Thursday 13 July 2017

War for the Planet of the Apes - The scoop and digest

Premise may be similar, but this isn't a remake of 1973 bomb Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

Anyway, Matt Reeves concludes reboot trilogy.

Andy Serkis - Caesar
Karin Konoval - Maurice
Woody Harrelson - The Colonel
Steve Zahn - 'Bad Ape'
Terry Notary - Rocket
Amiah Miller - Nova
Ty Olsson - Red

On-screen text nicely summarises events of Rise and Dawn.

Now...

Responding to a distress signal, soldiers come to hunt down Caesar and exterminate ape population.

Helmet states one asshole is a 'monkey' killer.

(Rolls eyes).

Amidst a firefight where both factions suffer several casualties, Caesar holds survivors and 'Donkey' Red.

Rogue gorilla followed Koba and joined human contingent in order to survive.

Yeah, Donkey Kong ref was done on purpose.

After letting humans go, Red escapes.

During another invasion, Colonel kills Caesar's wife Cornelia and eldest son Blue Eyes.

Leaving the others behind, he sets off to the 'Border' for revenge, with Maurice, Luca and Rocket tagging along.

They stumble across a mute girl and pre-Simian flu outbreak chimpanzee Bad Ape.

After receiving Bad Ape's trinket, Maurice christens her Nova.

Luca gives his life to protect Caesar and leader gets angry when hate towards humans is compared to Koba.

Soon after finding crucified apes at Alpha-Omega facility, he's knocked out by Red.

Colonel tells Caesar virus mutated and devolved humans.

As he's more than happy to execute anything infected, opposing military force is coming to take him out, hence why apes are kept alive to build defensive wall.

Meanwhile, back-up team orchestrate successful ape escape.

All hell breaks loose, and Caesar discovers the Colonel has contracted the virus (by earlier picking up Nova's doll).

Despite original intent, Caesar cannot pull the trigger and Colonel commits suicide.

Caesar is struck by an arrow and after witnessing the decimation of his own kind, traitor redeems himself by blowing up Robin Hood wannabe.

Red is inevitably killed and avalanche wipes out remainder of A-O and rival opposition.

Upon reaching resource happy desert, Maurice and Caesar share a touching moment before leader peacefully succumbs to his wound.

Superb

While 3D was useless, film definitely wasn't.

Running time packs several emotional punches, Canadian landscape looks absolutely stunning and motion capture simply astounds.

Without overdoing it, Bad Ape dilutes bleakness of situation with intermittent humour.

Ape-Pocalypse Now! carved on wall of underground tunnel raised a false smile and Harrelson's performance was surprisingly unconvincing.

If you recall, Kong: Skull Island took a more light-hearted approach in referencing one of the greatest films of all time.

With fourth already confirmed, where do we go from here?

Not sure, but astronauts could be involved.

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