Read Mixed User Reviews for War for the Planet of the Apes

5

AxeTJul 30, 2017

Absurdly over-rated retread of the last entry with cliché action and contrived emotion. The reboot launch from 2011, "Rise" (10 rating here, and best movie of the year) was excellent because it was a compelling, very clever origin prequel andAbsurdly over-rated retread of the last entry with cliché action and contrived emotion. The reboot launch from 2011, "Rise" (10 rating here, and best movie of the year) was excellent because it was a compelling, very clever origin prequel and it had something called dynamics: big story arc, variety of locations and scenery, unpredictability despite the audience knowing where ultimately it was leading, and a wildly good action climax while not totally original, about as much so as these franchise tent pole Hollywood blockbusters get these days. The follow up, "Dawn" (8 rating here) was very good, but not as clever or dynamic as it was a more typical dystopian sci-fi entry lodged in the same dark muddy woods most of the picture. What it had in spades was suspenseful moral conflict making it highly watchable.
Now "War" is just more of the same but not nearly as well plotted, original or unpredictable. It's another overlong slog put out by passionless, spineless studio execs who no longer challenge self-indulgent directors! Its formal filmmaking style is welcome and the VFX are good once again but nothing amazing or visibly new.… Expand

6 of 12 users found this helpful66

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4

zedzdedOct 8, 2017

I'm increasingly of the opinion that reviewers are being bought and reviews are astroturfed.

This was a really boring movie with weakly developed characters, a pointlessly downbeat setting and overly angst ridden in general. The first 2I'm increasingly of the opinion that reviewers are being bought and reviews are astroturfed.

This was a really boring movie with weakly developed characters, a pointlessly downbeat setting and overly angst ridden in general. The first 2 reboot movies were innovative, clever, well acted and scripted, had plausible characters, both ape and human and had real conflicts at their centres.

This has a few secondary characters who get a ton of screen time for absolutely minor plot points, implausible scenes aplenty and ridiculous deus ex machina resolutions.

Terrible movie. I can't believe they spent over 150m dollars on this turd.… Expand

4 of 10 users found this helpful46

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6

An0nym0usGamerJul 14, 2017

I am legitimately confused by the universal acclaim for this film. While there is certainly style to appreciate here, some impressive cinematography and special effects, War for the Planet of the Apes is not a "great" movie. After seeing theI am legitimately confused by the universal acclaim for this film. While there is certainly style to appreciate here, some impressive cinematography and special effects, War for the Planet of the Apes is not a "great" movie. After seeing the first two movies in the series, and the critical reception leading up to the third's release, I was expecting great things. But instead, I found myself incredibly bored and disappointed by a 2.5 hour runtime with frequent filler, constant failed attempts at emotional investment, and a painfully shallow philosophical component. I really hate saying stuff like this at the risk of coming across as pretentious, but this movie is trying to be an accessible Apocalypse Now or 2001: A Space Odyssey, and instead it is bland, predictable and does not deserve the praise it has been getting. I will note that it isn't an outright bad movie, we have enough of those nowadays for me to know the difference. But it definitely isn't special.… Expand

7 of 19 users found this helpful712

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6

DrBlahBlahJul 20, 2017

Anthony Lane said it best: "The main problem with “War for the Planet of the Apes” is that, although it rouses and overwhelms, it ain’t much fun. Not content with taking itself extremely seriously, it asks that we accord it the same respect,Anthony Lane said it best: "The main problem with “War for the Planet of the Apes” is that, although it rouses and overwhelms, it ain’t much fun. Not content with taking itself extremely seriously, it asks that we accord it the same respect, and this presents a diplomatic challenge for those of us who believe that there is something intrinsically funny about an orangutan riding a horse."… Expand

3 of 9 users found this helpful36

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5

imthenoobJul 19, 2017

Well acted and well directed as well. I loved Serkis, He really is the driving force of the film. There are many aspects of the movie that I am disappointed with. What's with the introduction of Steve Zahn's character? So needless and such aWell acted and well directed as well. I loved Serkis, He really is the driving force of the film. There are many aspects of the movie that I am disappointed with. What's with the introduction of Steve Zahn's character? So needless and such a waste of the run time. Same with the mute girl that they find. Both are pretty much used as plot devices to further things along and offer little to no substance to the film. Zahn's character was the Jar Jar Binks of this film, Totally and utterly needless comic relief.

