Have you seen WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES.... I have, and here are my thoughts: I am conflicted between admiring the CGI and absolute lifelike imagery of the apes, and particularly Andy Serkis as Caesar, as well as the astonishing amazing war-torn-storybook 'look' and then, I am irritated with the obvious re-use of CGI from other films. I constantly had the uneasy feeling I was seeing retread CGI from other movies: this came obvious when they discover a monkey which clearly is Dobby from the Harry Potter films. The thunderous waterfall and fir forests from Disney's JUNGKE BOOK and PETES DRAGON, ....FURY ROAD and the ridiculous recent PAN got a look in with convoys of trucks and the tunnel and fortress from any angle, and it all lapsed into THE GREAT ESCAPE and PAPILLON, eventually. Even a Dr ZHIVAGO citadel room. Then we get a mashup of WIZARD OF OZ Castle of the Witch where the trio and Dorothy hide among the rocks overlooking, this time with a trio of different apes and a little girl, even the Ourang- outang is the friendly Lion; and APOCALYPSE NOW with it's Colonel Kurt imagery throughout and mountain fortress and army. It is a familiar jigsaw puzzle of clever re used imagery heightened with astonishing visual skill which makes it compelling for a few seconds, then you feel irritated that you feel you know where they got the ideas from. It is an amazing result but it betrays itself. I loved some of the obvious studio sets and back projection, and marveled at the Apes few and many... The Dobby Monkey really unraveled it. Some Monkeys even looked like Steve McQueen.
Review of War for the Planet of the Apes
