War for the Planet of the Apes

• Clocks in at 2:20 minutes, which is about 15 minutes longer than my attention span can handle nowadays.
• Very slowly paced.
• [spoiler-ish] There’s a funny ape who, even though he moves the story along, is a source of comedy in this, and his character really took me out of the movie. Had they already established lighter tones in this franchise then I wouldn’t care, but don’t give me “serious sci-fi” and then make the court jester a prominent piece.
• [spoiler-ish] TALK ABOUT A MELODRAMATIC ENDING. Ooof. That’s heading into Steven Spielberg schmaltz.
• Matt Reeves is a very good filmmaker. He’ll always have me interested in anything he does thanks to directing the first “Cloverfield” and the incredibly brilliant remake “Let Me In“.
• Movies are a visual medium, and should be treated as such. Every frame should be composed in such a way that you could tell what is going on within the movie, what emotions the characters are going through, etc., WITHOUT actually being told. This is one of those movies. You could leave the sound off and still understand what is happening in a powerful way (plus, you could avoid the funny ape’s dialog like this [swish!]).
• I haven’t heard a score this memorable in years, although it seems like Michael Giacchino does practically every score nowadays. I’ve never heard him compose better music.
• I’m not one that ever really gets “wowed” by special effects but HOLY WOW THOSE APES LOOK REAL.
• My Daughter really enjoys this franchise, especially the ape named Maurice. She likes to mimic his sign language:
  
• Final Letter Grade: B.
• Jose Zuazua is editor-in-chief of Quick Lunch Break Reviews. He has an associates degree in film production. He’s on Twitter and Instagram.