I'm gonna be real, I fucking loved this (no surprise as I love the 2010s trilogy) and it actually might be my favorite yet. Very thoughtful in how it connects to that trilogy while being its own thing. Thought the CGI and performances were all pretty outstanding. I agree that they could have trimmed 20 minutes or so, but it's also not as egregious as something like Endgame running three hours. These films continue to pack more themes and interesting characterizations into them than any Blockbuster in recent memory that isn't Avatar. Catching up on this thread, I do not like Bad Ape at all. I like Zahn, but he's one annoying flaw of War for me, a film that otherwise could also be the best of the franchise. I also tried to revisit Burton's Planet of the Apes recently (I also had a soft spot for it as a kid) and it is just so incredibly boring and poorly paced. I actually gave up on it. That never happens with me!
100000% agree here. His introduction is awesome, but as the film progresses his role sticks out more and more tonally and even from a plot perspective. Feels like the most egregious "studio intervention" part of the movie. Like he was supposed to be a little older and a stop along the way to the destination, but they wanted something "funnier" to play against the heavy tone.
I really liked this one a lot and thought it was a great and organic feeling continuation of the prior trilogy. Well paced with top notch visuals and a lot of intrigue / possibilities for further movies. Definitely like Dawn as the best but this was way better than I expected with the length of time between the movies and the change in director / cast / timeline.
I loved the first 2/3rds of this but it kind of stumbles a bit in the finish line, as it doesn’t give Noa as distinct of an identity for the resolution to be as satisfying, but I’m more than excited for the rest of the trilogy. So happy that it’s at a similar level as War and Rise and can’t wait for this thread to continue
Yeah I mean even if you don't love this as much as the previous two it's honestly just amazing that sci-fi movies with this amount of thought and emotional depth are being made. Shit rules
This was way better than I thought it would be. This series might be the best of the blockbuster franchises. I love the ideas it presents around religion by turning Cesar into a Christ like figure for the apes. You’ve got two factions and neither really has the history quite right, but one is dedicated to the core teachings while the other exploits it for power. I thought it was clever to have apes clearly be the dominant species, but the remaining humans still have a little power over them by gatekeeping knowledge. Proximus trying to shortcut evolution for power and the humans trying to hide their knowledge to hold on to power was a really interesting dynamic. William H Macy was a fascinating character. Unfortunately, I think the ending of the humans just needing to plug this one piece in to regain coms kind of undercut it. Humans already having this huge old base under control and in secret felt like a studio mandated ending to what was a mostly thoughtful big budget film. It takes a lot of intrigue out of the conflict. The action was also great throughout, some of the best in the franchise. Honestly it was so brutal and shockingly violent at times. I was not fully prepared for it.