The trilogy that began with Rise of the Planet of the Apes has been so good that we'd be forgiven for thinking it was an entirely new standalone effort and not a prequel to the 1968 Planet of the Apes. But then in the explosive new trailer for War for the Planet of the Apes you see that much of the plot surrounds a strange human girl who will eventually become Nova from the original classic. A teaser released yesterday also opened with the words of star Charlton Heston, serving as yet another reminder that these movies have a wider purpose.
But even if you don't care about all of that, these movies have always delivered more than their fair share of action, and appropriately this one has more than the rest of them. A full-scale war has erupted between the humans, led by Woody Harrelson's Colonel, and the mighty Caesar (Andy Serkis underneath all that CGI fur), who just wants his race to survive. Then again, that's the same rationale the humans have, isn't it? Can't we all just get along? And what's with the apes who have jumped ship to join the humans? The parallels to WWII don't just end there, either.
Directed once again by Matt Reeves, War for the Planet of the Apes opens July 14th, and personally I think it will be the highest grossing film of the summer. Let's see what happens.
