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davidahallnum5
Jun 7, 202310 min read

War for the Planet of the Apes 3D Blu-ray

MOVIE REVIEW

At last, we come to the final chapter in the prequel Planet of the Apes trilogy. This 2017 action adventure movie starts out a good while after the events of the previous movie. Caesar and the rest of his ape-kind have gone into hiding somewhere deep within the forest. But when the military finds his hideout and murders his wife and son while searching for him, Caesar decides to set out on his own, with the help of a few other fellow apes, to draw the military away from the ape clan. That changes, though, when he and his group stumble upon an ape named Bad Ape who tell Caesar about a base where the humans have captured apes and begun torturing them. Now, the mission becomes to get into the base and free the apes being held there. But things don't quite go as planned when Caesar encounters a Colonel who finds him and revealed some disturbing plans he seeks to carry out.

Once again, director Matt Reeves has proven he's a man with vision and knows darn well how to carry that vision out. His previous two films in the Planet of the Apes saga proved that modern entertainment doesn't have to fit into a predictable blockbuster mold, but instead transcend it with intelligence, strong themes, an engaging story, and overall uniqueness. I've only been able to review the second movie in the trilogy: Dawn. But anyone who's read it can tell that there's something about these movies that have a sense of passion about them. They genuinely seek to not just fill in the gap between the two main time frames presented in the original Planet of the Apes film from 1968, but also fill it in a way that's actually well worth the audience's time to watch and even re-watch. Does War for the Planet of the Apes successfully end this trilogy on a high note? I say yes, for the most part. There are a couple places that I found it lacking, especially with the high hopes build up by its predecessors. But it still keeps the momentum in both its style and substance and ends it all on a satisfying note.

Just like in Dawn, Caesar cements himself as a compelling and intimidating leader of the apes. The motion capture work done on him is nothing less than stellar. His subtle expressions get across an incredible amount of emotion and make him more easy to invest in as a character than most human characters we see hitting the silver screen nowadays. Not just him, but all the apes look and move super realistically. Typically, this sounds like it would result in an uncanny valley mess. But like with the other Planet of the Apes films, it surprisingly doesn't, and it helps establish the gritty tone of the movie, even as Caesar is speaking full sentences. On the human side of things, the performances are also top-notch, though none of them stand out from the crowd as much as Woody Harrelson who breaks from his comedic persona and makes himself a genuine threat to Caesar and his kind.

The atmosphere the movie presents is simply something to be admired. The dark, post-apocalyptic world Reeves creates is brought in full with clever direction, its dark tone, conflicted characters, haunting images, intense action, and its superb score by Michael Giacchino. But of course, it's the dynamic between humans and apes that drive the story forward. As character motivations are established and changing, we're kept to the edge of our seat wondering what's next. Throughout the course of these films, there's also been a slightly nuanced message on how not all humans are particularly bad and not all apes are particularly good. While it's not quite as strong here as it was with its predecessors, War for the Planet of the Apes still keeps this theme intact and continues to build off of it, even as the tide of species dominance is starting to change.

Now that all bring said, there are a couple of things to nitpick with War. These aren't by any means major gripes, but they prevent the film from being quite the ultimate banger this trilogy deserved to go out on. For starters, the story is pretty slow moving and the main plot doesn't even really get started up until around 45 minutes in, whereas with the previous movie, the plot is established within the first half hour. I don't really have a problem with slow paced stories, but I can see it getting on a few people's nerves. Second, whereas Dawn set up the idea that sometimes, conflict doesn't boil down to an entire race of people, but instead just a few bad apples, the main plot of War, with the exception of a few areas, ends up becoming mainly another pretty straightforward apes vs. humans story. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but with that aforementioned theme brought up in Dawn, I was somewhat expecting them to build off of it in a way where maybe both humans and apes could somehow get a satisfying ending to their stories. I mean, I knew from the beginning which species was going to win out in the end. But I figured that the predecessors where probably building up to something a bit deeper. However, that's probably just me.

War for the Planet of the Apes is probably not the strongest entry in this Planet of the Apes saga. But even then, it still elevates itself above much of today's modern blockbusters with its big ideas, gritty style, and enduring characters. All of those things in and of themselves make this adventure well worth watching. Do I think it's a perfect way to end the trilogy? Not really. But if all you can complain about with a film is what it doesn't do right rather than what it does do wrong, you have yourself a solid movie on your hands. And the ending we do get is still a very satisfying sendoff for Caesar and his ape friends. All in all, I highly recommend this film to any fan of the Planet of the Apes franchise or anyone looking for a modern Hollywood action flick that knows how to think as well as it knows how to act. And if you've recently gotten into this trilogy and have only gotten as far as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, what are you waiting for? Go and give it a watch.


OVERALL FILM RATING: 4/5


3D RATING

So now that you know War for the Planet of the Apes works well enough as a movie, you're probably asking yourself how well it works in 3D. Well, I don't really know of a much better way to answer that than with Tommy Boy 3D own comment about the film: "It is delicious." For the most part, he's right on the money. If the 3D here were a meal, it'd hit the spot. Yes, there are a few places where the steak is just a little bit flat or the potatoes just a wee bit bland. But all in all, this is one meal that is well worth having again and again.

Unlike its predecessor Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War was post-converted into 3D. Little story for those unaware: when it was in its primitive stages, post-conversion used to be considered somewhat fake and overall the lesser 3D treatment when compared to native 3D films out at the time (hold something like Alice in Wonderland or Thor up to the likes of Avatar or Hugo). However, it was around the time of films like The Walk and Captain America: Civil War when conversions proved they could work as well, if not better, than most natively shot 3D movies. Since then, most every 3D flick has switched over to 3D conversions and most all the time, these films stand superior to virtually all 3D movies from around 10 years ago. Such the case can be seen easily with the Planet of the Apes movies. While the natively shot 3D of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes works well enough on its own, the 3D converted War for the Planet of the Apes provides an overall much better 3D experience on many different levels.

