We are at the third entry of the prequel trilogy, and when it seems a threequel can have a miss, this series is able to top it each time. What I also didn't come to expect is how little dialogue there really is, there have been great films that can mostly tell a story visually, and War might just join the club.
This is a more ape-centered story where Caesar still has his growing league of chimps after about 15 years since the plague hit, and he's only trying to keep the peace, yet a human army still wants to wipe them out. Caesar won't stand for it, so he sets off a revenge quest with the help of orangutan Maurice, a lost girl they found, and an escaped ape who goes by "Bad Ape", who sheds a little comic relief thanks to a performance by Steve Zahn. It leads to the main human star of Woody Harrelson, a determined colonel who has his soldiers capture Caesar's horde and family into what looks like a concentration camp for apes.
Despite "War" being in the title, there really isn't much of one in it, but the story gives more than that, like probably how acts of war can effect these characters as well as standing for your kind and questioning who really runs the world. These are also by far the most detailed I've ever seen of the apes, under the motion capture are the real stars of the film, such as Andy Serkis. Take younger kids to this, they'll find it really boring, but true movie goers will see the achievement director Matt Reeves pulled off. It's not only the best Planet of the Apes, it's one of the year's best period. A