So today I went to watch War for the Planet of the Apes. Usually I don't watch animal shows, but there were no other good shows so I just had to watch this. It's also quite worth the money cos the movie is lengthy (what aunties will think hahaha). The ratings are also quite impressive, but is it?
Note: whatever is written below are purely spoilers + my own views which may or may not be accurate. I am also not referring to Wikipedia or other sites for information, so everything is purely from my memory (don't blame me for labeling monkeys as ape1 and ape2, there are too many apes with names!!!)
Disclaimer: I have not watched any Planet of the Ape movies so I wouldn't know if there are any links to other movies or easter eggs
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Back story (in the intro of the movie):
- Humans were infected by a virus which kills them, but now the virus has evolved to make them degenerate and act like primates - virus developed from experiment (how typical)
- Apes somehow become more intelligent (also due to experiment)
- Remaining human survivors are trying to eliminate apes to ensure their dominance (on the food chain?)
Characters (in terms of importance):
- Caesar: Alpha ape AKA main character. Head of monkey clan. Black monkey with human eyes. This was kinda new to me cos I thought the main character would be human (took me a while to get it though)
- Colonel: Don't know what's his name but he is the main antagonist. Crazy soldier leading an army troop, who wants to kill every ape and every human with the virus.
- Maurice: Big brown orangutan. Kind and sweet dude.
- Lake: Female ape who found another land where the monkeys can migrate to.
- Little girl/Nova: Girl with virus who is also adopted by the apes (basically modern-age female Tarzan)
- Bad Ape: Silly ape who lived in a zoo and escaped when humans started killing all the monkeys in the zoo
- Koba: Ex-head of monkey clan. Dead. Used to want to kill all humans cos of hate.
- Cornelius: Caesar's younger (and alive) son. Baby monkey
Story (in point form):
- Story starts with a troop locating the apes' hideout. They found a place and killed 63 apes, but soon were attacked by the apes. Caesar makes his first appearance and spares 4 soldiers, telling them to tell their colonel to make peace (let monkeys live in the woods = no war)
- Caesar's son and Lake return from far away, telling Caesar that they found a place for all monkeys to migrate and live safely where humans can't find them.
- On the same night, soldiers invade monkey hideout and Colonel killed Caesar's son and wife. Later known that Winter (white monkey) betrayed clan and let them know the monkeys' location for survival.
- Caesar swears to kill Colonel
- When monkeys leave to new land, Caesar says nah I need to make Colonel eat sone payback pancake, and goes to look for Colonel
- 3 other monkeys - 2 black apes (ape1 and ape2) and Maurice follows Caesar.
- 4 monkeys bump into soldier in abandoned camp and kills him. Meets little girl on her own, who is unable to speak. Maurice develops a quick liking for little girl and gives her a toy. He asks Caesar to take her in. Caesar hesitates but takes her in anyway.
- Group of 5 saw 3 men shot - all unable to speak.
- Can't remember when exactly but monkeys found and killed Winter the monkey betrayer, who told them that the Colonel was going to the north border to meet another group of soldiers
- Group of 5 meets Bad Ape who wanted to attack little girl. Bad Ape is a funny monkey who was raised in the zoo (think Alex from Madagascar). He shares with Caesar more about the soldiers' quarters and what they do to monkeys there. The group heads to soldier HQ the next morning.
- While spying on the HQ, black ape1 is killed by random soldier. Caesar is furious and decides to kill Colonel despite Maurice's suggestion to give up and return to other monkeys.
- Caesar moves closer to HQ and is caught by one of the soldiers while freeing a monkey who was tied to a stand.
- Caesar stays in a solitary cell, adults in another cell and kids in last cell.
- Caesar and the monkeys are worked as slaves. Caesar meets Colonel. Colonel tells Caesar that he killed his family not by choice but because of survival. A lot of trash talk in here, but main things we learnt are (1) the characteristic of the virus - people stop talking and slowly regress, (2) virus can be spread by belongings of infected, (3) more troops are coming to border to eliminate Colonel's troops cos they disagree with Colonel's actions of killing infected humans.
- From the conversation, we conclude that little girl is infected since she doesn't speak. Also, there will be fighting between 2 groups of humans and monkeys are not really in the equation except that they are worked as slaves for the bad humans.
- Caesar asks for food and water for the group and got it after talking to Colonel.
- Meanwhile Maurice + little girl + black ape + Bad Ape are outside the HQ thinking how to save the rest. They unintentionally found a tunnel to go in.
- The tunnel splits into 2 - one linked to adult cell and another to kids cell
- However the tunnel leading to the kids cell starts to flood, so they have to save kids on ground
- Little girl runs into HQ and sees Caesar. She gives Caesar her doll, water and food. Soon the soldiers come and to save little girl, black ape runs into the compound from outside as a distraction. He is put in the adult cell.
- Colonel checks on Caesar and found girl's toy. Asked soldiers to comb the area. Thankfully no little girls or monkeys were found.
- Caesar instructs monkeys to start escape plan.
- Black ape throws faeces at soldier holding keys to Caesar's and kids' cells. As soldier comes into cell and is going to shoot black ape, Bad Ape grabs soldier from the hole in the tunnel and gets keys. All are free.
- Monkeys get into adult cell by climbing wires above the soldiers. Monkeys then escape cell by underground tunnel.
- Unsurprisingly Caesar did not follow them as he had some unfinished business to attend to. He moves towards Colonel's room.
- Timely or what but the troops from opposing team has arrived. As both troops fight each other, Colonel is missing.
- Caesar goes to room and sees Colonel lying on the bed reaching for his alcohol. Caesar reaches for the pistol and points it to Colonel's head. He then realises that Colonel is unable to speak - he got infected by the virus!!!! Probably by touching the girl's toy muahahaha karma at work!!!!!!
- Colonel signs to Caesar to kill him. Caesar does not, he puts the pistol back on the table. Colonel takes the pistol and shoots himself. Damn if I were Caesar I'd take the pistol and run away!!
- Caesar sees bad troops on the makeshift wall shooting good troops and escaping monkeys. He also sees huge tank which could kill everyone on the makeshift wall. He takes grenades from Colonel's room and runs towards tank
- Soldier shot Caesar with a bow, but Caesar was saved when one of the betrayer monkeys shot the soldier before he could shoot Caesar
- Caesar blows the tanks up and bad troops are dead. Monkeys then run to hide yay!
- Good troops claim victory for a battle they didn't fight very hard for. Somehow massive explosion caused an avalanche and the whole troop was wiped out
- Monkeys climbed up the trees so all were saved - you mean avalanches don't knock trees down?
- Monkeys leave to newfound paradise led by Lake
- When they crossed a desert and reached the place, the arrow in Caesar finally made its effect and Caesar dies of excessive blood loss.
- Before Caesar dies, Maurice suddenly could speak in English and tells Caesar that he will tell his son Cornelius about who Caesar was and how he fought for his fellow monkeys.
- The end!!!!
My review:
What did I just watch??? Storyline was so-so, not very meaningful to me. Felt that it was a bit too violent to be rated PG13, not sure if it is appropriate for children eyes to see.
My favourite part is where the colonel got the virus, ultimate karma haha!! Really lucky that Caesar spared the girl cos she kind of fulfilled his revenge goals for him.
I wonder where all humans would eventually get wiped out since the survivor soldiers are all dead. Also wonder who will the next Alpha ape, but we will never know! Little girl will probably grow up becoming Tarzan.
Will rate this show 7/10. Thankfully there are no more sequels though I wish for a more informative ending.