Having seen all three recent Apes movies in a row (I went and saw the Triple Feature), I’m struck with a feeling of disappointment. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is still as strong as it always has been, Dawn holds up even stronger, building upon the skeleton that Rise created. In the shadow of these two excellent science fiction films, War for the Planet of the Apes is, unfortunately, kind of a disappointment, even if on its own it tends to hold up very well. It’s like the Return of the Jedi of the series, not a bad movie per say, just a lot sillier, especially considering the ending that was promised to the audience by the previous entry in the series. War for the Planet of the Apes picks up five years after Dawn, with the Apes, led by Caesar (Andy Serkis, motion captured), being attacked by the humans and the humans getting more and more violent and desperate. This eventually leads a to disaster, that leads Caesar to a prison camp for apes up in the mountains where he will have to match wits with the ruthless Colonel, played by Woody Harrelson. An important thing going into War for the Planet of the Apes is to set your expectations correctly. While the ending of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes suggested all out war, War doesn’t really do that. It’s instead, a much more character driven piece, less about the actual events of the war and more about the ways that characters bounce off of each other. The problem with the expectation is that’s not really what Dawn set up for us. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ending juxtaposed with the plot twist of the original Planet of the Apes provided the audience with a chance to be engaged in the material by using their imagination to build on what would happen next. How would the world be nuked? What pathos could be found in the way that history would sweep up these characters and lead them to the end?...but that’s not really what War for the Planet of the Apes is going for. It instead, prods the audience with metaphors, and symbolism, suggesting but never showing. The film climaxes in a spectacular final battle, that suggests that humanity would be stupid enough to actually go ahead and blow themselves up due to their incredibly stupid militaristic pride, but it never shows us the payoff. The film instead seems based around Caesar’s own fall from the moral high ground and his return to it, which seems fitting seeing how the series often focussed more on individual emotions, but it also seems to rob the audience of the true tragedy of the story. Dawn felt like it was building to the crushing, deeply interesting end of humanity as we know it. War takes us there in some interesting ways but doesn’t really provide us with any of the emotions that we’d expect coming out of Dawn. It instead focusses on things like comic relief characters, which while great looking (seriously the CG is crazy), don’t seem to do much other than to complicate the Jesus martyrdom narrative that Caesar is going through. This all being said, the more character focused tone does allow the film to take some life through going all in on the whole perceived “they are animals” metaphor you get with the Apes, becoming a scathing and political film about the moral and political ignorance of people in our country. The level of nonacceptance on display from the humans in the film finds itself becoming comedic at times, which in one way or another could be considered tragic. War, also looks better than most blockbusters. The apes were mastered by the time they showed up in 2011, but here they look better than ever. This is a much more artistic action movie compared to the similar work in the genre and Matt Reeves action chops are flexed in beautiful ways...if only they were servicing something that didn’t seem so betraying of what we were promised. War for the Planet of the Apes is a genuinely good movie I’ll probably have to watch more than once to truly appreciate. Again, as a first reaction contextualized by the previous two films, I find that there is some disappointment to be found, but all of the parts are just about perfect, with the acting, the effects, and the writing finding themselves at the top of the blockbuster craft. War of the Planet of the Apes gets an 8 out of 10.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |