Review- War for the Planet of the Apes
This franchise holds a special place in my heart. The first is a sci-fi classic with one of the greatest twists ever (it made my list on it), the middle ones have a lovable daftness to them and then the most recent trilogy are legitimately great action movies and a fantastic trilogy all around. Plus, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was the first film I ever reviewed on this blog. With that stuff out the way, let's get to the film where monkeys shoot humans but the monkey is played by a short British man in spandex
It'll sound weird talking about an ape movie like this but War for the Planet of the Apes is truly epic and I mean that in the modern sense and the literary sense. The story is one that is simultaneously massive scale but also oddly personal for Caesar. This is the end of his trilogy and so even if the franchise carries on after this, his story will have a footnote for now. War takes place a few years after the last film and the apes are planning to move to a new, safer location where they can properly start a colony. That all gets interrupted by a nearby faction of humans led by The Colonel who are set on wiping out the apes. There's a couple of twists in there that I've deliberately steered away from but it's largely straightforward. I am going to be honest though, despite the title, this film is not full of battle scenes. It's much more akin to Apocalypse Now (more on that later) in that it uses war as a lens through which to examine the problems that are buried in society. That's not to say that there's no battles, it's just a film that's more about emotions, to the point where I often found myself getting emotional at various places. The plot isn't elaborate but it is exactly what it needs to be.
In terms of performances, I haven't got many people to talk about although I have got lots to praise about them. First off, I will praise everyone who did motion capture for the apes because they are effortlessly convincing. I don't know the names of the actors but especially excellent work was done by the actors behind Maurice (as ever) and new character Bad Ape. Anyway, there are two actors I want to congratulate by name. The first is franchise newcomer Woody Harrelson who plays The Colonel. I think mainly of Harrelson as a comedy actor (Seven Psychopaths has long been a favourite of mine and he proved himself again in last years Edge of Seventeen) but he is on incredible dramatic form here. His acting is mainly physical (appropriate given his co-stars) and he is powerful on screen. Harrelson channels Brando and Duvall from Apocalypse Now, being a figure who is at once feared and fearful. It is an absolute treat to watch although even that is overshadowed by Andy Serkis. Yesterday I mentioned that Serkis' performance in Rise was good yet would get better. This is where it gets better. He is absolutely incredible, from his dialogue to his movements and even his minor facial expresions. Lord of the Rings fans, I'm sorry, this is the performance that defines Serkis' career.
I know I said earlier that this isn't an action film but that doesn't mean there isn't action. In fact, there is action and it is incredibly entertaining. The film opens on an attack on an ape stronghold and the sequence is stunning. Oddly, we're largely sided with the humans from this scene but it's only as a means to display the utterly terrifying power that the apes have gained since the last film. For many, this scene has proved to be the standout set piece but I preferred the set piece nearer the end, based around the base of the humans. Glimpses of it has appeared in the trailer but when all seen together on screen, it's a scene that is as poetic as it is astoundingly massive. None of this would work without the incredible visuals effects work of course and while they do a good job polishing the action, it is obviously the rendering of the apes that they deserve recognition for. Caesar was nearly photo realistic in the last film and while there isn't quite a graphical leap here as large as the one between Rise and Dawn, there is still definitely improvement, to the point where I wasn't even thinking about how good the effects were. These characters were simply fully fleshed out, in every sense of the word.
I want to talk about this film for another paragraph though because there's something here I really want to talk about, that's also come up in many of my other recent (non-Planet of the Apes) reviews and that thing is cine-literacy. What that essentially means is awareness of other films that exist in a similar tone or concept and often referencing them, implicitly or explicitly. Spider-Man did this, Baby Driver was absolutely full of this and War is no different. Obviously, as part of a franchise that's almost fifty years old now, it owes a debt to the films from before and it acknowledges that. I've described many of them as cheesy and schlocky but this film holds them in much higher regard. Characters are given names of characters from before (Nova and Cornelius being the obvious examples here), themes like all out war are borrowed from Battle with the more personal element of a rebellion clearly being from Conquest and the humans of this film share a faction name with a nuclear bomb from Beneath, not an accident considering their destructive power. More than that, there's tonal references to some of the all time great war films. The aggressively anti-war elements that the film slowly adopts are similar to that of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and a similar tone, with an approach on the darkness of the individual from Apocalypse Now (not to mention Ape-ocalypse Now being scrawled across the landscape as it was in Coppola's film). It's not just cine-literate though as there also seems to be some subtle historical references. Without getting too in depth with it, the origins of the name Caesar are no secret but the references to his legacy seem to echo Julius Caesar's relationship with Octavian, his successor. References don't necessarily make a film smart but when they're as well chosen as they are here, it certainly helps.
