What do you think of War for the Planet of the Apes?

I kind of liked it kind of not. It feels like that for a trilogy finale (which I think this was intended as), that it could have went for a much bigger ending, since it's suppose to be a Planet of the Apes, yet it still feels like Apes haven't taken over the planet yet hardly.

The ending to me, was just kind of odd. I also found it odd that there was this battle between the humans against each other, that we really didn't know that much about, and could have been explored more.

I love Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and liked Dawn. But this one I could go either way on and not sure. But what do you think?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
War for the Planet of the Apes

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Since the virus killed most of the world's human population before Dawn started and War shows that it's also going to make the remainder less intelligent, the apes are essentially taking over the planet by default (plus there's no need to tell this story on a global scale since it's reasonable to assume that what happens in the States is happening elsewhere).

I do reckon the other humans fighting Harrelson's character is meant to reflect that he's too unstable for the rest of the military (he's pretty much Kurtz from Apocalypse Now so it makes sense that other humans would want to terminate his command), but I think it's ultimately meant to be like a deus ex machina that comes in at the last minute to wipe out the bad humans and allow the apes to escape to freedom.

I did like the film, maybe even more than Rise or Dawn.

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Oh okay. What was it about the movie you like more than Rise or Dawn?

I guess I feel more of the world could have been seen though in this take over rather than just the western U.S. I didn't think the movie needed a story that made the humans less intelligent. I thought they would just forget their ways of life and forget how to speak, by the time the original Planet of the Apes takes place. So I thought maybe it was an unnecessary subplot, but maybe it wasn't...

This was my relatively short review of War (I did reviews for Rise and Dawn, but I think I was a little harsh in those ones so seek 'em out if you want).

I think the virus mutation was as good an explanation for feral humans as any. Humans have maintained their current level of communication for tens of thousands of years so the odds of them simply forgetting it over the course of 2,000 years (which is how far off the original Apes is) seems a little unlikely even with the threat of sapient apes.

That's true, you have a good point there.

I feel that the movie could have been more though, and dealt with it's themes, deeper than the first two, cause it seems to less than the first two. I mean the apes are so morally good, and the humans are so morally bad. It feels like it's too black and white. Sure Ceasar steps off the moral edge in the climax, but he quickly recovers so it feels like their just could have bee more, or... something.

I thought Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was absolutely fantastic, one of the best science-fiction films I've ever seen. Meanwhile, I thought that Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a very good film, that well at setting up the ground-work for the film, however, not really breaking out on its own as a great film. War for the Planet of the Apes was a very good film, perhaps, even a great film, but I found that it didn't leave me as blown away as the second film. Either way, I'd say that it is among the best trilogies I've ever seen, especially for the science-fiction genre, and I really liked them all.

I finally watched this movie over the weekend and thought it was brilliant. I'd have to watch all three of them again to rate them against each other, but it's definitely just as good as the first teo movies.

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Obviously the virus has polar effects on apes and humans, I still always read the plot of the trilogy as having the virus causing the eventual demise of humans in one way or another.
As it happens, those it can't kill it mutates and causes a kind of reverse-evolution.


The thing to remember though, is not to compare the trilogy to the original movies.
Like, as ironpony said: "I thought they would just forget their ways of life and forget how to speak, by the time the original Planet of the Apes takes place."


The trilogy isn't connected to the original movies at all.
It's simply based on the same book as the other movies.


The original 1963 book though is totally different from all of the different movie versions too.
The explanation in the book is that humans simply tamed and domesticated apes, and over time apes became more sentient, and in turn humans became lazier and lazier to the point they became ape-like.
Eventually apes have a society that directly mirrors what humans had in the 20th century (as seen at the end of Tim Burton's movie).


The story of the original movies, is that humans kill themselves through nuclear war... and over thousands of years, apes and humans simply switch places.


Tim Burton's godawful Marky Mark engine was closer to some things seen in the book, for instance what was seen in that ending, but it was still totally different to the book.


This new version is all about a virus that causes the change.
Humans wiping themselves out by trying to fix themselves, and animal experimentation being the downfall of humans.

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