Matt Reeves to direct "War for the Planet of the Apes" - Part 1

[NotNickFury]

Seriously, there's this one really good bit of music that you hear throughout. I can't put my finger on what it's called- the first I think you hear it is when Caesar and the three others split off and go exploring. Right when they come across that overturned truck in the clearing.

 

[StormC]

The piano leitmotif? Pretty sure this is from that scene:

[YT]g3r8DKR_Wd0[/YT]

 

[NotNickFury]

Around the 3:30 mark specifically is what I mean, but yes. That I kept hearing throughout.

 

[Rjones1325]

Spoiler

RIP TO MY BOY CAESAR!

FULL REVIEW HERE: https://rendyreviews.com/movies//war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-review

Spoiler

One of the great things about this movie is that even after Koba is gone, a lot of his actions still haunt both the apes and Caesar. Throughout the film, you see Koba as Caesar’s guilty conscious which provides an inner turmoil to him and everything he goes through. When he is blinded by his rage, you see Caesar break his own moral codes he applied onto his tribe. As the film progresses you see Caesar become the ape, he never wanted to become; Koba.

Don’t think just because this is an intelligent and subtle summer blockbuster; this is devoid of having action sequences. The film opens with a brutal human vs. apes war sequence that feels straight out of Saving Private Ryan (or Saving Primate Ryan). Talk about Gorilla Warfare am I right? You have spurts of blood when an ape is shot with a gun or when a human is shot with an arrow. It emotionally shows the brutality and consequences of war on both opposing sides. Some of the action includes big budgeted explosions, but at the same time, the most intense action sequences it offers are poignant decisions done through silence.

For a PG13 film, the onslaught sequences of violence are so intense that at times it brings you to the verge of tears. The film heavily influences sequences out of biblical films such as Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur. Even last year during New York Comic Con, Matt Reeves confirmed that some of the influences are taken from those films besides many others. Though by description it sounds fantastic how it homages those films, the scenes they take from those movies aren’t pretty. It is not only effective, but it is also emotional.

War For the Planet of the Apes swung through the vines and stuck that perfect landing. I've never seen a trilogy thoroughly perfect as this. This is a masterful conclusion to one of the best trilogies in film history. Seriously whose ass do I need to kick to get Andy Serkis an Oscar nomination?

So the cast came to my job yesterday and of course I WAS GOING TO ASK A QUESTION OH WELL HERE IT IS!

https://www.facebook.com/RendyReviews/videos/1456262674466683/

Mod edit: Use spoiler tags please.

 

[StormC]

Hey scarlet-witch: is there a guide to all the EU stuff for Nu Apes?

 

[spiderman2]

Jut got back from the movie and while I liked it I think I may be a little bit disappointed. I felt like the 2/3 of the movie kind of dragged and not much was going on and got a little boring. I think I may have liked dawn better. The begging and the last 1/3 of the movie were great though and the score for the movie was sick.

 

[Grommers]

Oh yeah, I could see this being a contender for one of my favorite films of the year. A very emotional story with a satisfying resolution, fantastic score- seriously, the music stuck with me throughout the entire ride- and Reeves' command of direction and storytelling here are leagues above films with actual humans in them. A stellar job from start to finish.

Also, bad ape.

Yeah, between WW & This, I think I tend to lean towards this being my favorite film this year given that the story is much deeper and personal than WW, as well as I enjoyed the climax so much more in this.

Really curious where the story goes.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

The box office might be a bit disappointing for this. I can't see it being a big crowd pleaser. It's bleak and slow paced at times. Reeves excels at stuff like that but the public needs more action to keep them interested.

So now comes the part where we worry about WB getting nervous about letting Reeves do the Batman movie his way after looking at the box office for this one.

Eh, it's pretty much shot for shot and the only major difference is a interesting car crash shot.

It may seem that way if you only look at the surface. But Reeves changed each of the 4 main characters pretty dramatically and added several themes to the narrative that did not exist in the original. It's subtle at times but rewards a viewer who notices things like that. Reeves also took out the drunken town folk and increased the screen time for the kids....the characters I actually cared about.

The "shot for shot" claim is one I've heard before but of course that claim fails the fact checking test with the very first shot of the movie. t:

Caesar's story arc is one of the best Hollywood has given us in decades.

Agreed.

Now that I've given it some time for the story to percolate...

Spoiler

I definitely see further sequel potential. Caesar was perfect. An almost Vader/Joker-tier memorable character imo. But he wasn't the only reason to watch/enjoy these movies. This trilogy brought the entire series up for me. I am now so much more interested in seeing a planet ruled by apes and how they interact with each other.

The sequel could be called Heart of the Planet of the Apes. And ~10-20 years later, it could be about Caesar's tribe (led by Maurice and Cornelius) and their interactions with other tribes of apes. Specifically how they are treating humans. Should they be pets? Should they be cattle? Should they be slaves? etc.

