So I have never really used the blog portion of this site, but I thought I'd give it a try. So I thought the first thing to do would be to give reviews.
So I just came back from seeing War for the Planet of the Apes, and I know it's a little late to see it as it at the end of the road for the movie, but here we go anyway.
War for the Planet of the Apes is the final movie to the trilogy of the modern Planet of the Apes. First off I can say that if you have not seen any of the past movies that is perfectly okay. The only movie I saw out of these was the 2nd movie, Dawn of the planet of the Apes. I also saw it when it first came out in movies, so the plot of that movie is blurry. However the movie opens with explaining the plot of the past movies, and what happened in between Dawn and War of the Planet of the Apes. It also did something really cool in that it highlighted the word that was from each movie. So in the first sentence the word RISE was highlighted as the first movie was The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the Second highlighted word was Dawn, referencing Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and the third and last highlighted word was WAR, segmenting to the start of the action in War of the Planet of the Apes. However, this is not the only background information that we receive throughout the movie, as the movie provides enough information so that you never truly feel that you have no idea what the heck is happening throughout the movie.
So, what is the planet of the Apes? In case you have not seen any of the past Planet of the Apes movie, or are just wondering what the heck is happening in the these movies, the Planet of the Apes is about Apes that suddenly become smart and as intelligent as humans. As we learn from the movie it is due to some virus that somehow makes the Apes smarter but deteriorates the humans or kills them. We never truly find out what happens to the humans other than the humans that are not adapted to the virus are suddenly gone now. As the bad guy says in the movie that all the remaining people have the virus inside of them, implying that they are immune to the virus, and that the people who aren't are no longer alive. The bad guy also explains basically why the war is going on in the first place. He states that the Apes are more adapt and are more prepared to survive. This means the humans will be wiped out and the apes will be left, as that is just pure natural selection. And as the bad guy also says this is very ironic as the humans created the Apes in the first place. So the humans are basically fighting Darwin's theory of evolution. They are trying to break the cycle and make sure the they come out on top instead of the Apes. Well as shown in the movie, this attempt fails.
Now I will come onto the spoilers section of the review where I shall go over and discuss the plot. If you are interested in the movie now I suggest you go watch it for yourself and then come back here and read the rest of my thoughts.
So, the basic underlying plot of the movie is a quest for revenge as Caesar slowly turns into the savage ape Koba. Now this may mean nothing to you but I will explain it all in a second. Caesar is the leader of the apes, and presumably the first Ape to become as smart as humans according to what I can remember of the backstory given in Dawn. Koba is Caesar's co-leader from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He has a severe hatred for humans, as they killed his family. Caesar also states in the beginning of the movie that he was the Ape he tried to start the war on the first place. However he is not present in this movie (aside from two of Caesar's hallucinations) as Caesar also states that he killed him. Before this movie Caesar was a more calm but stern leader. He very much believed in the big stick policy by TR. He wanted to act peacefully and prevent war between the Apes and the humans, but he would fight to defend the apes if he had too. As stated by Caesar in the opening scenes of the movie "I only fight to help the apes". In fact Caesar sends a message to the colonial of the military that if they leave the forest alone, all this violence between the humans and the Apes could come to an end. So what prompts Caesar to turn from that type of leader to the savage human hating leader that is Koba? Well that shall be explained.
After the opening fight scene (which like all of the fight scenes is very intense) Caesar's son returns and tells the Apes that they can escape the humans by traveling across a desert, to another jungle. He states that the humans would not travel across the desert so they would be fine, and would be able to leave in peace. Winter says that they should leave tonight, clearly anxious about something.
