This film has been slated as having a weak storyline, but I disagree. Simple is not weak. The title of the film – ‘War’ – should give the game away. At the heart of a war the story is simple, one side wants to destroy the other; that’s all this film was doing.
It didn’t start out this way, as many wars don’t. Caesar was set on moving the apes to a place out of reach of the humans that hated and hunted them.The trouble was, said humans, just wouldn’t leave them alone. As is the way with the human race, if it doesn’t like something, it must remove it from the face of the earth.
The main target was Caesar himself, but the Colonel messed up and killed his wife and eldest son instead. An act of all out war.
Blinded by his need to avenge the death of his family, Caesar set out to destroy the Colonel and left his troop to find their new home without his protection. Needless to say, they were captured and held within the Colonel’s compound, forced to work without food to build a wall for him.
Caesar’s task, therefore, was complicated by his need to free his troop, which included his youngest son.
The film deals with hatred, loyalty, love, trust and freedom. It is an amazing piece of film-making and I am humbled by the acting as well as the effects.
The film will pull at your heart-strings as well as test your own strength of will. Would you kill for those you love, if they were taken from you? Think about it.
This world was thoroughly believable and the story within it, one that is all too familiar in this real world.
Personally, I found this film thoroughly engaging; my only criticism being that it was a bit too long.