Other themes I'd like to see explored is ape role development. In the original, orangutans were aristocrats, chimps were scientists and gorillas were military. We have already seen this to a small degree, but truly explore it. And how the three species continue to evolve culturally. They wouldn't always get along. Particularly if they are so different in their mentalities.

I want to see development of clothing and agriculture and their opinions of science and technology. Perhaps development and explanation of the bomb and the mutants from the original Apes sequels. And few if any human speaking roles. I want to see an entire movie of Apes. Not even joking. Is that weird?

That sounds fantastic. I only wish Reeves had time to do it. Looks like another director will take over even though he has stated he would love to tell more Apes stories.

 

[StormC]

I think it will fall short of Dawn by quite a bit, in the 600M range. It's too bad, but points to Fox for letting Reeves make such an against-the-grain blockbuster.

So now comes the part where we worry about WB getting nervous about letting Reeves do the Batman movie his way after looking at the box office for this one.

Don't scare me like that. Christ.

Jut got back from the movie and while I liked it I think I may be a little bit disappointed. I felt like the 2/3 of the movie kind of dragged and not much was going on and got a little boring. I think I may have liked dawn better. The begging and the last 1/3 of the movie were great though and the score for the movie was sick.

This is kind of where I'm at with it. I think I admire it more than I love it. If it wasn't for the score, it would definitely be a B+ instead of an A-. But I want to go see it again since there's a lot to take in on the first watch and I admire Reeves' craft so much (plus my expectations are a bit more metered this time after the glowing reviews said this was the best of the trilogy). I think it's the best directed of the trilogy but has the weakest script.

Either way, I hope Fox releases a sick Blu-Ray pack for the trilogy. I'd scoop that up in an instant.

 

[spiderman2]

I think it will fall short of Dawn by quite a bit, in the 600M range. It's too bad, but points to Fox for letting Reeves make such an against-the-grain blockbuster.



Don't scare me like that. Christ.



This is kind of where I'm at with it. I think I admire it more than I love it. If it wasn't for the score, it would definitely be a B+ instead of an A-. But I want to go see it again since there's a lot to take in on the first watch and I admire Reeves' craft so much (plus my expectations are a bit more metered this time after the glowing reviews said this was the best of the trilogy). I think it's the best directed of the trilogy but has the weakest script.

Either way, I hope Fox releases a sick Blu-Ray pack for the trilogy. I'd scoop that up in an instant.

How do you post spoliers? A few things I wanted to say but I don't know how to hide spoliers.

 

[StormC]

Type between spoiler brackets. Like this without spaces: [ spoiler ] text [ /spoiler ]

For a reference, here are my spoiler-y thoughts from earlier in the thread:

Spoiler

One of my favorite things about Dawn was the gray morality and how both the humans and apes really struggled with tough situations that there weren't easy answers for. Here I found Reeves made it too easy and completely villainized the humans, with basically none of them being likeable or sympathetic. I also thought Woody Harrelson was a bit underused; although the scene with Caesar struggling to kill him was powerful, it was still a somewhat anticlimactic end to his character.

I would have liked to seen things a bit more from the human perspective. How did the humans first find out about the mutated Simian Flu? Where is this military base the Colonel reports to, and how did they recruit so many soldiers (seriously, there were a ****load of foot soldiers raiding the Colonel's base)? What are the humans who aren't part of the military doing now? But I'm guessing it doesn't matter much now because the Simian Flu will probably mutate within every living human and reduce them to primitive form. In that sense, I think future movies might have to timeskip straight to the spaceship crashing because all humans will be like animals now.

I also found myself preferring the first half, where it's a Biblical quest through the land. Incredible scope and cinematography. The second half being entirely in the military complex was a bit less interesting in terms of scenery, but still very compelling nonetheless.

 

[spiderman2]

Ok hopefully this spoiler thing works.

Spoiler

This is a test

 

[spiderman2]

Oh so stormC this is kind of my thoughts and why I fell kind of disappointment in the movie.

Spoiler

So the first like 1/3 or so of the movie with the like begging fight and up in till about the part when Cyesear's wife and kids get killed I thought was great. How ever I felt like from about the time right after that in till the the part towards the end when the Apes start to make a plain that basically nothing happens and the movie gets kind of boring. Once they start to make a plain the movie starts to pick up again. Also the villain I was like why is he keeping cysear alive? Like what is the point in that? Also felt like he was not really doing any thing. Felt like all he really wanted to do was torcher the Apes. Also it was more like human vs human fight really then a Apes/human war. Last I didn't really understand why the humans caught the apes and didn't just kill them? The movie just felt more sloppy then dawn and the plot felt like it made less sinces and felt like the plot had more plot holes to.

 

[StormC]

Oh so stormC this is kind of my thoughts and why I fell kind of disappointment in the movie.

