War for the Planet of the Apes

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

I’ll start this one off by saying that this Planet of the Apes trilogy is one of my favorite trilogies of all time. It’s not often that a trilogy contains three fantastic films. Lord of the Rings, the original Star Wars trilogy, and Toy Story are three that come to mind. The fact these Apes films are even in the same conversation means a great deal to me. I prefer to review a film either when it’s fresh in my mind after a first viewing, or after a second viewing. I feel that I notice things the second time around, and it’s difficult to rank a film that’s part of a series after just one viewing. War for the Planet of the Apes, as of now, ranks 2^nd to its predecessor Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This isn’t a negative towards War, as I really loved Dawn and have seen it multiple times since its release 3 years ago. But I’m not going to extensively compare the two films, I’m just grounding my opinion for those of you that are also fans of this beautiful series.

There are plenty more pros than cons with this film, but let’s get into the negatives first. My biggest complaint deals with pacing and the passage of time after the halfway mark of the film. After Caesar and his ape companions find the little girl in the cabin that can’t speak, they make their way to the military base where Woody Harrelson’s antagonist is believed to be. From one scene to another, there’s a ton of snow and the girl (Nova) knows some basic sign language. But there was no clear indication of how long they had been traveling for. There were also a few select scenes that I felt dragged, without contributing significantly to the overall narrative. The two I can clearly remember are when Maurice figures out that the girl can’t speak and the scene where Bad Ape is clumsily looking for food. They went on long enough for me to think, “ok, let’s keep it moving”. The run time of this film was 2 hours and 20 minutes, and that alone wasn’t a problem, but I do feel that it could have been trimmed a good 15 minutes in the 3^rd act and been perfect. With that out of the way, let’s move on to the positives.

For starters, the screenplay was extremely tight. There was a good forward progression that carried momentum from the first two films. There was a refresher at the start of the movie that consisted of text going back to the Simian Flu outbreak through the ending of the last film which indicated to an all-out war between apes and humans. The film kicks off with a very loud and explosive action set-piece that shifts from a human ambush of the apes, to a human massacre by the apes. Four soldiers and a traitorous gorilla survive, and through an act of mercy, Caesar sends the four humans back alive to their base. As we’ve seen in the past, Caesars kindness and ability to forgive has been his biggest strength while simultaneously being his greatest weakness. In retrospect, if he would have just killed the soldiers, the tragedies that followed throughout the film could have been avoided.

(SPOILER PARAGRAPH AHEAD)

Speaking of tragedy, if you’re looking for a pick-me-up or a feel-good movie, you’ve chosen the wrong film. War for the Planet of the Apes is grim and full of suffering, pain, and blind rage. There’s hope, love, and forgiveness sprinkled in and while for the most part it prevails, it doesn’t lift the brooding shadow that the film casts. Woody Harrelson’s character, the Colonel, catapults the story into motion when he murders Caesar’s wife and son, thinking it was Caesar. His escape combined with this ruthless act pushes Caesar to a dark and unstable place that we’ve never seen before. Even in his dealing with Koba in Dawn, Caesar was never pushed to this emotional extreme. I was also fond of the nightmare sequences that Caesar had involving Koba. Demons from his past were coming to haunt him, which just added another layer of characterization and relatability to this already amazing character.

(SPOILER PARAGRAPH AHEAD)

Another character that deserves recognition in this film is the Colonel. Director Matt Reeves sure nailed it with this casting, because Woody Harrelson inhibits the role of this ruthless colonel devoid of his humanity. He was so easy to hate, and not only because he was in direct conflict with our protagonist, but because he was such a despicable person who humiliated, tortured, and killed both apes and humans. But then you get his back story, his motivations, the fact that he shot and killed his son in order to save the rest of humanity. This new-found disease that impairs human’s speech and deteriorates brain function (supposedly), also afflicted the little girl who travels with the apes, who they subsequently name Nova. If it wasn’t poetic justice at its finest, the thing that the Colonel feared the most was inflicted upon him, accidently. The audience discovers he’s contracted the disease at the climax battle of the film and Caesar is face to face with the man responsible for the death of his family. In an extremely suspenseful and dramatic moment, Caesar finally decides to take the high road and not shoot the Colonel, which forces him to pull the trigger and kill himself. The scene was fantastically structured and you felt the pain in both characters, and how they each got to the moment in time. I never stopped hating the Colonel, but I understood how his demented views originated, and I think that’s what makes for a great villain.

I really enjoyed how much of this movie was Caesar-oriented. In the past two films, there were always multiple prominent human characters that split screen-time with Caesar. With this film, the main human characters consisted of the Colonel and Nova and both those characters were usually in the same scenes as Caesar or other apes. From that start, this has been a story about Caesar. At the core, he is what this trilogy is about. The rise of the apes that started with him, the dawn of the apes that he led, and the war that he was forced to fight. Granted, in this film, Caesar made decisions that were not in the best interest of the apes. But his decisions weren’t irrational and just like his other characteristics that are flawed, it’s natural that he would make mistakes along the way. The choice to go after the Colonel and leave the apes behind ended with him being captured, but the rest of the apes were captured too due to chance and unforeseen consequences. A film is always made better by having an imperfect protagonist, because who wants to see someone never struggle or fail on their way to greatness?

Thanks to the amazing motion capture technology we have combined with top notch CGI, the apes in the film look so real, or maybe they just portray human emotion so well, that it’s hard to grasp that you’re watching apes. This may be the reason I feel bad when I see the apes get shot and killed, because a part of me still sees them as animals. Andy Serkis, the man behind the regal Caesar, is the king of motion capture at the moment and I truly believe that these performances deserve academy award recognition. Caesar and Maurice are my two favorite apes and the main reason behind my love for them is how convincing they are. Their intentions, reactions, and emotions are expressed so convincingly through this technology, something that I don’t believe would have been possible ten years ago. It’s not like this isn’t acting, because it very much is, with the mastering of ape mannerisms and movements thrown on top.

I can’t cover every minutia of this film after one viewing, but this review wouldn’t be complete with mentioning Bad Ape. He was the most concentrated source of comic relief for this film and his character was perfectly executed. He was the dumbest, smartest Ape we’ve come across in this series, but his heart was always in the right place. He could talk just as well as Caesar which is very rare, but he didn’t understand sign language like the rest of Caesar’s apes. He was invaluable in getting Caesar to the military camp and in orchestrating their escape. The comedy when he was on screen was mostly laugh aloud funny and well timed, which was a nice contrast to the dark screenplay.

So, if you’re reading this you’ve probably seen the movie or don’t care about spoiler, which is totally ok! If you haven’t seen this movie, I 100% recommend it. If you’re a fan of the first two, you’re going to love this one. It may be a little slow at parts, but it is at no point less than great writing and filmmaking. I’m very satisfied with this being the last chapter in a gripping series, with a fantastic protagonist that we could all get behind. The ending will leave you with a mix of emotions, but if your experience is similar to mine, you will leave happy you spent the time to watch it. Bravo to Matt Reeves and Andy Serkis for creating a trilogy that has made it high on my list of best trilogies. A chilling close to the story of Caesar. I give War for the Planet of the Apes an 8.5 out of 10.