I've seen the original Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell, I've seen the remake with Tim Roth, I've seen thousands of films during my life. War for the Planet of the Apes seemed to me as simply a showcase for the digital ape effects.
It's full of closeups of different digital ape faces against a blurry background. Af if it's 1957 and we should be marveling at new Disneyland animatronic characters. It's full of distant shots of digital chimps scurrying around. That's most of the movie.
What people are saying is thought provoking, is a simple illustration of two groups in conflict. Draw comparisons to Nazis and Jews, black and white, Shia and Shi'ite, slave and slave owner. The same "thought provoking" questions arise.
The only difference here is that it's put into a science fiction context - what if apes were as smart as humans? Well, what if cats were? Or squirrels? Had this been an action film, I'd say OK, it's an action movie and it's fine. But it isn't. It has some action, but is not an action film. It's mostly a very slow moving, dull, inarticulate drama.
Inarticulate in two ways. A lot of the apes use sign language instead of speech, and the script is not clever or intellectual. A few flashes of well written dialog come up during an exchange between the Colonel (Woody Harrelson) and Caesar (digital ape) and that's all there is. Less than five minutes. The rest of the dialog is mainly focused on vengeance and war or merciful understanding. There's no complexity or intellectual stimulation here.
I'm shocked that nearly all professional film critics give this movie a high rating and praise. Perhaps they all received $5,000 checks from the film studio.
It's full of closeups of different digital ape faces against a blurry background. Af if it's 1957 and we should be marveling at new Disneyland animatronic characters. It's full of distant shots of digital chimps scurrying around. That's most of the movie.
What people are saying is thought provoking, is a simple illustration of two groups in conflict. Draw comparisons to Nazis and Jews, black and white, Shia and Shi'ite, slave and slave owner. The same "thought provoking" questions arise.
The only difference here is that it's put into a science fiction context - what if apes were as smart as humans? Well, what if cats were? Or squirrels? Had this been an action film, I'd say OK, it's an action movie and it's fine. But it isn't. It has some action, but is not an action film. It's mostly a very slow moving, dull, inarticulate drama.
Inarticulate in two ways. A lot of the apes use sign language instead of speech, and the script is not clever or intellectual. A few flashes of well written dialog come up during an exchange between the Colonel (Woody Harrelson) and Caesar (digital ape) and that's all there is. Less than five minutes. The rest of the dialog is mainly focused on vengeance and war or merciful understanding. There's no complexity or intellectual stimulation here.
I'm shocked that nearly all professional film critics give this movie a high rating and praise. Perhaps they all received $5,000 checks from the film studio.