This next scene is what causes this sudden dramatic change in Caesar. During the middle of the night Caesar sees green lights in the waterfall. He immediately realizes that they are lights on human guns that help them see where they are shooting at (like the red lights for snipers). Caesar turns to leave and tell Winter to take the apes who are on patrol off, as they are in danger. He also tells his son to protect himself and his mother. Unknowingly to them, is a man standing behind a rock on their backside. Caesar and winter then knock a man unconscious where through the man’s radio he discovers that the colonial is at the site. Caesar then returns to where his son was only to find that both Caesar’s son and wife were murdered, and the man who just did the act was standing on the edge of a cliff about to get away. Out of anger Caesar then attacks the man (whom he correctly presumes is the colonial) but fails in the act to kill him as he gets away.
This event enacts a big change in Caesar, and one that leads him to act like Koba.
The next morning the apes are all setting out to cross the desert and go to their new home, when Caesar announces that he will be joining them. He says that he is going to go after the colonial that killed his family. This statement shows just how much hatred Caesar is feeling for the human race at this time, and rightfully so. However, Caesar does not leave alone as he joined by two other apes (and one orangutan) who refuse to leave Caesar’s side.
This leads to one of my complaints with this movie. I feel that aside from Maurice (the orangutan who acts as Caesar’s advisor) we do not get enough of the other two. To me they felt to much like background characters. Honestly, I left the movie theater still not knowing the names of the other two apes that accompanied Caesar and Maurice. When one of them dies later on the movie, I only choke up a little bit because of the girl’s reaction to it. I felt there was not enough focus on these characters, to me they felt like the filler characters you see in The Peanuts specials. You have no idea who they are, or what they are doing there, when in reality they are just there to make the crowd look and feel bigger.
As for who the girl is that shall be explained, as I continue with the plot.
For the sake of making this review a lot shorter, I shall cover the less important events here in less important detail or leave them out altogether, as this review is already pretty long.
The apes come upon a human village and discover that everyone is gone, except for one man. However, Caesar shoots the man when he tries to pull out his gun to shoot the apes. While looking around his house for important skills the discover a girl. Maurice insists that they bring the girl as she will die of starvation as she is alone in the wilderness. Caesar says that they cannot bring her but Maurice insists and they bring her anyway. They also notice how the girl has an inability to speak for someone unknown reason. The girl becomes very important for reasons that I shall discuss later.
The apes discover Winter (one of the apes who was rumored to betray the apes out of cowardice) helping out the humans. He tells the Apes that the colonial is heading up north to meet up with other soldiers. Caesar then kills Winter when Winter tries to call out to the humans. Caesar than has his first vision of Koba, where in the vision Koba is telling Caesar that Ape does not kill Ape.
While following the army up north to the base, the apes discover that they were shooting other people who were not able to speak.
The Apes then go to the northern border running into another Ape who escaped from a zoo.
At the border of the facility where the men are, one the apes dies trying to protect Caesar from gun fire. The girl then proceeds to cry over his death as he just gave her a flower a scene earlier. She then proceeds to give him the flower in his last breaths.
Caesar than states to the other apes that they should not have come as it is his fight and no one else's. Maurice tells him that he is acting a lot like Koba now. Caesar storms off again, telling them to go and join the others across the desert. Caesar then discovers that all the apes were captured by the humans and brought to this area to work on a wall. They were basically in a concentration camp, as they were given no food or water. Whenever they would step out of line they would get whipped by the ape was serving the humans.
Caesar then get's captured and brought to the camp.
After a scene or two, the colonial brings Caesar to his office where he explains a lot. This is where he talks about how they are fighting evolution. He also talks about why the people can not speak. He says that the same virus that started it all has evolved. The virus returns people to their primitive state, along with making them unable to talk (hint: this is what the girl has). He also explains how he killed his son as he had the disease and was ordering the people to kill anybody who had the disease. When nobody did it, the colonial started to kill the people himself. He then explains that the people who are coming to the base are not his allies, but instead they are trying to overthrow him as they think disease is treatable medically, and does not require mass genocide to get rid of.
Also important to note: When Caesar asks how many people will be coming the colonial states probably everybody left. This is line is important for what happens later.
Soon after, Maurice and the other apes plan an escape. They plan to escape before the other men get there as they do not want to be caught in the crossfire.
However, going against the plan, the girl goes in into the prison and gives Caesar water as he sees what pain he is. She also gives Caesar her doll. However, one of the apes on the outside has to turn himself in order for the girl away.
The next morning the colonial finds the doll (hint: it’s infected with the virus that the girl has) and take it. The apes then execute their escape plan and are leaving when two major things happen.
Caesar then blows up gas tanks around the colonial's man but gets hit by an arrow in the process. All of the colonial’s men are dead. We then get a glimpse of the other men, except that an avalanche occurs, wiping out the rest of the humans. The apes survive by climbing up on the trees.
This is why the line the colonel said was so important. If the colonel was right and that the rest of the human race came to the attack, that means that the human race is no extinct. The avalanche wiped them all out. The apes then cross the desert to go to the jungle where Maurice discovers Caesar’s wound. Caesar then dies and the movie ends with showing Caesar and the clouds smiling down on the apes.
So I know that might be a lot of information to consider but it’s now time to analyze the movie a little bit (don’t worry you’re almost there).
The journey with Caesar was a result of anger more than revenge. He was just so angry at the humans, I think more than the colonel himself. To me for Caesar the journey was less about getting his revenge and more about his hatred for humans. If the girl proves anything it is that not all people are evil. Her giving Caesar the water when he really needed it, is just the perfect example. Caesar did not want bring the girl along as he was filled with Koba’s hate. He assumed that she is evil just like everybody else. Oh how wrong he was. The girl showed Caesar that Koba was wrong, and that he should not be like him. Although there certainly some horrible humans out there, there are also very good ones. And this changed Caesar. Even though it was never said in the movie, in the trailer Caesar states that he will do whatever he can to protect the girl. Despite all the evil in the world there is still some hope. There are still the good people that can make a change.
Overall the movie was very good. However there were just a few kinks. Now I know you might say that this movie must be incredibly long for how long it took for me to describe the plot, but it actually was not. The movie had a run time of 140 minutes. Now it may not be a short movie but it was not transformers the dark moon which ran for 154 minutes, and felt about 100 minutes too long. The movie was packed with enough information to keep you satisfied and make it a good movie, but not long enough that it felt way to jam packed (*cough* transformers the dark moon *cough*). However aside from the one complaint I mentioned earlier I do have another couple ones.
Probably my biggest complaint is with regards to the virus. While we are told that it returns humans to their “primitive state” we do not really get to see this. We only see people being unable to form words. However, they are still able to make noises as we see people with this virus make noises, just not formulate words. I felt that because of this it lacked a more connection to the villain. I wanted to see what this virus did to people, or at least a description of it. I wanted to truly see and know what made the villain willing to commit mass genocide against other humans. I felt a lack of that, as we only see what happens in the early stages of the virus. Like the scorch trials did (at least the book) I want to see what happened to people with the Flare. I wanted to see how crazy they went that prompted all of this. So that is my big complaint. My other big complaint (which is very minor) has to do with the ending. So my complaint is that if the arrow wound is what killed Caesar than he should have been dead a long time ago. Like before they journeyed over the desert. However I know it is minor but still.
Overall The War for the Planet of the Apes is a very good movie, that I recommend you see whether you saw any of the past movies or not. It was a movie about prejudice and hatred, with the message that hatred is not always right. An even though there are some really evil people that are apart of a certain group are truly evil, as shown by the girl. Especially with a lot of the current events going on now, it is good to know that there is still some hope. There is still that hope that there are still some good people in the world. I think that is the message of the story. Caesar just has to experience tragedy to really open his eyes on this message.
War for the Planet of the Apes: 7.5/10
Sorry for this review being so long, but there was a lot to talk about in this movie. Please let me know and rate what you thought about this review, whether it be good or bad. Also if you guys would like I wouldn’t mind doing more in the future.
So I just came back from seeing War for the Planet of the Apes, and I know it's a little late to see it as it at the end of the road for the movie, but here we go anyway.
