Humanity’s last gasp.

War For the Planet of the Apes is the third film and the final in what I’m going to call the reboot trilogy, because while the series is obviously still going on with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, it’s obvious that this film is meant to tie up its own arc. Specifically being the Caesar arc. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does a massive time jump, taking place 300 years after the end of this movie.

The film was directed by Matt Reeves and written by Mark Bomback and Matt Reeves.

Once again I’m impressed by how intelligently written this series is. We join our planet a few years after the battle at the end of Dawn where Caesar is once again heading his own colony somewhere in the American wilderness. Unfortunately everything gets flipped turned upside down when one of the few remaining militia groups attacks the colony and then later attacks again.

There’s a few subplots at work here. The apes learn about an oasis that may serve as a final sanctuary for apes from the humans hell-bent on using their last remaining population to continue a war that’s leaving zero winners on either side. There’s a whole subplot about the simian virus from the first movie. Remember that? Well the apes uncover some humans that aren’t talking, as well as evidence that the humans are killing each other for reasons other than the usual, and it may be an evolution of the virus.

Caesar meanwhile is coming to the sad realization that he may be turning into Koba. He wants the war with humans to stop but the humans just won’t give this shit up and the increasing casualties and desperation just seem to drive them further into their lust for blood. The new villain of the film is The Colonel played by none other than Woody Harrelson.

This film has a lot of big names given their role is mostly grunting. Andy Serkis is of course back as Caesar with Steve Zahn playing “Bad Ape,” the comic relief of the movie. Honestly I thought Bad Ape was the worst part of the film. A movie like this really didn’t need the slapstick Jar Jar Binks style character running around and falling into stuff. It’s like they put more hair on Rich Evans and threw him into the film, and it’s more of a distraction that takes away from the movie than adds to it.

You’ve got Judy Greer, Terry Notary, Michael Adamthwaite, Ty Olsson, and Aleks Paunovic among others. The special effects get better with every movie, and the fight sequences justify this being the third and final film in a trilogy. We get powerful performances from the cast, and the overall plot is a lot more intricate and intelligent than you would expect from a film series that has apes riding horses and shooting machine guns.

Once again my only real complaint in this film is Bad Ape and his whole character’s existence. Other than that, I can’t say much bad about this movie. It ties up everything in a neat bow and keeps the door open for a sequel that correctly is set very far in the future. It’s only disappointing that Andy Serkis won’t be involved in the series anymore (since the sequel is 300 years later), and it’s interesting having a film that doesn’t quite have a human protagonist.

The further we get, the less relevant the humans become.

Rating: A