War For the Planet of the Apes is the first Planet of the Apes movie I’ve seen since the remake with Mark Wahberg. I was asked why I would start in a trilogy on the third film. The answer is: because that’s what came out this week. The other answer is because a film should stand on its own merits, even if it’s the third in a trilogy. You should never have to have seen/read/listened to something else, in order to enjoy a movie.
This is very much a war movie. It’s hard to watch. There’s so much fighting, killing, imprisonment, etc, that it’s emotionally taxing. Apes don’t smile much at the best of times. There is some mild comedic relief, which was nice. But for all that, I can promise you it’s emotionally satisfying. I’m not going to say whether the ending is happy or sad but it WAS amazing. Good movies start by asking a question that has to be answered by the end of the film. And WFTPOTA answers the hell out of its question, point by bloody point.
So is War For the Planet of the Apes worth watching? Yes. Though steel yourself, it’s a tough ride. Definitely worth it. By the end of it I wanted to learn the ape sign language because of how cool it was. Funny thing, Caesar reminded me so much of Moses from the bible. I bet there’s many parallels between WFTPOTA and Exodus, which (unless I was seeing things) actually might have been deliberate. Anyway, it’s a great film. Now I have to watch the first two to catch up. I think they might have missed something in the summary.
Rating: [star rating=”4″]