War for the Planet of the Apes is the final movie to the trilogy of the modern Planet of the Apes. First off I can say that if you have not seen any of the past movies that is perfectly okay. The only movie I saw out of these was the 2nd movie, Dawn of the planet of the Apes. I also saw it when it first came out in movies, so the plot of that movie is blurry. However the movie opens with explaining the plot of the past movies, and what happened in between Dawn and War of the Planet of the Apes. It also did something really cool in that it highlighted the word that was from each movie. So in the first sentence the word RISE was highlighted as the first movie was The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the Second highlighted word was Dawn, referencing Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and the third and last highlighted word was WAR, segmenting to the start of the action in War of the Planet of the Apes. However, this is not the only background information that we receive throughout the movie, as the movie provides enough information so that you never truly feel that you have no idea what the heck is happening throughout the movie.
So, what is the planet of the Apes? In case you have not seen any of the past Planet of the Apes movie, or are just wondering what the heck is happening in the these movies, the Planet of the Apes is about Apes that suddenly become smart and as intelligent as humans. As we learn from the movie it is due to some virus that somehow makes the Apes smarter but deteriorates the humans or kills them. We never truly find out what happens to the humans other than the humans that are not adapted to the virus are suddenly gone now. As the bad guy says in the movie that all the remaining people have the virus inside of them, implying that they are immune to the virus, and that the people who aren't are no longer alive. The bad guy also explains basically why the war is going on in the first place. He states that the Apes are more adapt and are more prepared to survive. This means the humans will be wiped out and the apes will be left, as that is just pure natural selection. And as the bad guy also says this is very ironic as the humans created the Apes in the first place. So the humans are basically fighting Darwin's theory of evolution. They are trying to break the cycle and make sure the they come out on top instead of the Apes. Well as shown in the movie, this attempt fails.
Now I will come onto the spoilers section of the review where I shall go over and discuss the plot. If you are interested in the movie now I suggest you go watch it for yourself and then come back here and read the rest of my thoughts.
So, the basic underlying plot of the movie is a quest for revenge as Caesar slowly turns into the savage ape Koba. Now this may mean nothing to you but I will explain it all in a second. Caesar is the leader of the apes, and presumably the first Ape to become as smart as humans according to what I can remember of the backstory given in Dawn. Koba is Caesar's co-leader from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He has a severe hatred for humans, as they killed his family. Caesar also states in the beginning of the movie that he was the Ape he tried to start the war on the first place. However he is not present in this movie (aside from two of Caesar's hallucinations) as Caesar also states that he killed him. Before this movie Caesar was a more calm but stern leader. He very much believed in the big stick policy by TR. He wanted to act peacefully and prevent war between the Apes and the humans, but he would fight to defend the apes if he had too. As stated by Caesar in the opening scenes of the movie "I only fight to help the apes". In fact Caesar sends a message to the colonial of the military that if they leave the forest alone, all this violence between the humans and the Apes could come to an end. So what prompts Caesar to turn from that type of leader to the savage human hating leader that is Koba? Well that shall be explained.
After the opening fight scene (which like all of the fight scenes is very intense) Caesar's son returns and tells the Apes that they can escape the humans by traveling across a desert, to another jungle. He states that the humans would not travel across the desert so they would be fine, and would be able to leave in peace. Winter says that they should leave tonight, clearly anxious about something.
This next scene is what causes this sudden dramatic change in Caesar. During the middle of the night Caesar sees green lights in the waterfall. He immediately realizes that they are lights on human guns that help them see where they are shooting at (like the red lights for snipers). Caesar turns to leave and tell Winter to take the apes who are on patrol off, as they are in danger. He also tells his son to protect himself and his mother. Unknowingly to them, is a man standing behind a rock on their backside. Caesar and winter then knock a man unconscious where through the man’s radio he discovers that the colonial is at the site. Caesar then returns to where his son was only to find that both Caesar’s son and wife were murdered, and the man who just did the act was standing on the edge of a cliff about to get away. Out of anger Caesar then attacks the man (whom he correctly presumes is the colonial) but fails in the act to kill him as he gets away.