Now as for the plot itself, It makes sense all the way up to the climax. We are cheated out of an epic fight between hero and villain. Everything miraculously works in favor of the apes. That felt like a very cheap way out to me, A watered down ending to carry on the series now that Serkis and Reeves are done with it.… Expand

2 of 6 users found this helpful24

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6

Spaceman1Jul 16, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Biggest pile of drivel i have seen this year and im not trolling.
Did i watch a different movie to these other morons ? Characters are about as cliche as you can get! mummy ape, funny ape ... The most dumbest group of Human Militia you could ever imagine... I mean WTF ha ha ha ha who places massive base exploding silos right where your army and base is especially when the big "final" battle is coming.
Did they not check there was a massive tunnel system that goes right under the base that conveniently goes under all the cells ?!?
How can you not see a thousand apes climb out of these cages? What was the disease the little girl had ? Worst woody performance yet he didnt want to be there.
i could go on and on ..
But yet you will all keep giving it 10s.
morons… Expand

2 of 6 users found this helpful24

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4

JezzalenkoJul 29, 2017

I thought this movie was quite painful. All doom and gloom. The so called super monkey, smarter than the humans heads off on a mission of revenge and trundles along his way seemingly oblivious to all the firepower that the opposition has.I thought this movie was quite painful. All doom and gloom. The so called super monkey, smarter than the humans heads off on a mission of revenge and trundles along his way seemingly oblivious to all the firepower that the opposition has. These monkeys never had a chance of taking over the world....they should have had ninja like skills or something interesting.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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6

NavyBeanJul 24, 2017

way way way way way too long. the zoo ape was an awful and unnecessary character. zoo ape = jar jar. If you cut that whole zoo ape scene/intro and had them discover Woody's base in less obnoxious way you could have cut a half hour out of theway way way way way too long. the zoo ape was an awful and unnecessary character. zoo ape = jar jar. If you cut that whole zoo ape scene/intro and had them discover Woody's base in less obnoxious way you could have cut a half hour out of the film with NOTHING lost. NOTHING. Mostly excellent CGI but the ape walking upright seemed off a bit (legs too short?). Not to mention numerous plot holes and inexplicable behavior by ape and human alike.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

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4

tobas1Oct 12, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I loved previous parts of Apes but this one no - not really. Plot spoilers ahead so be warned. Whole idea of virus mutation was OK for me. It explains nicely why in those ‘future ape world’ from old movies Apes believed that humans are dumb and cannot speak. And as in the beginning virus was responsible for messing with brain (curing Alzhaimer) than dumbing down as mutation effect is even acceptable for me. But basically it’s the ONLY thing that I can accept in this movie. In previous part we had group of survivals that created colony and cannot reach any other ones for months until end of the movie. Now we hear about at least 2 full functional military outposts full of professional soldiers! Around 20 battle helicopters? This means at least 20 professional pilots, this means professional service teams able to fix and conserve them for 25 years! This means hundreds of tank crew members, SAM and LRM turret operators, and so on, etc. So what the hell? Was military personnel not affected by virus? Why? Or they were, most of them died out but survivors started to train EVERYBODY as weapon specialists? How could this be rational decision in post-apocalyptic world where people just got sick and died (maybe if it would be alien invasion but here???) How could they have resources for this to be functional? Where is farming? Who is feeding so many military personnel (that has to train and fix machinery). And colonel base was like essence of ridiculousness. Fuel tanks next to defence line? Building wall from stone and wood against missiles??? Or was he not aware that they will have helicopters, rifles and tanks? But how could he if they were working together until he started murdering sick people? And placing military outpost next to mountain that can cause avalanche? How this could happen? How come this never happened in the past? Was it first snowy winter in 50 years? This was just plin dumb. There were also a lot of smaller plot holes to name only few:
-little girl wandering unseen into military camp and wandering from cage to cage
-virus able to survive in minus temperatures on cloth doll and still able to infect uninjured healthy person (why the hell everybody is not sick yet if he is so deadly?)
-Ape waterfall camp found thanks to what?
- guard with keys going into prison cell with strong and mobile creatures not informing anyone because someone throwed facies at him? Was he dumbed down by sickness already?
But none of those smaller plot holes are making whole world unrealistic and unbelievable as those bigger problems do. And previous parts had good believable world! Why they needed to dumb it down, why this comedy sidekick was needed?… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

