Nothing Rhymes With Caitlin: At the Movies: 3 Lessons from "Apes"

Alright, I'm totally not going to lie - I originally, when I saw the trailer for the first time, thought "there is no way I'm seeing that! Monkeys..really?!" And I've thought that every single time they've created a new reboot of the Ape movies.

BUT GUYS - I was wrong.

"War for the Planet of the Apes" was fantastic. It was action packed, endearing, heartfelt, crazy, and just about exactly what you want to see in a movie. I was pleasantly surprised..in the best way.

(AS PER USUAL..SPOILERS AHEAD)

Sitting in the theater though, I had a few thoughts. I'm sure I'm the only one who listens to dialogue and goes "oh man..that's good..I need to apply that in my own life." Yup, I'm well aware it's a movie. It's not real. BUT - I've always felt, fairly strongly, that the Lord comes to me through my favorite things. He's met me on runs, he plays my favorite songs on the radio when I'm sad, and I've felt him through actors portraying all kinds of things. That may just be me - but here's a few things I gathered from "War" that I think you need to hear too.

1. So there's this darling little monkey that the main characters (main apes?) come across hiding in the middle of nowhere. He came, not from the virus (y'all, there's a lot of backstory that I'm not even going to touch..), but from a zoo. You figure out that while he was at the zoo, his trainer (or keeper) called him a "bad ape". He introduced himself as "Bad Ape". It got me thinking about how, in my own life, and in others, we're told something. Most of the time it's bad..but it doesn't really have a hold on you until you start believing it. Until you start introducing yourself as it. My friend has a quote on a sticky note in her car that says something along the lines of "things don't have significance until you give them significance". You can (and probably will) be told many things in your life, but they don't get a hold of you unless you let them. (Don't let them..)

This is "Bad Ape". He wears a puffer vest and beanie most of the movie.

And he was hilarious. Best part of the movie.

2. Woody Harrelson (who is a treasure and a treat to watch, always) plays the bad guy (which he and his biceps do so well..seriously, you should see his biceps in this one!) Come to find out, the virus that originally killed all the humans is dormant in the rest that are still alive, and once activated, brings you back to a more primitive state. Anything that separates us from the beasts (mainly the power of speech) is taken away. I kept thinking that sometimes, if we live in darkness too long (be the bad guy), the thing we're afraid of (and they're always afraid of something) usually overtakes us in the end. There's always consequences to actions. You can't run from things. You're responsible. And there's always light to overcome the dark. Always.

OH HAY Woody's biceps..

3. And lastly - there's something the Apes all do (that felt a little like the three fingers that the Districts held up in "Hunger Games" - saying they believed in you..) The apes said: "Apes together are strong" with a little hand signal. Not only did I think about how I'm always trying to solo EVERYTHING (I'm working on it), but as a country, right now, we're trying to figure out ways to push each other away. We're picking sides instead of choosing each other. The only way that we're going to make a difference in our daily lives is to stick together. That's the only way we'll be strong. We always think we can do it by ourselves, but, until we figure out "together", we'll never be as strong as we could be.