This event enacts a big change in Caesar, and one that leads him to act like Koba.
The next morning the apes are all setting out to cross the desert and go to their new home, when Caesar announces that he will be joining them. He says that he is going to go after the colonial that killed his family. This statement shows just how much hatred Caesar is feeling for the human race at this time, and rightfully so. However, Caesar does not leave alone as he joined by two other apes (and one orangutan) who refuse to leave Caesar’s side.
This leads to one of my complaints with this movie. I feel that aside from Maurice (the orangutan who acts as Caesar’s advisor) we do not get enough of the other two. To me they felt to much like background characters. Honestly, I left the movie theater still not knowing the names of the other two apes that accompanied Caesar and Maurice. When one of them dies later on the movie, I only choke up a little bit because of the girl’s reaction to it. I felt there was not enough focus on these characters, to me they felt like the filler characters you see in The Peanuts specials. You have no idea who they are, or what they are doing there, when in reality they are just there to make the crowd look and feel bigger.
As for who the girl is that shall be explained, as I continue with the plot.
For the sake of making this review a lot shorter, I shall cover the less important events here in less important detail or leave them out altogether, as this review is already pretty long.
The apes come upon a human village and discover that everyone is gone, except for one man. However, Caesar shoots the man when he tries to pull out his gun to shoot the apes. While looking around his house for important skills the discover a girl. Maurice insists that they bring the girl as she will die of starvation as she is alone in the wilderness. Caesar says that they cannot bring her but Maurice insists and they bring her anyway. They also notice how the girl has an inability to speak for someone unknown reason. The girl becomes very important for reasons that I shall discuss later.
The apes discover Winter (one of the apes who was rumored to betray the apes out of cowardice) helping out the humans. He tells the Apes that the colonial is heading up north to meet up with other soldiers. Caesar then kills Winter when Winter tries to call out to the humans. Caesar than has his first vision of Koba, where in the vision Koba is telling Caesar that Ape does not kill Ape.
While following the army up north to the base, the apes discover that they were shooting other people who were not able to speak.
The Apes then go to the northern border running into another Ape who escaped from a zoo.
At the border of the facility where the men are, one the apes dies trying to protect Caesar from gun fire. The girl then proceeds to cry over his death as he just gave her a flower a scene earlier. She then proceeds to give him the flower in his last breaths.
Caesar than states to the other apes that they should not have come as it is his fight and no one else's. Maurice tells him that he is acting a lot like Koba now. Caesar storms off again, telling them to go and join the others across the desert. Caesar then discovers that all the apes were captured by the humans and brought to this area to work on a wall. They were basically in a concentration camp, as they were given no food or water. Whenever they would step out of line they would get whipped by the ape was serving the humans.
Caesar then get's captured and brought to the camp.
After a scene or two, the colonial brings Caesar to his office where he explains a lot. This is where he talks about how they are fighting evolution. He also talks about why the people can not speak. He says that the same virus that started it all has evolved. The virus returns people to their primitive state, along with making them unable to talk (hint: this is what the girl has). He also explains how he killed his son as he had the disease and was ordering the people to kill anybody who had the disease. When nobody did it, the colonial started to kill the people himself. He then explains that the people who are coming to the base are not his allies, but instead they are trying to overthrow him as they think disease is treatable medically, and does not require mass genocide to get rid of.
Also important to note: When Caesar asks how many people will be coming the colonial states probably everybody left. This is line is important for what happens later.
Soon after, Maurice and the other apes plan an escape. They plan to escape before the other men get there as they do not want to be caught in the crossfire.
However, going against the plan, the girl goes in into the prison and gives Caesar water as he sees what pain he is. She also gives Caesar her doll. However, one of the apes on the outside has to turn himself in order for the girl away.
