Ecno wrote:War of the Planet of the Apes 7/10- I quite liked the first third/half about up until they find the base but I thought the final 2/3rds/half was too much generic summer blockbuster which I didn't find too interesting.
I loved the first third, thought the middle third dragged a bit, and liked the last third. The ending was great, and it really annoyed me to hear they're already planning a 4th.
Oh, and, um, this:
https://feministfrequency.com/2017/07/1 ... -the-apes/Anyone who saw me go off in The Last Night thread should know my feelings about feminism (ie if you're not a feminist you're a dick) but the review above from Anita Saarkesian...strawberry float. All I can see from it is that she went in to the film actively looking for something to hate: she calls out the lack of women (fair point, to be honest) but then calls the film racist and rails against how unsubtle its putdown of Gung Ho America it is. Urgh. Total trash.
What would be truly radical and wonderful would be to someday see a blockbuster that asserts that understanding, compassion, and cooperation can overcome, and that we can happily share the world with those who are different from us, though not so different as we may have once thought.
She ends with the above. Prior to this she criticises the film for it's violent ending, despite earlier in the article recognising that the film's message is "violence begets violence." Then she writes the ending quoted, ignoring that the whole strawberry floating point of the whole strawberry floating trilogy (
and the way this film strawberry floating ends!) is "Apes together strong" and that it's the inherent humanity and compassion of the apes that leads them to dominance, not their enhanced intelligence or the human targeting virus. There's also the whole subplot with the mute child who, despite not being an ape, is taken in by Maurice and Caesar as they are inherently compassionate and seek to, yes, "happily share the world with those who are different from us, though not so different as we may have once thought."
I'm all for her commentary on gender, but a film reviewer she is not.