War for the Planet of the Apes 2017

     This film is a sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes of 2011 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes of 2014.  The setting is two years after US Military fought with the apes and stated a devastating war.  The Colonel is leading a rogue paramilitary faction knows as Alpha-Omega.  Embedded in this group are service apes called donkeys that previously followed Koba.  Koba hated the humans and he led a failed coup against Caesar.  He started a war after a vengeful attack against human survivors in San Francisco.  There is a conflict with the soldiers using guns and the apes using spears.  The Colonel infiltrates the ape home and kills Caesars’ wife and son.  Caesar begins a new quest to avenge the apes.  Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in a battle that could eliminate one of the species.

     There is a LOT of tension in this film from the beginning to the end!!  Humans tampered with the apes when they tested a cure for Alzheimer’s disease on a female chimpanzee.  She gained heightened intelligent in the process.  Her baby was Caesar.  Now there is a virus spread from the apes to humans.  The virus causes humans to bleed from the nose, lose the ability to speak and also death.  The Colonel’s own son died from the virus and that is what is behind his vengeance against the apes.  The Colonel and all the military are the enemy in this film.  The entire emotion of sympathy by viewers is directed at the apes.  Woody Harrelson must have needed to make some important payments to take this role.  I think everyone in the audience would like to use a spear to take him out in the beginning of the film?  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)   

140 min, Action directed by Matt Reeves with Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval, Amiah Miller, Terry Notary, Ty Olsson, Michael Adamthwaite, Toby Kebbell, Gabriel Chavarria, Judy Greer, Sara Canning Devyn Dalton, Aleks Paunovic Allesandro Juliani.

Note:  Imdb 7.5 out of 10, 93% critic 84% audience, Roger Ebert 3 12/*, The Guardian review by Simran Hans 4* out of 5*, Metacritic 82 out of 10 with 50 critics 8.1 out of 10 with 624 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Vancouver, Tofino, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada; Death Valley National Park, California.  The forests are computer-generated images and the apes are motion-capture images.  The young girl Nova is named after the character played by Linda Harrison in the first and second films in the original ape series.  The name Donkeys refers to Donkey Kong and also use as pack animals.  There is a scene of the Overlook Hotel from the Shining of 1980.  There are 15 mistakes in this film.  The soldiers are standing in the rain at the border camp but they are not wet? Scenes show the apple slice on the Colonel’s knife disappearing without him eating it?  Other mistakes are continuity, crew or equipment visible, factual errors and plot holes.