Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 07-15-2017, 03:57 PM:

CINEMA: Regal Warren East, Wichita, KS
AUDITORIUM: 14
PRESENTATION: Warren GRAND Mystery Meat Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Stupid kid two seats to my left who left his cell phone on and kept getting calls, stupid people four seats to my right who used their cell phone flash as a flashlight during the feature to find something they dropped
RATING: Three stars (out of four)

Regal's cups and crappy ass popcorn bags have arrived at the snack bar, as have Coke products. They haven't jacked up the prices yet, which is sure to happen as ol' Buck's getting about 50% more for popcorn and soda up in St Joe. Regal's roller coaster trailer has also arrived. Hilariously, the new one ends with a screen curtain opening, something you'll only see at the Warren buildings. For now, anyway. The Warren trailers are all now retired.

THE PLOT: Um, irrational revenge? Wackiness ensues

I won't really go into the plot (hint...there's a war, sort of) but will say there's a lot going on that is methodically unveiled in an unusually cohesive fashion. Aside from a completely unnecessary Jar Jar Binks comedy relief character, this is a pretty intelligent and often touching movie.

It isn't as good as "Dawn" was, and I heard one guy leaving say it was a bit slow to his liking, but it still may be the movie of the summer for me.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-16-2017, 12:08 AM:

Hmm, stupid kid leaving his phone turned on to take calls during the movie and other stupid people using their mobile phone flash light during the show. Why weren't they thrown out of the theater for violating Warren Theatres' no cell phone use policy?

Oh, I'm sorry, it's a Regal location now. Compulsive mobile phone users are now free to fuck up the show with their devices.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 07-16-2017, 08:11 PM:

I saw War for the Planet of the Apes in the Cine Capri auditorium at Harkins Northfield this morning. Presentation was good... but the image just isn't as sharp as it should be. I shouldn't see jagged edges on diagonal text. I miss film. Atmos mix was engaging and surrounding.

The movie is beautiful, compelling, clever, fun, exciting, harrowing, insightful, and all-around awesome.

My biggest gripe is with the marketing.

It shouldn't have been "War." It was much more personal and there really wasn't much of a war going on. "Battle" might have worked better, or even "Conquest," or they could have simply called this one "Planet of the Apes."

The giant cardboard standees that have been in every single cinema for months are just as misleading, with the army of apes approaching the army of humans (and donkeys). Nothing remotely like that ever happened.

I was expecting something bigger and darker. I want to see it again now that I know what to expect.

I've read a few complaints about Bad Ape, even comparisons to Jar-Jar, but I loved him.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 07-16-2017, 09:42 PM:

quote: Sam Graham
They haven't jacked up the prices yet, which is sure to happen as ol' Buck's getting about 50% more for popcorn and soda up in St Joe.

Whewboy let me tell ya, back when we were Hollywood, price increases were an event. Now, they go up at least quarterly. Large popcorn- $9.23. In St. Joseph. Get real. Cinemark on the Plaza in KC is a better theater by leaps and bounds and is half the price.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-16-2017, 11:19 PM:

What's with $9.23? Do they just say "let's raise the price by 2.5% and go with whatever the calculator comes up with?"

I'll bet they use some sort of software to adjust prices chainwide and nobody has turned on the "rounding" feature (or it doesn't have such a feature).

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 07-17-2017, 01:52 AM:

One of the better big franchise tent poles this summer, if not the best until now. Unfortunately, not everybody seems to be on-board with the new Apes franchise.

The biggest gripe might be, that it might just be a little too dark and pretty slow at some times.

Also, besides some minor references, like the Alpha and Omega, I did miss the connection to the original film series and the original novel.

quote: Mike Blakesley
I'll bet they use some sort of software to adjust prices chainwide and nobody has turned on the "rounding" feature (or it doesn't have such a feature).

Those kind of practices increasingly seem to become the norm. For on-line shopping it makes sense, but maybe they're pushing to become a cashless operation. Either that, or they recently discovered a room in their basement full of odd change.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 07-18-2017, 05:17 PM:

My theory is that odd change prices on tickets and concessions enables more frequent price increases without the customer "noticing".

It is THE WORST though. It holds up all the lines when we're already consistently understaffed, and of course adds a good half hour of work end-of-night proceedings.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 08-02-2017, 05:16 PM:

I thought this was an excellent concluding story to the trilogy. The cinematography and Michael Giacchino's soundtrack really were the high points to me.