Ray Henshaw

I quite liked the film. The CGI effects are next level and the story prepares us for the original Charlton Heston movie with some knowing nods to the first movie- bad gorillas on horseback hunting de-evolved mute humans with nets for example. There is also a reworking of the beach scene in the original where the humans mounted on horses and the apes on foot stumble upon the ruined Statue of Liberty- only in this case, the apes are on horses and the humans are captured & they arrive at the ship’s graveyard that is the backbone of the Kingdom of Maximus, the self proclaimed heir to Caesar, the hero of the first 3 films who wanted apes & humans to co-exist. Maximus, however, has a very different agenda & like King Louis in The Jungle Book wants access to “mans’ red fire”. Not as good as the three preceding films in the franchise but watchable.