War for the Planet of the Apes - Movie Review

Starring Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Amiah Miller, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Judy Greer, Gabriel Chavarria, Toby Kebbel and Sara Canning.
Written by Mark Bomback & Matt Reeves.
Directed by Matt Reeves.

★★★

Andy Serkis & company do a wonderful job in the motion-capture performance area, the special effects are top-notch, and Matt Reeves has made another movie, as the first two, that follows but could still stand on its own.

Caeser and his apes are still dealing with the betrayal of Koba, the ape that set off the chain reaction meant war between apes and humans. The main threat these days are a base of soldiers in northern California being led by a maniac. Woody Harrelson has a lot of fun playing a Col. Kurtz type in charge of these soldiers (and in case you miss the reference, there's "Ape-ocalpyse Now" graffiti in a tunnel).

I liked it, but I have to address five problems I had with this movie:

1. This conclusion to the prequel trilogy to Planet of the Apes isn't just about how the smart humans were wiped out. This movie is designed for you to root for the extermination of the human race. That may be why there were hardly any black or female soldiers. Easier to root for white US soldiers acting like Nazis toward the apes. There is one Hispanic soldier sent up to be somewhat sympathetic, but that's it. If A.I. ever rises up and wipes out humans, I blame this movie more than The Matrix.

2. Where are the females? Among the humans and apes, they were over 90% male. Is the next movie going to be Planet of the Dolphins because the other smart races went extinct over having so few females?

3. A little girl walks through the middle of a prison camp of soldiers on high alert, and they even have spotlights shine over her, and yet no one notices? These soldiers are terrrrible.

4. They say the simian flu, the disease that's robbing humans of speech and intelligence, is dormant in everyone, but the triggering of it is highly contagious. That felt like a yada-yada explanation hat-tipping the Walking Dead's logic.

5. Why at this point is Caeser the only ape who can talk in complete, unawkward sentences? Almost all of the apes stick to sign language. Didn't more apes speak in the last movie?

Random Movie Stuff - 1/15/14

- Matt Reeves will return for another Planet of the Apes movie. The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director will now direct third movie in the rebooted franchise as well.  The as-yet-untitled film will open July 29, 2016. Dawn opens on July 11, 2014.

- The upcoming Batman v. Superman film does not have an official title, and even though Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) are in it, it is a Superman-centric film. It's confirmed that Lex Luthor will be the villain, with Joaquin Phoenix being the rumored frontrunner. Cavill returns as Superman, and Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Ma Kent) and Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) will also be back. There's also rumor that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is in talks to play the Green Lantern.

- Michael Douglas will play Hank Pym and Paul Rudd will play Scott Lang in Edgar Wright's upcoming adaptation of Ant-Man. Also, Michael Pena (American Hustle) is in talks to play a villain.

- Quentin Tarantino is writing and directing another Western. Plot details are being kept secret right now, but it's titled The Hateful Eight, and Christoph Waltz is attached.

- Not a movie thing, but Sasheer Zamata is about to become famous. She's been named the latest cast member of Saturday Night Live, and the first black woman in the cast since Maya Rudolph left.