Good lord this was slow. I do appreciate "slow" films, foreign stuff, art stuff, character stuff, etc, but this, at its best, is trying to be some inaccessible allegory that I had to struggle to comprehend, or -- it's what it appears to be -- a movie that lost its message through muddled writing and misguided re-writes or heavy handed script doctoring and myopic producing. It just CRAWLS. Aimlessly. This is the third of an ever-worsening series of reboots. The first one was worthy. The second was fun but empty. This third? I'm so glad I followed my instincts and refused to pay a theater ticket to see it. The message or theme is simple, and repeated -- humans are mean spirited savages, apes are noble savages. Yeah, we got it the first time. It's also trying to be a poorly executed morality play on "us vs them," on "natives vs immigrants," and tribalism based on race. There's even a "Wall" featured. In ten years, will any viewer remember what "the wall" was about? Yeah yeah, it's an ever-important message, but it requires better execution and exposition in this day and age. What's next -- GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, with the groom-to-be the human, and his fiance and parents apes?

Having watched all of the "Planet of the Apes" movies, both the old classics and the newer additions to the franchise, then of course I also had to watch "War of the Planet of the Apes", despite its ridiculous title."War of the Planet of the Apes" is a very nice continuation of the storyline. Actually, it serves well enough to even be a stand-alone movie, although a lot of information is missing out if you haven't seen the other movies.The movie starts out in a fairly good pace, and it never really slows down, so once you strap yourself into your seat, just hang on and enjoy the ride.The movie has great CGI and special effects, of course. It is primed with lots of action and nicely executed action sequences. But it is not just the action that carries the movie, it is also the character progression and the storyline, which both actually play very big parts in this movie."War of the Planet of the Apes" had good acting performances from a pretty interesting cast, with the likes of Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn and many others.If you enjoyed the franchise thus far, then it would be a shame to miss out on the 2017 "War of the Planet of the Apes".

After building up Caesar and the other apes in the first two films, this third one seems so contrived - especially the last twenty minutes - it almost ruins what is otherwise an interesting film. Here, the super smart chimpanzee, his family and all the other primates that supported him on the last movie are up against an American Colonel (Woody Harrelson), his assortment of monkey hating soldiers - so not much change to the previous films - and also "Donkeys"; apes who support the humans. All have complicated relationships which the film could have developed further, rather than the cliched ending that went from action to completion faster than a monkey up a tree.Obviously, the special effects are amazing. The interaction between human and ape are pretty flawless. Nova (Amiah Miller) may get shoe horned into the film, but the way she is able to interact with Maurice (Karin Konoval) is pretty impressive. And watching Bad Ape (Steve Zahn) careen around with his extremely expressive is a comic interlude from all the serious activities going on on the screen.For the most part, the film was alright. Right up until after the Colonel has probably the longest spoken scene in the film (which isn't hard when you know only one ape can talk, though all the apes can understand English), it moved at a good pace. It just seemed like the producers then felt they needed to wrap it up in a nice, complete manner, which maybe wasn't needed.

It's like Ebola and aids got married and this is their child!