War for the Planet of the Apes Review

Movie Introduction

War for the Planet of the Apes marks the third and possibly final entry in the rebooted Planet of the Apes prequel saga.  Andy Serkis returns as Caesar and once again amazes us with his motion capture abilities.

MPAA Rating/Content

This film is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, thematic elements, and some disturbing images.  Violence is really the only content concern on this one.  There is decent amount of beating and torture done to some apes that are held captive by a group of humans.  Some viewers may find this a little uneasy.  In regards to the thematic elements I can't go into full detail without revealing spoilers, but I will say that there are some family tragedies on both ape and human sides that are a little heavy.

  

My Rating: 7.5/10

Overall this was a really well shot and well put together movie.  Like I mentioned before the motion capture technology put in place in this is simply amazing.  You start to forget that these are fictional characters because they are so life like and full of emotion.  I would have gone higher on the rating, but I didn't have that excitement that I've had in theater like I've had with some of the other films released this summer.  This will most likely still make my top 5 list of the summer, but there are 3 or 4 I would put ahead of this as of right now.  

If you've seen the first 2 in this series you definitely need to watch this one.  There are a few nods/tie ins to the original Planet of the Apes films in this so even if you were a casual fan of those you should pick up on them.  There is certainly room to do a 4th one if they wanted to, but it could be risky based on how the film ends.  The box office numbers this weekend will determine whether they continue on with this or not.  If they don't though you are left with a pretty satisfying conclusion to this trilogy of films.  

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