War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

7/10

Starring

Andy Serkis

Woody Harrelson

Steve Zahn

Directed by Matt Reeves

When the story of the Planet of the Apes started – what the journey will be like, the direction it will take and the needed changes to be made from the path of the first installment of the movie series was on my mind.

When I saw the first movie, Rise of the Plant of the Apes (2011) in this supposed trilogy (because there could be more films in the future), I was blown away by the performance and the screenplay. James Franco’s performance in the first movie, Rise of the Plant of the Apes (2011) made me worry about his lack of presence in the second, Dawn of the Planets of the Apes (2014) but the movie had everything you needed for you to say I watched a great movie. There were battles, coup and the decisive plot twist on the future path of this franchise.

This movie starts at the awake of the second, the ape colony is being attacked by humans and the death toll on both sides was massive.

The sad thing from the first act of this movie is there are apes on the human side helping them attack the colony led by Caesar. The battle didn’t go well for the humans and Caesar in other to send a message to the humans that he wants to be left alone with the other apes speared the life of the survivors.

Things turned sour when someone in the colony betrayed them and led a team headed by a man tagged as The Colonel into the colony. The apes defended themselves, but the casualty was Caesar’s wife and son.

Now bent on revenge Caesar told the colony to head to the desert while he goes hunting for The Colonel. Maurice his trusted adviser warns him not to tread that path, but Caesar wanted revenge and went after the Colonel.

This decision spared and almost got him killed. He also found out that the humans were in two factions and the Colonel was not just cruel, but evil willing to kill anyone to stop the apes from taking over the world and the humans from becoming primitive.

War for the Planets of the Apes is everything I expected the movie to be and even more. Matt Reeves work as director and co-writer is something to be applauded for as the movie dabbles into the various levels of empathy, mercy and revenge. The needed dramatic twists that will make you marvel and the explosive visual effects and art direction that will be forever implanted in your mind are all present in this movie.

This was a ride I will not mind going for seconds, and I think you will love the movie too.