WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (a k a PLANET OF THE APES 3). Matt Reeves, director, co-script with Matt Bomback, "based on the characters created by" Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (ultimately Pierre Boulle, novel, uncredited). James Chinlund, production design. USA: Chernin Entertainment, in association with TSG Entertainment (production) / Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (US distribution), 2017. Languages: spoken English and (significantly) American sign language. See IMDb for full distribution and other information.[1]

Third of the PLANET OF THE APES reboot, live action with much CGI, especially for ape characters,. Generically, what Richard Erlich has called "recombinant cinema," in this case highly conscious and pointedly allusive use of the themes of exodus, "Great Escape," prison film, slavery commentary, revenge quest, and post-apocalypric war movie. Significant here for the visuals, generally associating the protagonist apes with nature and simpler but more appropriate technology and the human antagonists with more sophisticated but inappropriate — overkill — military technology. One key exception (and a major plot point [so a SPOILER for some]): An elegant modern crossbow used by a human to ultimately bring about the death of the ape leader Caesar. In a Facebook comment, Larry Sherman pointed out the gourd canteen used in an important moment of sharing water, ape to human, which can be compared and contrasted with a later moment in which a sympathetic human — and the probable human lead for PLANET OF THE APES (reboot) 4 — brings water to Caesar in a metal bucket.

NOTE: The film carries a PG-13 US MPAA rating and is, like the other reboot APE films, not a movie for unattended children. It's a good film for teens,however, and parents might like to discuss aspects of it with them, including the role of a very positive young female human — we put that carefully — who communicates but does not speak, for a provocative variation on the motif of The Silent Woman.

RDE, Initial Compiler, 18, 19July17