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5

flash246Jul 15, 2017

Talk about disappointing. I'm not sure why everyone is praising this movie so much. It was not bad but just didn't live up to the hype. The pace is incredibly slow with little action. Going the drama route instead of edge of your seat actionTalk about disappointing. I'm not sure why everyone is praising this movie so much. It was not bad but just didn't live up to the hype. The pace is incredibly slow with little action. Going the drama route instead of edge of your seat action is fine if you can pull it off but the movie just falls flat and becomes boring. The movie tries to be emotional way too much and at times it just feels forced. Overall, way too slow for a 2.5 hour movie. Acting and effects were solid though.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

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5

zeroes_or_tensJul 15, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Andy Serkis and Woody Harrelson are excellent and the CGI is solid. Those are the positives. The movie just doesn't add anything to the trilogy outside of providing an ending and even then it's just not satisfying. The trailer, poster, and title are all misleading. They frame the story as Caeser seeking revenge, a mysterious young girl, and a desperate final battle between man and ape. That epic showdown between The Colonel's humans and Caeser's apes never comes. The opening scene is strong and makes you think the war is raging, but about half an hour in the human/ape conflict seems to fall by the wayside. Yeah the humans still hate the apes, but the "War for the Planet of the Apes" for this movie is human vs. human with apes around. There are a lot of tight, claustrophobic shots but as the lack of real conflict becomes more apparent, it just comes off as cheap tension. There are also a lot of awkwardly long shots of characters as they stare at each other and make "tough" decisions even though the audience knows exactly how each one will turn out. They're meant to make it more dramatic but you just want it to be done already. Outside of Woody Harrelson's Colonel, the new characters aren't worth the time. The movie would be the same whether or not the little girl was there (minus some shallow philosophical questions) and Bad Ape brings plot holes and is just a groan to watch. He's entertaining if you liked Jar Jar Binks. Very disappointing overall.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

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6

ivan_terribleJul 27, 2017

The movie is not as good as the last two but still not so bad. The story line is pretty boring, less intense than the previous two. The ending really hit me hard to the ground after the boredom and the end.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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6

MattBrady99Jul 24, 2017

"This is our last stand. And if we lose... it will be a Planet of Apes".

"War for the Planet of the Apes" has many intriguing plot points and plenty of great opportunities to shine as a great movie. I mean, with the previous two films that I"This is our last stand. And if we lose... it will be a Planet of Apes".

"War for the Planet of the Apes" has many intriguing plot points and plenty of great opportunities to shine as a great movie. I mean, with the previous two films that I liked so much and how the effects manage to improve over time is amazing. And this movie is worth seeing just for Andy Serkis performance and the incredible also realistic effects. Unfortunately, the rest is very uneven. While being a decent third installment, but draws the oldest cliches from the books.

Andy Serkis continues to impress us not just by giving us another great performance, but to convey all the emotions with his body and face while being coved with heavy effects. Serkis is the only actor that we think as expressed all of his range, but keeps surprising us with the characters he plays.

Speaking of effects, it's pretty much the stand out of the film. Despite knowing what we are seeing in front of us is CGI, but the illusion is so good, we forgot it's fiction. It really has involved over the years and we are also there to perfection.

The action scene at the beginning was pretty good. A little bit cheesy with all the slow-mo and people dramatically dying everything with music in the background, but I guess you got to start with a bang.

I think Caesar getting captured and locked up in that prison is when the film fell apart for me. Yep, it's a prison break movie and that isn't a bad thing, just needed to be more sharper in terms of its' execution. The movie goes way overboard with the Jesus, Nazi allegories, and Holocaust imagery. Yeah, I'm not making that up. So heavy handed it's impossible to miss. You could add "Apocalypse Now" in the mix with the small references to it, because why not. It's like whoever wrote this kept shouting at me "get it?".

The comedic relief ape character (Bad Ape) and the little girl are the most pointless characters in a movie ever. I didn't laugh at anything the Bad Ape did that was suppose to be funny. The little girl didn't do anything.

Woody Harrelson as the villain was fine. There's a long monologue about him talking this virus and how it involved. What could have been an interesting and also menacing scene, quickly goes on a little too long. I don't have an issue with Harrelson performance, just if the character was written better.

