War for the Planet of the Apes

Movie Review #802 WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES.

Like Pirates & Transformers, another movie franchise that seems to pop out a new iteration every few years or so. This is #4 in the Apes series and IMHO is by far the best to date.

By #3 I'm usually seeing ho-hum and sleepiness but on this occasion pleasantly surprised as our simian hero Caesar encounters The Colonel, one Woody Harrelson.

Now Woody-boy has made a habit of picking up sinister evil dude roles in recent times, something he does very well and this is no exception. And while this evil dude is not much different to his other evil dudes, it does slot nicely into this plot of hidden agendas, family tragedy, cute kids, betrayals and the occasional loopy monkey.

King of CGI Andy Serkis is again Caesar with Steve Zahn popping up as Bad Ape, the aforementioned loopy who is more reminiscent of Serkis' Gollum than anything else.

Stands on its own nicely without having to have seen the predecessors, although it would help and each new franchise episode seems to bring further advances in CGI  and this one is no exception.

Only a slightly corny finale holds this back from being a great sci-fi movie, rather sits in the pretty good category.

If you enjoyed the others you will enjoy this. 8/10.