Film Review: War For The Planet of the Apes

Now, 43 years later, there's yet another reboot of this film franchise, albeit with state-of-the-art motion-capture-suits instead of monkey masks, and the latest in special effects, but these films cover the exact same ground. Boring. Repetitive. Unimaginative. Albert Einstein said it so clearly, “Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Frankly, the first two installments of this re-imagined film franchise are not worthy of a review (see chart below). Therefore, given "lessons learned" by the producers and director from the first two films, let's skip to the third film, "War for the Planet of the Apes." Surely, the producers and director know better and improved the script, right? Nope, with a rating of -1 star, it was a mistake to even think about making this film in the first place.

Starring Andy Serkis (as the ape leader, Caesar), Woody Harrelson (as military leader, The Colonel, representing the continued control of all humanity by White people because Black, Native American, Latino, and Asian people are, as usual, absent from any positions of control or leadership in this re-imaging of the future of humanity), Steve Zahn (as the Bad Ape), Karin Konoval (as Maurice), Amiah Miller (as Nova), and Terry Notary (as Rocket), Ty Olsson (as Red Donkey), Michael Adamthwaite (as Luca), Toby Kebbell (as Koba), Gabriel Chavarria (as Preacher), Judy Greer (as Cornelia), Sara Canning (as Lake), Devyn Dalton (as Cornelius), and a host of others.

Directed by Matt Reeves; Screenplay by Mark Bomback and Matt Reeves; Based on Characters Created by Ricik Jaffa and Amanda Silver; Based on the original novel by Piere Boulle; Produced by Peter Chermin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver; Co-producer Ryan Stafford; Executive Producer Mark Bomback, Mary McLaglen, and Jenno Topping.

Here, yet again, the script covers the exact same ground: (1) apes want absolutely nothing to do with man; (2) man must kill every ape; and (3) in perpetual contradiction, apes must kill apes. Clearly, the scriptswriters used the template for "White privilege," where humans captured apes, orchestrated their genocide or enslavement, and due to man's arrogance . . . let's be specific, because "elite," politically powerful and affluent White men are the perpetual protagonists as the duplicity and inconsistency of their egalitarian principles collide with their authoritarian rule to eventfully screw-up everything. The aforementioned "plot device" is used to move the narrative "thematically," but can only be perceived by Native Americans and Black people not only as an insult, but as validation to never trust "elite," politically powerful and affluent White men. Again, to be as repetitive as all films in this reboot, how many times must "we" endure these boring, repetitive, and unimaginative scripts?

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS AS REPETITIVE AS THIS FILM FRANCHISE: "Apes" (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, etc.) are supposed to have evolved to be smarter, faster, and stronger than humans, and they have a much greater sense of family and community than humans. So why didn't these "re-imagined" subsequent films show the linear progression of their higher evolution, and in particular, the higher intelligence of apes? Instead, the ape culture never advanced. Yes, these apes have better monkey masks and motion-capture-suits, better special effects, nevertheless, we see the same film over and over and over and over again. These films exist as a smorgasbord for computer-generated special effect but nothing more. Here's a thought, what if the apes and humans were forced to team-up against a mutual threat . . .

It's so very, very tiring to watch these films as the running times get longer and longer and we're offered the same old crap. Since the original launch of this film franchise in 1968, budgets have perpetually increased as box office revenues have perpetually deminished; nevertheless, the ending of the latest film, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," clearly suggests yet another sequel; let's hope not.