There's a really stupid moment in the movie when a guard gets **** thrown at him by the apes and tries to find who did it. So he literally locks himself in the cage filled with millions of apes and doesn't inform the other guards, just in case they might attack him. Like, how freaking stupid to you have to be? And you can tell what's going to happen. It was written in the movie just for the apes to escape and it's so lazy.

There seem to be a lack of security guards in the prison, because when a little girl manages to walk straight in without anyone see her, now that's questionable. Or notice when the apes escaped. Like how many guards are there? People are calling this a masterpiece?

Overall Rating: While it may seem like I disliked the film, that couldn't be further to the truth. I'm not saying it's a bad movie or anything, because it's not. There are plenty of good and well done scenes that makes me curious what Matt Reeves will bring to "The Batman".… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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6

moviecritic68Aug 18, 2017

I guess I'm burnt out on the apes vs humans. Sometimes you can go to the well too often. I kept the rating below the positive but barely due to my own personal boredom. Filming was above par but the story was predictable & dragged on. Not aI guess I'm burnt out on the apes vs humans. Sometimes you can go to the well too often. I kept the rating below the positive but barely due to my own personal boredom. Filming was above par but the story was predictable & dragged on. Not a big fan of Woody Harrelson being casted as the villian in this sequel. Time to move on writers.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

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6

YoloSwag4DogeDec 18, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. For the most part, I liked the scenes where the apes communicated with one another, especially the middle of the movie where Cesar and his small band of loyal followers roam the countryside, meeting an endearing child along the way and a quirky, comic relief ape who's desperate for company after years of being alone. What I didn't like were the action scenes and a lot of stand off moments between Cezar and a sadistic, xenophobe, power mongerer Colonel that take place in a concentration camp. All the soldiers in this movie come across as fresh recruits, trained playing Call of Duty and watching Rambo movies. In the beginning they're seen charging up a hill into spears and gun fire, firing heat resistant guns on full auto with endless clips, hucking an absurd amount of smoke grenades for dramatic effect, and not even bothering to seek cover unless they're a recurrent character. For me, it all comes off as really ridiculous. These dummy soldiers also pulled off some spectacularly idiotic stunts, like having a wood wall built right beside a couple of completely unprotected, giant gas tanks. Hmmm, I wonder what could go wrong? They're also completely inept at guarding their own base. A little girl just casually walks into the middle of the compound with no one noticing. And at night, there's only 1 apparent guard overlooking the huge, ape containment enclosure located right in the middle of the base, despite there being several other guard towers and well over a 100 soldiers seen marching around during the day. And to top it all off, the 1 guard tasked with watching over the ape pen gets baited into it by having poop thrown at him. No, seriously. He goes in there all by himself.. And what happens? You'll never guess. They knock him out and escape! Ha ha! Who knew, eh? Also, only 1 dude notices they escaped later on. There's a lot of similarities in the movie that appear to intentionally mirror Nazism and the American civil war. The apes are kept captive in a concentration camp, where they're starved and subjected to forced labor by building a wall to protect the military base from an approaching Northern army. The movie's villain, a rogue army Colonel, basically does his version of the SS officer from Schindler's list, except a little more PG. His troops are brought out into the courtyard on a couple of occasions, where they line up in formation and chant fascist sentiments. While the comparisons were a bit on the nose, they were ultimately what gave a bit of weight to the movie. Hard not to hate Nazi's. Of course, there are a lot of scenes where the Colonel and Cesar have dick measuring contests, where Cesar always ultimately gets beat down while his people powerlessly watch him suffer in a similar manner as to what occurred in Japanese WW2 concentration camps. I personally felt there were too many of these scenes and they just dragged out too long. I get it, Cesar is powerless, the Colonel is a dick and Cezar's gonna keep getting his ass kicked until a dumb guard lets them all out. There's no need to make it so repeatably long and over the top dramatic. I'd say the CGI was actually pretty good for most parts, especially slow dialogue scenes and facial expressions. The action scenes were where it could get a little comically wonky. For instance, there's a scene where Cesar roles out of the way of gun fire, (with the bullets naturally flying in a circle around him), and it just looks ridiculous. But, it gave me a good laugh. All in all, I thought the plot was pretty generic and the action scenes felt over the top and corny, but I enjoyed a lot of the character interactions and dialogue. (Excluding the Colonel. God what a cliche).… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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6

