[Review] War For The Planet Of The Apes (8/10)

So it's official. Matt Reeves is on a hot roll and that's why he is getting his way on the script for his next project, DC's The Batman!

This third installment, War For The Planet Of The Apes, was great. But let me start it off by saying, 20th Century Fox screwed up the titles for all these movies. The first one should have been Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. Second one should have been War For The Planet Of The Apes. And this one should have been Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

My explanations: First movie should have been Dawn and that would have made sense. The second one should have been War because that had more combat scenes, while this third one had less; and that's why if it was named Rise, it would have made sense too.

Also, the marketing materials for War has been misleading. There was this poster (as attached above) where the Apes were on one side, all armed and ready to fight the humans who were at the bottom of the poster. That looked like a showdown for war, which never happened in the movie and that disappointed me to no end.

And the beginning of this movie, something big transpired that projected Caeser (played once again to perfection by Andy Serkis) on a dangerous path that lasted throughout the movie. However, everything happened so fast that I felt it was rushed. But I also could see what Reeves was going for and I suppose there was no other way around it.

But from then on, the pacing had been spot on. The dread and the gloom of the impending war hung on the faces of the Apes. And as they strategized, you could not help but side on with them instead of the humans.

However, as a movie about the war between the two factions, the middle slowed down with nothing much going on but to introduce two new characters in the form of Nova and Bad Ape, the latter being somewhat inconsequential. This again, was a problem with how the marketing and title set up my expectations.

The motion capture and the CGI effects were incredible, just like in Dawn. But I couldn't tell if the effects have been improved since then, but could it have been improved further? Both these movies looked incredible.

The negatives I had was with the decisions made by Woody Harrelson's character. As ruthless as he appeared to be, there were two major Apes that he should have killed on the spot. But instead he let them live and that, partly, led to the downfall of his team. The way that part of the plot progressed, I could not get behind fully. Especially with how he was killed off towards the end, I thought that was just a cop out.

Also, there was this huge oil tank that was conveniently situated at a crucial spot in the camp that caused a major upset later on. That was, again, way too convenient; unless I missed an explanation for it.

But overall, this closing of a trilogy was great. Not Lord Of The Rings kind of epic greatness, but in its own right, it was great.