Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Impressions before seeing it
Part 3 was a slight low point and part 4 was an improvement, so I figured this one could go either way.

How was it?
I was hoping for an epic, climactic battle, but I ended up being bored for most of it, and for a series conclusion, the big battle was on a small scale and really not very exciting. Let me back up by saying the plot feels stretched and drawn out. You could probably explain everything that happens in about three sentences. Some of the series mythology was filled in and explained, and that was good, but Battle's ultimate purpose and relevance to the Apes saga was unclear because their explanation of it was in the form of a rhetorical question at the end of the movie. They try to bookend it with the Lawgiver ape hundreds of years in the future telling the story we're seeing, but that future doesn't really solidify any outcome one way or the other, rendering the entire battle moot. The battle doesn't have a winner, because the movie is about whether apes and humans can get along, and instead of trying to answer that question, it just goes, "Can they?" I suppose you can pretend that it's trying to throw the question at the viewer to get them thinking about apartheid and equality, but I personally was not satisfied. I'm perfectly fine with ambiguous endings if they are appropriate, but this one was ambiguous in a bad way. Even the titular battle cannot really be described as a "battle for the planet", because that makes it sound like the entire planet is at war when in reality it's only a couple hundred (if that) humans and apes in one location. Yawn.

Recommendation
To recap: Movies 1 and 2 are really cool, 3 is kooky but watchable, 4 is dark but has some cool moments, and this one (5) is just plain underwhelming. I would recommend the first four without hesitation, but the last one need only be seen by completionists.