War for the Planet of the Apes

The most telling shot to me was the formation of human troops at 0:54 - the fact that armed women are shown marching alongside the men implies that the Colonel's army hasn't gone full Twenty Eight Days Later to "repopulate" the Earth.

edited 31st Mar '17 11:43:46 AM by FluffyMcChicken

I'm curious about the gorilla working for the humans.

I would assume either a slave or a traitor.

Or simply a gorilla who found himself identifying with the humans and their culture moreso than Caesar and his revolutionaries. It'd make a nice allusion to native peoples who choose to loyally fight for their colonial masters in Real Life. Hell, the line "No matter what you think or what they tell you. You. will. always. be. Ape!" is something directly applicable to the experiences of non-white immigrants in predominantly white countries for example.

Come to think of it, has there been any mention of other "Caesars" in the world beyond ours who is depicted? The films thus far seem to be isolated to a Closed Circle of San Francisco and northern California. One would think that humanity would still be relatively intact in areas not known for naturally hosting primates such as Russia or Europe.

Eh, not really? The disease itself spread independently of ape populations. Plus California doesn't NATURALLY contain apes. They came from labs and zoos. Other places that hold such landmarks would likely still have apes, who would grow smart as well. Between them being smart, and escaping captivity, they no longer have the issues with breeding that depression from cages would bring. They'd be free, and they would KNOW they need to have as many babies as possible in order to survive human incursions.

That being said, a lot of this feels too much like Avatar's back to nature appeal to me. Apes with spears on horseback beating the tar out of gun-armed humans? Pretty sure a tank column backed with mechanized infantry could run that down coming and going. We need NO shots of apes throwing spears, and more shots of Apes with Guns for this to be believable.

I mean, did you see the last movie? Cause that's exactly what we got before-apes with spears beat humans with guns.

And that movie makes it very clear that what destroyed the human population, besides the disease, was humans turning on each other in fear.

Given all that, and the lack of basic electricity and related technologies the humans had in the last movie, it'd be rare that they'd be able to get a single tank working.

The gorilla who works with the humans could be an interesting character. Did anybody else notice that albino gorilla palling around with Caesar? I think that might be a nod to how Thade was originally going to be one before Burton made him a regular chimp in the 2001 film. That or it's a reference to Snowflake.

Also, the interactions between Maurice and the girl are pretty darn cute. You know things are going to go to hell though.

I did see it. In theaters. Just because it happened in the last movies doesn't mean it's a good thing in movies. And the apes DID get guns in that one. Also the humans had a tank. I remember the apes were losing that battle hard until that tank stopped being an issue. I don't remember how that happened, but it's an excuse to watch the movie again later.

The apes captured the tank and used it to blast open the human's walls.

Humans with guns only trump the apes until they get guns of their own-which is probably the easiest things to do given how the number of guns in America outnumber the number of people before any sort of population-shattering super virus.

Although from what i could gather, the movie does show the apes taking heavy losses at first, no doubt to test Caesar's moral high ground thing.

Caesar isn't even leading them at that point.

Koba leads the apes to raid the armory after tricking them into believing the humans broke their peace agreement and killed Ceasar. The ape army, who going by what we see seem to outnumber the human defenders, attack the human's fortified stronghold where civilians and defenders are hold up and take a lot of casualties until Koba manages to take over a tank.

With that bonus and numbers on their side, plus the apes superior physical capabilities, they break into the stronghold and overwhelm the remaining defenders. A handful manage to escape, but the remaining humans surrender soon after.

And that's the point I've been making. I was simply saying the trailers like to play up the apes with spears part, when they generally lose battles until they get better tech and turn the tables on the humans.

So with the recent events in the Middle East in mind, it just occurred to me that The Remnant of the US military may attempt to secure abandoned stockpiles of chemical or even nuclear weapons in its war against the evolved primates. It certainly matches the General Ripper nature of Woody Harrelson's character.

And then they blow it all up, the maniacs.

I really hope the humans win in the end.

But seriously, why are the humans in the trailer so dumb? Why are they being so tactically inept? Why are their helicopters not sitting a kilometer away wrecking anything that pokes its head up with their 30mm cannons? Why aren't they bombarding the everloving shit out of the fortress with artillery?

edited 8th Jun '17 11:55:13 AM by Deutschbag

I doubt the humans will win in the end. Everything so far, from Easter Eggs on up, has been setting up for another remake of the original movie. If it's run by this crowd, it might be able to live up to the original better than that Mark Wahlberg flick that tried and played a twist on us.

It's at 79 on Metacritic, which is the same score Dawn got.

edited 29th Jun '17 8:47:29 AM by Spinosegnosaurus77

Saw it yesterday. It's on par with the second movie and much better than the first. I'm impressed that this series has managed to go three movies without a dud, and that each movie feels unique, can stand on its own while still forming a larger narrative, and doesn't rehash plot points.

Haven't seen it but am relieved to hear all that. I plan on catching it next week if possible.

By the way, where does Woody Harrelson's character's name being "McCullough" come from? In the movie he's just referred to as the Colonel and I think the credits list him as such.

His name isn't mentioned, but you can clearly see his name tag. Being focused on CGI simians with limited verbal skills, the series is naturally quite big on visual storytelling.

Just saw it today, and it was pretty awesome overall. Despite the title, there's very little action in it - it's mostly character drama with bits of suspense sprinkled throughout. Some things I'd like to nitpick on:

• Dawn had a great narrative that switches back and forth between the conventionally-directed scenes from the human POV and the slow, quiet and contemplative scenes from the ape POV. The two styles complemented each other nicely and combined to create a well-paced narrative. War, however, does away with the human perspective and focuses on the apes throughout, so it feels a bit slow at times.
• Partly related: the movie miiiight be too long. Not to a length that makes you question whether this is a wise investment of your mortal lifespan, but enough to be noticeable.
• A couple of things about the ending feel seriously contrived:
  • The invading army bunching up at the bottom of the hill, cheering like maniacs and triggering an avalanche that somehow wipes them all out, with the aircraft and supporting troops mysteriously disappearing.
  • Caesar somehow leads the tribe on a long march to their new home without telling anyone (or having a single ape notice) that he has a fresh arrow wound to his torso. Though after everything he's been through...

Apart from that, it's a great watch all the way through. Better than Rise, about as good as Dawn, and it works well on its own. Brilliant end to a solid trilogy.

Also, if you're wondering, the "apes with pointy sticks charging gun-wielding humans on horseback" thing only happens in the opening raid, and even then the apes take pretty heavy casualties against a small human force. The climactic battle actually has McCullough's battalion defending their fort from a combined-arms assault by the remnants of the US Army, complete with armour, artillery and helicopters.

Going to see this movie tomorrow. Hyped!

Saw it. Great movie. Bittersweet way to end the story but a good send off for Caesar and company.

The Colonel is totally nuts killing everyone who gets the upgraded infection. Nova clearly demonstrates higher brain function throughout the events of the film and even picks up sign language as she travels with the Apes. Unless there's material I'm missing, all I see is an unhinged skinhead overreacting thanks to his Social Darwinism.