By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval, Amiah Miller, Terry Notary, Ty Olsson, Michael Adamthwaite, Toby Kebbell and Gabriel Chavarria
Rating: Excellent.
Matt Reeves, writer/director of 2014´s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” brings “War For The Planet Of The Apes”, the third installment of this reboot franchise and I was very pleased with the results of this film.
Followed two years after the events of “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”, the movie centers in the leader of the apes Caesar (Andy Serkis) a very smart ape who lives in the woods with his wife, son and his newborn son with the rest of the apes who follow him.
One day the rest of the Apes suffer an attack in the hands of The Colonel (Woody Harrelson) a vicious and ruthless leader of an army that has one goal in mind: Exterminate the apes for good.
In the attack, The Colonel kills Caesar´s wife and son. This incident will fill Caesar with anger and has the goal of seeking revenge against the Colonel and avenge his family.
Not only Caesar will want to seek revenge, but will do anything to protect his kind at any costs before the Colonel does more damage.
One of the things that worked in “War For the Planet Of The Apes” was the fact that the characters were more solid and the villain was a great one.
I liked the fact that you see Caesar´s internal and external conflicts more marked in this film than in the second part and we see him with a huge struggle.
The screenplay written by both Matt Reeves and Mark Bomback hit the mark and was very detailed at all levels.
One of the things that did surprise me is in the beginning of the film the filmmakers did explain the events of the previous films. They went straight to the facts and did not use a voiceover, which is a very common mistake to do when you are trying to explain something.
Matt Reeves was very smart on showing this and did work. His direction was really good and I like the characters he created here, specially Woody Harrelson, who again portrays a very good and convincing villain.
As an audience member, I was very upset towards his characters since he was so cruel and had no remorse at all.
“War Of The Planet Of The Apes” not only is a very well written movie but is a fantastic visual experience at all levels.
The visual effects were very well made and the action sequences were very well shot, specially the climatic battle in the third act of the film, which is one of great action sequence and it was impressive.
The way how the message was executed was very good, that has to do a lot with the importance on learning how to forgive people when they fail someone. It was very original and it was not filled with clichés and on the nose moments.
It is very important to watch the previous films before you watch this third installment, since it does have a sequence specially with the dialogue that is involved in the film.
With that being said “War For The Planet Of The Apes” no only is one great summer film, but it´s the best of the franchise and I higly recommend it for the story and the visuals of the film.