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Which is in the same continuity as "Rise.." "Dawn..." and "War..." respectively, set ca. 300 years after the Caesar trilogy, which I think was a very wise decision. I'm always wary when a story that feels complete gets an addendum because it was a success, which is why, for example, I never watched any of the "Pirates of the Carribean" movies beyond the third one - for me, the trilogy was mainly Elizabeth's story, and it was complete. However, something set within the same universe but telling a different story with different characters can be interesting, and I'm happy to report this is the case here.
What remains the same from the earlier movies is that this is very much the Apes' story. As with the others, there are also human characters in supporting roles, but the narrative focus is on the Ape characters. Now I'm not a viewer who is good at judging GCI - I'm more the viewer who when everyone else goes "OMG the special effects look so dated!" - about Babylon 5 says "huh? They still look fine to me!" - , but for what it's worth, I thought this franchise continues to amazingly pull off the kind of acting Andy Serkis if not pioneered then made justly famous with Gollum, i.e. the Apes are computere creations but combined with great performances, not just voice but eyes and body language transferred from the human actor to the computer animation. It makes you care about those characters. And of all the Ape movies so far, this is the one where we see the most of how the world at the point the movie is set. There are some stunningly beautiful shots of the wilderness having reclaimed human cities, and the movie sold me on the 300 years gap not least because it took the trouble of developing different types of Ape cultures instead of just going for the 1960s satire angle where the Apes simply reflect the earlier humans. And it offers both shades of grey and "villain has a point" types of situations along with a very sympathetic new main character, Noah, who isn't a Caesar imitation but has his own story and pesonality.
( Spoilery observations from here )
All in all: a worthy continuation which does its own thing and manages to combine the fantasy adventure/post apocalyptic set up with a moving story it tells with panache. I hope this will make it to another trilogy.
What remains the same from the earlier movies is that this is very much the Apes' story. As with the others, there are also human characters in supporting roles, but the narrative focus is on the Ape characters. Now I'm not a viewer who is good at judging GCI - I'm more the viewer who when everyone else goes "OMG the special effects look so dated!" - about Babylon 5 says "huh? They still look fine to me!" - , but for what it's worth, I thought this franchise continues to amazingly pull off the kind of acting Andy Serkis if not pioneered then made justly famous with Gollum, i.e. the Apes are computere creations but combined with great performances, not just voice but eyes and body language transferred from the human actor to the computer animation. It makes you care about those characters. And of all the Ape movies so far, this is the one where we see the most of how the world at the point the movie is set. There are some stunningly beautiful shots of the wilderness having reclaimed human cities, and the movie sold me on the 300 years gap not least because it took the trouble of developing different types of Ape cultures instead of just going for the 1960s satire angle where the Apes simply reflect the earlier humans. And it offers both shades of grey and "villain has a point" types of situations along with a very sympathetic new main character, Noah, who isn't a Caesar imitation but has his own story and pesonality.
( Spoilery observations from here )
All in all: a worthy continuation which does its own thing and manages to combine the fantasy adventure/post apocalyptic set up with a moving story it tells with panache. I hope this will make it to another trilogy.