Spoiler

So the first like 1/3 or so of the movie with the like begging fight and up in till about the part when Cyesear's wife and kids get killed I thought was great. How ever I felt like from about the time right after that in till the the part towards the end when the Apes start to make a plain that basically nothing happens and the movie gets kind of boring. Once they start to make a plain the movie starts to pick up again. Also the villain I was like why is he keeping cysear alive? Like what is the point in that? Also felt like he was not really doing any thing. Felt like all he really wanted to do was torcher the Apes. Also it was more like human vs human fight really then a Apes/human war. Last I didn't really understand why the humans caught the apes and didn't just kill them? The movie just felt more sloppy then dawn and the plot felt like it made less sinces and felt like the plot had more plot holes to.

Spoiler

My favorite part of the movie was actually the apes traveling after the military. Just beautiful scenery and a nice slow burn. The moment it starts to drop off for me is when Caesar gets captured. It definitely picks up once the apes begin their escape plan.

The colonel kept the apes alive because he wanted slave labor to build his wall. He's pretty much lost his mind and thinks he can build a wall that will protect him from the incoming military attack (or go out in a blaze of glory). It's obvious his soldiers follow him with cult-like devotion, too. I think he specifically targeted Caesar because he was their leader and he knew if he killed him, it would make him a martyr and the apes would revolt. Keep him alive and torture him slowly, and the apes lose their willpower.

I would have liked a more fleshed out final battle too. It felt like Reeves wanted to do something different for the sake of it.

 

[spiderman2]

Spoiler

My favorite part of the movie was actually the apes traveling after the military. Just beautiful scenery and a nice slow burn. The moment it starts to drop off for me is when Caesar gets captured. It definitely picks up once the apes begin their escape plan.

The colonel kept the apes alive because he wanted slave labor to build his wall. He's pretty much lost his mind and thinks he can build a wall that will protect him from the incoming military attack (or go out in a blaze of glory). It's obvious his soldiers follow him with cult-like devotion, too. I think he specifically targeted Caesar because he was their leader and he knew if he killed him, it would make him a martyr and the apes would revolt. Keep him alive and torture him slowly, and the apes lose their willpower.

I would have liked a more fleshed out final battle too. It felt like Reeves wanted to do something different for the sake of it.

Spoiler

Yeah I agree about when Caesar gets captured and it felt like about 40 minutes of the movie was just Caesar being captured with nothing happing before the apes finally made there plain and I have always love the apes making there plain type of thing in these movies. Like in Rise one of my favorite parts is when Caesar starts to make his plain to like help the Apes get smart and what not leading up to the point were he says no. Oh I guess that is true about the military attack I guess I just felt like the military attack was pointless. It was suppose to be about the apes and humans fighting not humans and humans fighting. While to keep Caesar alive just felt silly because its like all you are doing is giving them a chance to make a plan. I would think just having Caesar would like already make the apes want to do something even if he was not killed.

 

[Legendver2]

Just came back from it, and wow, I finally have my perfect trilogy. So much feels.

 

[Filmfan93]

Rjones1325, you really could have put the first sentence into spoiler tags.

 

[scarlet-witch]

Hey scarlet-witch: is there a guide to all the EU stuff for Nu Apes?

A guide? Like the POTA wiki? I'm not quite sure what you're asking. I'm sorry.

I see a lot of comments about it feeling slow, I felt like it flew by for me. I had expected it to drag based on reviews and I never found that to be the case personally.

Maybe it was my level of hype.

 

[FunkMiller]

While this was expected, you really could have put this into spoiler tags.

I'm going to report to mods to see if they'll edit it. If the guy who wrote it comes back in, I'd ask him to do the Same!

Edit: have PM'ed the guy to take it down.

 

[TheDarkKnight_NL]

While this was expected, you really could have put this into spoiler tags.

Indeed, caught a glimpse of it the other day before quickly clicking away, but was waiting the whole movie for it

 

[markjoedelonge]

What a satisfying conclusion to a great trilogy. I feel that Dawn is a better paced, but this film is amazing.

Reeves directs the hell out of this film, with such confident and assurance. The acting is incredible. The apes have never looked more real. The score is so good. And the cinematography is beautiful.

 

[Kaleb]

Going to make less than Dawn's opening weekend ($72M)

 

[StormC]

While this was expected, you really could have put this into spoiler tags.

You should probably edit it out of your post too, just saying.

A guide? Like the POTA wiki? I'm not quite sure what you're asking. I'm sorry.

Just like, an organized list saying what comics/books/etc. there are to check out (and maybe which ones are good and which ones aren't lol).

 

[NotNickFury]

Going to make less than Dawn's opening weekend ($72M)

Well, it IS a packed July and with Atomic Blonde and Dunkirk on the way, even more packed, but hopefully good word of mouth gives this film good weekday numbers. Still pretty good, though.

 

[LoganPool]

All I want to know is if the Icarus spaceship is seen or referenced at all. Don't go into detail, just a simple yes or no, please. Thanks.