Battle for the Planet of the Apes Review: Mediocre movie, but a good conclusion

The original Planet of the Apes series had an incredibly intriguing run! The first film? It's an utter masterpiece. The second? It was a misguided rehash that was too weird for my liking. The third? It's nearly as good as the original, even though it is a very different experience. The fourth? It is a very interesting introspective, but its limited budget holds it back. And this one? A whole new beast entirely! This movie felt more in the vein of the first two movies instead of its direct predecessors, going back to a more rural setting dominated by apes, which was yet again a shocking change of pace from the previous movie, as always for this series. Now, without further ado, I, Brighton Nelson of The Reel Ranker, will be tackling the good, the bad, and the ugly of Battle for the Planet of the Apes in today's review.

This film takes place many years after the fourth movie following humanity's nuclear fallout, bringing us to the moment the Planet of the Apes originates decades before the original film. The movie begins by showing the origin of ape society, but unlike the original timeline, Caesar attempts to unite all apes and humans under one banner. This is easily the most intriguing part of the movie: seeing Caesar try to usher humankind and apekind into a new era. When the movie is a film about coexistence, it justifies its existence as a feature-length film.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is an underwhelming conclusion that sidelines its most interesting idea—Caesar's vision of coexistence—for a civil war that, despite understandable budget limitations, feels small and narratively unnecessary.

Unfortunately, the promise of this beautiful plot is sidelined for a battle against the ancestors of the weird mutants from the second movie, which eventually evolves into a civil war between Caesar's pro-human followers and Aldo's anti-human followers. While I can envision a movie where this ape civil war would be awesome, the low budget makes the war feel small and unnecessary to the plot. Most of the best parts of this movie honestly could've been a short epilogue to the previous film, and practically nothing would change. This movie is a solid conclusion to the saga, but the movie itself doesn't justify a feature-length film. Even an implication that they could coexist in Conquest would honestly do, in my opinion.

The Reel Ranker Verdict

Reel or Unreel? - Unreel
The Reel Ranker Score: 44%
Letter Score: E+
Star Ranking: 2 out of 5

This is one of the weirdest sequels I have ever watched, as I have almost no strong emotions regarding it. I don't hate it or love it, as I'm glad it exists to finish the saga, but I can't say I lean positive on a movie that finishes the saga in a lowest-common-denominator kind of way. I only recommend this because, well, it'd be rather silly to not finish off the series, wouldn't it?

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