CriticFerAug 9, 2017

Is a perfectly Ok film, with great performances and special effects, but unfortunately there's no such thing as The War in this film, and it easy a disappoinment calling the weakest Ape movies of all the movies starring Andy Serkis. Stil, isIs a perfectly Ok film, with great performances and special effects, but unfortunately there's no such thing as The War in this film, and it easy a disappoinment calling the weakest Ape movies of all the movies starring Andy Serkis. Stil, is a decente film to watch, but not one to say is great or a excelent film.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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5

KaptenVideoAug 1, 2017

Wouldn’t like to sound like a party pooper, but „Planet of the Apes“ surely must be one of the most depressing of all the successful movie series of all time.
I do not consider shooting (or other kind of cruelty against) animals a fulfillingWouldn’t like to sound like a party pooper, but „Planet of the Apes“ surely must be one of the most depressing of all the successful movie series of all time.
I do not consider shooting (or other kind of cruelty against) animals a fulfilling entertainment, even if it happens in a movie and the animals are extra intelligent apes who can fight back.
I am often too lazy to follow movie franchises after seeing the first part, because I find most of them too boring and/or heartless.
Despite that, I have seen all three „Apes“ now. The experience has been kind of depressing, but also, in a way, good cinema. There’s something weird and wonderful about seeing animals acting so expressive and human.
This is what good cinema is all about – making us see the world in a new way, feel something (even bad), be ready to transcend beyond the usual borders and limits that we use to make our usual life less scary and more rational.
So, despite being part of a franchise and all, the first two „Apes“ movies (2011, 2014) managed to make me care, even if the quality of storytelling felt rather mediocre, especially in the part deux.
I am sad I can not say the same about the third one, because „War for the Planet of the Apes“ just sucks.
It’s boring, charmless sequel which has maybe 20-30 minutes worth of good stuff (mostly in the end). It does not really show war as promised in title, but there’s also lack of action altogether, or heartfelt drama.
They have a lot of mediocre story instead, and take their sweet 140 minutes to get there – aiming to create epic end to trilogy.
Which doesn’t even matter much because there has already been promise for future sequels. The first and second episode managed to gather 481,8 and 710 million dollars from cinemas, of course there’s gonna be more!
The biggest letdown must be the aim to turn the movie more into drama than action. But it is difficult to create a convincing full length dramatic story based on animals looking sad and worn-down – although it surely works with short-form web content such as videos, articles, memes, or photo series.
As a result, the core of the movie felt like a parody of similar, mostly youth adult oriented takes on dystopian society and suffering, such as „The Hunger Games“.
It’s shallow, soulless and sometimes just stupid – some big things happen because they are supposed to, rather than evolving naturally from the characters and their actions.
In „War“, there are exactly two characters than made me care about them, neither in the center of the story. Firstly, comic relief monkey performed by Steve Zahn. And secondly, a bad guy played by Woody Harrelson – easily the best thing in the whole movie.
The character may not have been very intriguing on paper, but Harrelson’s performance makes it most memorable, adding depth and powerful presence to otherwise limp story.
As years go by, Harrelson (aged 55 now) has become a bona fide screen legend, a powerhouse actor so awesome that he owns almost every scene he appears in, no matter who or what he shares it with. He is a true master, and the only thing in War“ that feels magical, not soulless rehash.
I know, the star of „Apes“ should still be Andy Serkis performing as Caesar. But the character has become more and more one-dimensional over the course of the trilogy so I had trouble with caring about him at all in „War“.
Caesar's become something of a storytelling device by now, needed for advancing the story but not enriching it in real way.
Most of the event manage to create so little emotional impact that when the finale started, I I already struggled to remember any good parts from before.
But I liked the „biblical“ ending very much. So, the trilogy has a pretty cool finale, at least!… Expand

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4

SquaredRenDec 11, 2017

This movie moved way too slow for my taste. Trailers were very missleading with this film, you don't get what you payed for, a WAR. Therefore, the film comes out at you slow and makes you want to sleep.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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6

wendyisabigailSep 29, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The CGI in this movie was incredible. Every wrinkle on Caesar's face carried so much emotion, perhaps more than the humans themselves. I would even say the whole human epidemic part of the plot felt very out of place. Colonel's motivation behind the homicides and his final suicide was not really justified in depth.… Expand

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6

TyranianJun 16, 2019

Reasonably good conclusion to Apes trilogy. Very derivative in many ways but very strong visually and musically.