Ok, this movie is mad, and again….I’m siding mainly with the apes.

During the opening credits we learn that the world is in ruin due to the drug 113 killing off humanity. Only a number of people survive and have set up camp around the world but resources including food and power are fleeting. Caesar has set up a new home in the Red Woods with his ape allies and they have started creating families and growing as a group. This includes Caesar having a second child with his ‘wife’ who sadly becomes ill from childbirth.

Alongside this a human group have set up camp in San Fransisco and need to pass through the Red Woods to reach a dam that is their last chance of power. A group of settlers who are genetically immune to the disease set off to find the dam but run into the apes in the process. A trigger happy man shoots one of the apes and Caesar calls for them to leave. The humans obviously cannot believe the apes are able to talk. One of the men, Malcolm (who I always thought was played by Woody Harrelson but is actually not (!) and is played by Jason Clarke) goes back to the apes to see if he can negotiate a way in which he can work on the dam. He explains this to the apes and they agree to let a small team try to generate power but they have to give up all their weaponry first.

Overtime the apes and humans start to live alongside one another, with the son of Malcolm, Alexander, even helping one of the orang-utans learn to read.

But of course nothing can ever have a happy ending.

Koba is one of the apes that lives in the Red Woods and he is not happy seeing Caesar live alongside the humans. He believes Caesar is no longer working for apes and instead sympathises with the humans. Koba has been abused by humans all his life so it is understandable that he is angry. But Koba knows the humans still have guns and steals one from them….not before killing the two men shooting there first. He shoots Caesar with the gun and blames it on the humans causing an uprising and the apes storming the humans’ camp. This includes a crazy scene where the apes ride on horseback while shooting big-ass guns and even duel wielding! It’s pretty epic.

But Caesar did not die and he comes back to stop Koba. The humans are planning to blow up the tower the monkeys have settled on and this goes ahead but luckily not many apes are killed, sadly this includes Koba. But Caesar makes the right choice in dropping Koba off the debris into the abyss below and subsequently killing him.

In the end he tells the humans that they cannot live side by side and that there is a war coming but they should leave so they don’t get caught up in it. The movie ends with an amazing mirror shot of Caesar’s eyes, the same image the movie opened with.

This movie is intense and really fun to watch. I hate Koba with a passion but, of course, the movie needs its antagonist.

All the way through the other movies (before this trilogy) you think the apes killed off the humans but so far it seems that the humans killed themselves off and the monkeys just wanted to live in peace whether the humans lived with them or not.

It’s a really interesting storyline that makes you question who is right and wrong. And it definitely makes me excited for the finale in the trilogy to see what happens and how it all ends.

No matter what, I know we’ll be in for a wild ride.

Make sure you check out my review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes posted yesterday!

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding