Spoilers War for the Planet of the Apes Review Thread

[Galileo7]

Nature a.k.a. the avalanche was fine, but I think a nuclear device created by man used against man by the apes would have been more interesting the opposite of the end of the original 1970 BENEATH. I was expecting in the closing credits of 2017 WAR to see an animated global thermal nuclear war breakout by the remaining human military of all the countries as we saw the simian plague outbreak at the end of the first film in this trilogy.

I do hope there will be more films including a remake of the 1968 film with Taylor's spaceship landing on future Earth. Also, 1970 BENEATH when Taylor will once again detonate the Alpha Omega bomb thus bringing wrath down on the now far too human-like warmongering Gorilla military.

 

[Smellmet]

I'd like the series to jump forward in time if there is to be further movies, so ceaser becomes an almost mythical 'jesus' type figure with statues of him built etc. Serkis could play one of his descendents.

 

[USS Firefly]

Are there intelligent apes in other countries like Europe or only in America?

 

[John Clark]

The first film indicated the Simian Flu went world wide, so I'd guess there are/were intelligent apes elsewhere.

(Could depend on the response to what happened when the first cases of flu started up elsewhere though)

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Caesar wondered the same thing in Dawn but had no means finding out.

 

[Dark Gilligan]

The symbolism of Caesar being an ape Moses, even getting to see the "promised land" but dying before he could enter it was really well done.

More than that. Just as Moses's people were held in forced labor by Pharaoh, Caesar's people were enslaved likewise by the Colonel. Punishment in both cases was by the whip. Pharaoh lost his son to plague, as did the Colonel. The plague in both cases was associated with the enslaved. And what ultimately swept both armies away? A massive force of nature--here an avalanche, there the waters of the Red Sea.

 

[JD]

I do hope there will be more films including a remake of the 1968 film with Taylor's spaceship landing on future Earth. Also, 1970 BENEATH when Taylor will once again detonate the Alpha Omega bomb thus bringing wrath down on the now far too human-like warmongering Gorilla military.

At this point I'm a lot more interested in seeing how this new ape society develops over a smaller period in time. I'd rather see them just jump ahead 20 or 30 years with Andy Serkis playing Ceasar's now adult son.
Since they see to be sticking closer to real apes this time, I doubt we'd get the whole Gorilla military thing, since Gorillas are one of the more peaceful ape species. If they do stick to it then it would be the Chimps who would probably be the violent warmongering military, since they are the most violent in real life.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Saw this yesterday and really enjoyed it.

Was it just me, or did parts of the soundtrack evoke the old Disney film, The Black Hole?

 

[Hugo Rune]

It was a beautiful, thoughtful film by Hollywood standards and went in a completely different direction than I was expecting. Following the gusto, mad action of Dawn I was expecting them to ramp up the War aspect even further. I was delighted to see it in fact be almost a pure character piece, book ended by a few good action scenes. And for all its dourness, there was a lovely vein of both humour and (ironically) humanity that stopped it from sinking under its own weight.

Bad Ape is such a lovely, well thought out character, both full of humour and pathos, levity and sadness. Love him.

The volume of close ups in this film was remarkable and, frankly, mesmerising. The quality and pedigree of work/talent that went into bringing those ape faces to life boggled me. Reeves must have had complete confidence in his team to try this given so much of the emotional weight and character work is done in those ape faces.

A great cap to a surprisingly good trilogy of films. I still recall scoffing at the thought of Rise and then being blown away, sat on a flight from the US, watching it on a tiny, pixellated screen and marvelling at my own stupidity and arrogance for not giving it a chance when it was in the cinemas.

Ceasar is a wonderful character and is Andy Serkis' crowning achievement as an actor so far. He may have pioneered the technology and the performance-capture with Gollum, but the subtlety and weight of Caesar was remarkable.

There is no doubt now that Awards Ceremonies like the Oscars need to adapt their Awards Titles to "Best Performance", because Caesar is a rich, rewarding performance, brought to life by a group of remarkable people.

Hugo - bad ape

 

[Smellmet]

The first film indicated the Simian Flu went world wide, so I'd guess there are/were intelligent apes elsewhere.

(Could depend on the response to what happened when the first cases of flu started up elsewhere though)

Does the simian flu actually make the Apes intelligent though? I thought it was the ALZ-113 that Franco's character concocted in the lab, with the flu being the side effect that affects humans only? That's the impression Rise gives.

 

[Dark Gilligan]

ALZ-113 is the simian flu. It interacted with apes as well as humans, with opposite effects. People only called in a "flu" because initially they didn't realize what it was.

 

[Smellmet]

So human carriers of it can potentially infect apes all over the world. I always thought the apes in these movies were limited to Caeser's clan.

 

[Defiant-A]

Will there be another film - all the ads have been saying this is the final film in the series?

Without spoiling anything (even though this is a Spoiler thread lol) in The Empire podcast interview with Matt Reeves, the director, he said this is the end of Caesar's story but he is definitely hoping he can come back and tell more stories in this universe (once he's done with The Batman one would assume). He and his writing partner got a lot of ideas from watching the old movie series before writing this one.

The only thing that upsets me with that is that I would want Andy Serkis back to do another ape then! He's so good I can't imagine them doing one with out him!

 

[Dark Gilligan]

So human carriers of it can potentially infect apes all over the world. I always thought the apes in these movies were limited to Caeser's clan.

Bad Ape was not of Caesar's clan nor were the other apes in his zoo, but all had their intelligence boosted. ALZ-113 is airborne; we know that because all Caesar had to do was expose his fellows to the breathable gas. So yes, apes in zoos and labs and in the wild all over the world would ultimately be enhanced. What's interesting is that none of these other clans will have arisen under Caesar's influence. Ape societies would develop in isolated pockets all over the earth, completely different from one another. Hence, different ape nations with different cultures.

 

[JD]

Without spoiling anything (even though this is a Spoiler thread lol) in The Empire podcast interview with Matt Reeves, the director, he said this is the end of Caesar's story but he is definitely hoping he can come back and tell more stories in this universe (once he's done with The Batman one would assume). He and his writing partner got a lot of ideas from watching the old movie series before writing this one.

The only thing that upsets me with that is that I would want Andy Serkis back to do another ape then! He's so good I can't imagine them doing one with out him!

There's no reason he couldn't come back. He would just be playing a different character this time.

 

[StarMan]

Saw it today with my partner and told her half way through I'd give it 5/5. I've always had an eye for CGI and this *finally* convinced me. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul and I think - CGI wise - they've finally nailed it. I looked for flaws but damn, it was hard. It was a tense movie that didn't really pick a side. Woody Harrelson was in survival mode for his people, however flawed his methodology was.

The title did imply an all out war between Apes and Man, but I love the irony that it was humanity that ends up essentially wiping itself out.

Once they're all in the Ape concentration camp there *may* have been an expectation of a mass rebellion (hence, WAR For The Planet Of The Apes), but I was more than happy with how it played out. Caesar at least got to see the promised land before he died.

Also, at the end when they reached their new home, was the lake in the background meant to be the one from the original Charlton Heston and co were swimming in (?)

 

[JD]

I just stumbled across something kinda cool, apparently they are doing a new in universe POTA book called Planet of the Apes: Caesar's Story. The concept behind it is that it is a book about Ceasar that Maurice wrote for Cearsar's son Cornelius after he died at the end of War for the Planet of the Apes. It's going to cover the events of the movies, and some stuff between them, all told from Maurice's perspective.