Title: War for the Planet of the Apes | Rated: PG-13 | Runtime: 140 min | Theaters nationwide
Back at the turn of this decade, the thought of rebooting the Planet of the Apes franchise admittedly didn’t seem all that exciting. While it is one of the more well-known movie series in the sci-fi genre, Tim Burton had already tried rebooting it back at the turn of this millennia, with the resulting film being received quite poorly; perhaps audiences decided they had enough of monkey business. Six years, 2 Apes films, and over $1 billion in box office grosses later, that certainly isn’t the case. Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes are great, but what’s most impressive is the complex and emotional growth between them – call it an evolution, if you may. War of the Planet of the Apes is decidedly not a better picture than its Shakespearean predecessor, but it is an emotionally rich and epic entry that builds upon this rebooted series’ ideas, themes, and characters in an effective and thoughtful manner.