BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Review — collider.com

[With Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opening on Friday, July 11th, I'm taking a look back at the Planet of the Apes movie franchise. These reviews contain spoilers.] Up until Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the series had taken a decidedly dim view of humanity.  Every lens—political, religious, social, historical, and philosophical—carried a fatalistic view of our species.  Even when the commentary wasn’t completely clear, like in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the tone was unmistakable: Things are going to end horribly for our species, and there is nothing we can do.  But after bumming audiences out over the course of four movies, Battle decided to take a different approach by being the first hopeful movie in the series.  Unfortunately, the film never earns its radical new direction.  In addition to superficially building on the previous films, it also comes to odds with an obligatory pessimism that undermines the movie’s belief in a better tomorrow.

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