is. That's why one can't necessarily judge how good a movie is by its box-office longevity.

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