The next morning the colonial finds the doll (hint: it’s infected with the virus that the girl has) and take it. The apes then execute their escape plan and are leaving when two major things happen.
- The other human arrives and attacks the colonel and his army
- Caesar admits that he is like Koba and cannot let go of his hate. He then goes after the colonial only to find that he cannot speak and is going to kill himself. Caesar does not pull the trigger on the colonial even though he wanted too. He let the colonial pull the trigger on himself.
Caesar then blows up gas tanks around the colonial's man but gets hit by an arrow in the process. All of the colonial’s men are dead. We then get a glimpse of the other men, except that an avalanche occurs, wiping out the rest of the humans. The apes survive by climbing up on the trees.
This is why the line the colonel said was so important. If the colonel was right and that the rest of the human race came to the attack, that means that the human race is no extinct. The avalanche wiped them all out. The apes then cross the desert to go to the jungle where Maurice discovers Caesar’s wound. Caesar then dies and the movie ends with showing Caesar and the clouds smiling down on the apes.
So I know that might be a lot of information to consider but it’s now time to analyze the movie a little bit (don’t worry you’re almost there).
The journey with Caesar was a result of anger more than revenge. He was just so angry at the humans, I think more than the colonel himself. To me for Caesar the journey was less about getting his revenge and more about his hatred for humans. If the girl proves anything it is that not all people are evil. Her giving Caesar the water when he really needed it, is just the perfect example. Caesar did not want bring the girl along as he was filled with Koba’s hate. He assumed that she is evil just like everybody else. Oh how wrong he was. The girl showed Caesar that Koba was wrong, and that he should not be like him. Although there certainly some horrible humans out there, there are also very good ones. And this changed Caesar. Even though it was never said in the movie, in the trailer Caesar states that he will do whatever he can to protect the girl. Despite all the evil in the world there is still some hope. There are still the good people that can make a change.
Overall the movie was very good. However there were just a few kinks. Now I know you might say that this movie must be incredibly long for how long it took for me to describe the plot, but it actually was not. The movie had a run time of 140 minutes. Now it may not be a short movie but it was not transformers the dark moon which ran for 154 minutes, and felt about 100 minutes too long. The movie was packed with enough information to keep you satisfied and make it a good movie, but not long enough that it felt way to jam packed (*cough* transformers the dark moon *cough*). However aside from the one complaint I mentioned earlier I do have another couple ones.
Probably my biggest complaint is with regards to the virus. While we are told that it returns humans to their “primitive state” we do not really get to see this. We only see people being unable to form words. However, they are still able to make noises as we see people with this virus make noises, just not formulate words. I felt that because of this it lacked a more connection to the villain. I wanted to see what this virus did to people, or at least a description of it. I wanted to truly see and know what made the villain willing to commit mass genocide against other humans. I felt a lack of that, as we only see what happens in the early stages of the virus. Like the scorch trials did (at least the book) I want to see what happened to people with the Flare. I wanted to see how crazy they went that prompted all of this. So that is my big complaint. My other big complaint (which is very minor) has to do with the ending. So my complaint is that if the arrow wound is what killed Caesar than he should have been dead a long time ago. Like before they journeyed over the desert. However I know it is minor but still.
Overall The War for the Planet of the Apes is a very good movie, that I recommend you see whether you saw any of the past movies or not. It was a movie about prejudice and hatred, with the message that hatred is not always right. An even though there are some really evil people that are apart of a certain group are truly evil, as shown by the girl. Especially with a lot of the current events going on now, it is good to know that there is still some hope. There is still that hope that there are still some good people in the world. I think that is the message of the story. Caesar just has to experience tragedy to really open his eyes on this message.
War for the Planet of the Apes: 7.5/10
Sorry for this review being so long, but there was a lot to talk about in this movie. Please let me know and rate what you thought about this review, whether it be good or bad. Also if you guys would like I wouldn’t mind doing more in the future.