For starters, the depth here is stronger than it was in the previous movie. Landscapes stretch out far into the background you can feel the ginormous environment these characters live in. Beaches, forests, waterfalls, mountains, and even an oasis are all settings that take advantage of this 3D aspect. Even in the more up-close shots of the characters, nothing ever feels flat. And the details throughout the environment ranging from characters' faces to foliage to trees to man made structures to metal bars to wooden structures to uneven terrain are so abundant, it'd be tempting to confuse this for a natively shot 3D movie. Granted, there are a few scenes that appear somewhat shallow. And they occur mainly in the scenes at the military base keeping the apes captive But they're fewer and farther between than they were in Dawn. And even still, the details are never lost.

Speaking of those details, almost every shot in the film looks almost like it composed for 3D. There are shots with multiple characters standing at different places along the z-axis, the aforementioned shots of metal bars, scenes where characters are entering tunnels, views looking up or down holes in the ground, scenes involving caves, waterfalls, prisons, frozen ski lodges, tall cell towers, and much more. The movie is pretty subtle in all the ways is sets itself up for 3D, but it's effectiveness is none the less there to behold. It'd be too big of a task to describe all the ways the film composes itself nicely for 3D, but I'll do my best to give you the highlights. A few I can remember that were fun occurred in dark areas such as caves and tunnels in which a character or group of characters will turn on their flashlights or green lasers in the setting and bring the environment into 3D space little by little. One of the scenes like that occurred early on was soon followed by a brief scene of an ape and a man fighting each other while hanging onto a rope connected to a helicopter over a waterfall that gave us some neat top down and bottom up view. Another highlight occurs early on when we get an overhead shot of a battle going on and see smoke rising above the ground. There is a scene on the beach in which the apes are riding on horses next to a bunch of puddles. Along with the immense depth inward, you can also get the neat effect of seeing the horses' 3D reflections in the puddles. While we don't really get explosions that protrude the screen, their presence in 3D space still makes them mesmerizing to see. We get plenty of falling snow in the mountains. Oh, yeah. And just like with the last film, anytime an ape approaches the screen in anger, their presence is all the more intimidating.

Another advantage War for the Planet of the Apes has over its predecessor in terms of 3D is its greater usage of pop outs. The film never goes full on Journey to the Center of the Earth with popping stuff out of the screen. But it does knows how to bring itself into our world without seeming cheesy or flashy. Many pop outs we get are quite subtle such as apes and people during talking scenes or pieces of the environment such as water, metal structures, or wooden pole. And we do get from pretty mesmerizing shots of jungle foliage, falling snow, and even a doll at one point. But during more intense moments, we get everything from guns to crossbows to arrows to smoke to the aforementioned green lasers and more.

If I had anything much to complain about this movie besides the slight shallow spots in the second half, it'd probably be three things: the dimness, lack of utilization in certain areas, and the out of focus shots. While the image remains bright and thoroughly watchable throughout, there were a few scenes in dark places that I think might bother those who already blame the 3D glasses enough for the dimness they cause. And while the 3D composition is also very impressive, much more than the previous movie, there are some times in the second half of the movie when I felt the 3D could've been used to better advantage, mainly during talking or close up scenes. Also, when the film wasn't exactly striving to visually impressive anyone, sometimes, background elements or foreground elements are out of focus, which makes things like guns, crossbows, and far-off landscapes a little less fun to look at.

Is War for the Planet of the Apes a must-buy 3D movie? Not exactly. There are just enough less-than-excellent issues with it that it stays a couple notches below better 3D movies like Avatar or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But make no mistake. If you're looking to check this title out in 3D, it's well worth doing so. The depth and dimension here continues to bring the post-human world of this movie to immersive and mesmerizing light, the 3D choreography is impressive, and we even get some good pop outs (unlike in Dawn when we only got one that truly stood out). If you want to watch War for the Planet of the Apes, go ahead. But if you truly want to experience it, watch it in 3D. There's more than enough here for 3D fanatics and occasional 3D moviegoers alike.


3D RATING: GREAT


OTHER SOURCES THAT REVIEW THIS MOVIE'S 3D:





FINAL THOUGHTS:


War for the Planet of the Apes is an imperfect but solid and intelligent conclusion to a great trilogy of movies. Matt Reeves prequels to Planet of the Apes have proven themselves not just to be great entertainment, but also excellent cinema. Yes, they have everything good blockbusters need. Action? Check. State of the art special effects? Check. Sweeping scores? Check. But these movies have not only managed to make the most of every one of those aspects, they've also tied them together in the name of unpredictable, engaging stories with compelling, conflicted, and deep characters. That not makes this series of movies fun to watch, but also rewarding to re-watch. While War for the Planet of the Apes might not be my personal favorite of the trilogy, it still provides a great ending to a great series of movies. It follows suit of what made the other films so memorable and in turn results in great cinema. If you haven't seen the other two previous films in this prequel saga, I suggest you do so before rushing onto this flick. But if you have, you won't have any reason to be disappointed with War for the Planet of the Apes. And if you're planning picking this one up, 3D is the preferred to go. The 3D is very deep and in abundance of great views. But it also makes the story feel more gritty, real, and personal. A great 3D movie is meant to to immerse you in the world of the film in ways the 2D version can't. And with the ample depth on display and the expert 3D composition to accompany it, War for the Planet of the Apes does just that. No doubt about it, War for the Planet of the Apes 3D Blu-ray gets my recommendation.


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