Directed by Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Cloverfield ) and starring Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Longford; Star Wars: The Force Awakens; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn), Woody Harrelson (The People vs. Larry Flynt; The Messenger; The Hunger Games; Now You See Me;No Country for Old Men), Karin Konoval (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Steve Zahn (Captain Fantastic; Sahara; Dallas Buyers Club; Sunshine Cleaning).

Action adventure; 140 mins, 12+

The storyline picks of from the end of the previous film in the franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; with Kobe now dead, Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his apes want and end to conflict and live peacefully. However, their lives are shattered when their community is raided one night and Caesar loses members of his family in a case of mistaken identity - The Colonel (Woody Harrelson) and his band of renegade soldiers have defied orders and set out on their own agenda.

Caesar feels split loyalties; on the one hand he must see his apes get to safety and, on the other, he feels an obligation to avenge his family members' deaths - in so doing, he recognises he is taking on some of Kobe's traits, that he so despised and resisted at the time.

They come across the army camp of The Colonel and his army of men, who have captured apes and kept them prisoner without food or water, forcing them to work for them to build a defence wall. Along with trusty stalwart Maurice (Karin Konoval) and new and lovable character Bad Ape (Steve Zahn) whom they meet along the way, they devise a plan to free the apes and escape. They discover that The Colonel and his army are not only foes with the apes...

Despite the title of the film, there are relatively few war scenes; this is more about the characters and the personalities rather than anything else, plus great cinematography. The storyline supports them, rather than the other way round. A wonderful summer film, arguably the best of the series to date.