MovieChat Forums > War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) Discussion > dumb shit in the script...

dumb shit in the script...

posted 8 years ago by HAL 9010 (907)
20 replies | jump to latest

Wauuu I am disappointed in Matt Reeves. And this dude got the helm of The Batman. Yikess....

List of dumb things that should have been reconsidered in the script:

[SPOILERS]
[PLEASE ADD IF YOU HAVE MORE]

* Guard locks himself (with keys to their shackles) in an enclosure of angry apes to do something he easily could do from outside the enclosure in safety

* The Colonel goes himself to the Apes lair in his second attack on them, because???

* The Men goes back and captures all the apes in their third attack, to build a wall against helicopters…. and from an army which is likely just a couple of days away. Sure Woody, that is worth the trouble and risk indeed. Not.

* The Men who just got their asses kicked by the Apes goes back to the Apes lair, while really their attention is on a coming army of attacking men, and yet they deem it is necessary to attack and capture apes for construction work.

* Girl's dad (or protector or liberator) is killed and cares less about it. And a day later she cries her eyes out over the death of an ape who gave her one flower that morning... and who also helped kill her dad the day before btw.

* 100% of the winning army storms the exploding fortress of The Colonel (did we learn nothing from Batman Rises??)

* 100% of the wining and well equipped army got wiped out in an avalanche… yep, this happened. No, really.

* Caesar travels with his people across a great distance to never attend his wound from the arrow and dies because of it

* No ape sees that Caesar is bloody and fatally wounded in their travels. Guessing he is no hugger

* The virus takes humans ability to speak away…. Yes, fair enough. But come on, it should make them gradually dumber or similar. The speech effect which apparently happened within the blink of an eye (not gradually), is..... show us to de-evolutionize in a more credible way, just saying.

* Soldier man who was spared by the hero and who the movie shows us is conflicted through the whole story is given the perfect moment to show mercy, and is then blown away by a redeeming Ape who was a dick the whole time.

* The Ape who was a dick the whole time is having a change of heart while he stands next to a giant machine gun, and who notices a leaking gas tank that can end the bad men in one blow…. And then decides to stop one solider in his track with one grenade (next rewrite of the script should have him overpower the machine gun and go nuts until taken out…)

* Was NOT about a War for the planet of the Apes. Was about cheap construction work, while someone else is fighting a over some evil lair. In fact this conflict seemed to have very little to do with Apes at all.

* The plot was a revenge story that puts our hero in the middle of a a conflict situation, he has little to no biff in and from which he escapes in the end.... this is the story. The conclusion to the Trilogi. Nothing wrong with that, but hardly epic. The apes part in this chapter was reduced to bystanders.

CONCLUSION: Matt Reeves, whoever you are or whatever you are… a skilled story teller you are not.

[–] TylerAArse (2938) 7 years ago

Bunch of party-poopers. It was a good movie.
However, you're right about it.

I too had issues with:

--Building a wall against a army that had helicopters? Maybe he didn't know?

--Caesar traveling so far and no one knowing how close to death he was?

--The Colonel going dumb almost overnight?

--Dumb guard goes into a cage with dozens of apes by himself? It's not like they like you or anything, and you can't kill 'em all.

--The spared solider who I KNEW was gonna come through cause of the continuous look of disgust on his face being a jerk in the end?

--Nova is able to walk into the base unnoticed?

Total lack of smart writing. And these are thing that could've easily been corrected.....by a smart writer.

[–] HAL 9010 (907) 7 years ago

"Total lack of smart writing. And these are thing that could've easily been corrected.....by a smart writer."

Amen brother. Often dumb shit in movies could be so easily fixed, it annoys me even more...they should have a scrutinizer on staff to go through the final scripts, and cut for every movie they make....so much half-baked stuff would be avoided, and it would benefit everyone... except us the party-poopers.

[–] xfool (967) 7 years ago

The Colonel going dumb almost overnight?

He got infected after taking the doll, its not known how fast the virus spreads so thats still fine I guess.

[–] HAL 9010 (907) 7 years ago

The attack was the following day to him finding the doll, as I remember it was told to us.

But still my problem is more that it is depicted as though the effect was like an absolute switch. I think a better way to tell the story is to have us gradually see him deteriorate or similar. Instead they had him change from one scene to the next.

[–] HedleyLamarr (404) 7 years ago

While some points of yours are valid, I have to wonder if you took a pad and pen with you into the theater.

[–] HAL 9010 (907) 7 years ago

Nope. In fact my first feel was pretty good when I left the cinema. The effects and acting were terrific etc... but as it rumbled in my head for a few days, I realized that I felt cheated.... and after a few conversations on Moviechat etc... I made my OP.

I am not dissing the movie totally. And I surely twist my "issues" above in the worst way to prove my point.... but fundamentally the movie did just not deliver what I had hoped and what I expected after seeing the trailers and the main poster for example. That poster and indeed the movie title just screams epic conflict and war between man and beast…. Two forces attack one another, may the best Ape win… the poster is sadly lying. Or rather; if it would delete the apes on the Poster it is sort of true. Seriously. We have that exact scene in the movie but with no Apes.. that is cheating...

The Apes never retaliate the humans. The humans have but one attack o them, and then a sneak attack to kill his son, because?? The Apes never attack back. In fact, the Apes then leaves the area (or try to). Even when they escape their shackles in the end, they simply just try to leave unnoticed amid that other conflict happening between man and man... It takes two to tango. Was it war? Conflict ? Sort of, but War?

One should go with an open mind and try not to get too much of the pre-marketing beforehand. In this case, It think it largely harmed my experience. Not only because of the title and dishonest marketing, but also in respect to the fact that this was the conclusion of the trilogy before the original (at least to me it was). I was hoping to see a much stronger connection to the original one for example, I was hoping to see the epic fall of man etc etc... the story in truth has a more tv-movie feel to it... quite simple, afternoon story.. anyway, we all measure what we see to what we expect. And I was dishearten, and this lead me to realize that the movie on top of this could have benefited from a great deal of scrutiny to the script before first day of shooting...

[–] ChuckFindlay (392) 7 years ago

I just finished watching this for the first time tonight, and all I have to say about your comments is that they utterly and completely on the money. What an utter pile of shit this was. That avalche scene.......there are no words to discribe the dumbfuckary of that scene. It’s like he got bored of writing and just wanted to go do something else.

Just shockingly bad.