I'm not sure if you worked it out but I love this film. It's smart, it's exciting and it's the Planet of the Apes film that we need right now, as little as that phrase means. Having since gone through all of the Planet of the Apes films, I have a daring statement: this may be the best Planet of the Apes film ever made. I feel like there's a chance this film can go up in my estimations even further (only a second rewatch can tell for sure) but for now I feel comfortable saying this is an excellent film and definitely deserves a
It'll sound weird talking about an ape movie like this but War for the Planet of the Apes is truly epic and I mean that in the modern sense and the literary sense. The story is one that is simultaneously massive scale but also oddly personal for Caesar. This is the end of his trilogy and so even if the franchise carries on after this, his story will have a footnote for now. War takes place a few years after the last film and the apes are planning to move to a new, safer location where they can properly start a colony. That all gets interrupted by a nearby faction of humans led by The Colonel who are set on wiping out the apes. There's a couple of twists in there that I've deliberately steered away from but it's largely straightforward. I am going to be honest though, despite the title, this film is not full of battle scenes. It's much more akin to Apocalypse Now (more on that later) in that it uses war as a lens through which to examine the problems that are buried in society. That's not to say that there's no battles, it's just a film that's more about emotions, to the point where I often found myself getting emotional at various places. The plot isn't elaborate but it is exactly what it needs to be.
In terms of performances, I haven't got many people to talk about although I have got lots to praise about them. First off, I will praise everyone who did motion capture for the apes because they are effortlessly convincing. I don't know the names of the actors but especially excellent work was done by the actors behind Maurice (as ever) and new character Bad Ape. Anyway, there are two actors I want to congratulate by name. The first is franchise newcomer Woody Harrelson who plays The Colonel. I think mainly of Harrelson as a comedy actor (Seven Psychopaths has long been a favourite of mine and he proved himself again in last years Edge of Seventeen) but he is on incredible dramatic form here. His acting is mainly physical (appropriate given his co-stars) and he is powerful on screen. Harrelson channels Brando and Duvall from Apocalypse Now, being a figure who is at once feared and fearful. It is an absolute treat to watch although even that is overshadowed by Andy Serkis. Yesterday I mentioned that Serkis' performance in Rise was good yet would get better. This is where it gets better. He is absolutely incredible, from his dialogue to his movements and even his minor facial expresions. Lord of the Rings fans, I'm sorry, this is the performance that defines Serkis' career.
I know I said earlier that this isn't an action film but that doesn't mean there isn't action. In fact, there is action and it is incredibly entertaining. The film opens on an attack on an ape stronghold and the sequence is stunning. Oddly, we're largely sided with the humans from this scene but it's only as a means to display the utterly terrifying power that the apes have gained since the last film. For many, this scene has proved to be the standout set piece but I preferred the set piece nearer the end, based around the base of the humans. Glimpses of it has appeared in the trailer but when all seen together on screen, it's a scene that is as poetic as it is astoundingly massive. None of this would work without the incredible visuals effects work of course and while they do a good job polishing the action, it is obviously the rendering of the apes that they deserve recognition for. Caesar was nearly photo realistic in the last film and while there isn't quite a graphical leap here as large as the one between Rise and Dawn, there is still definitely improvement, to the point where I wasn't even thinking about how good the effects were. These characters were simply fully fleshed out, in every sense of the word.
I want to talk about this film for another paragraph though because there's something here I really want to talk about, that's also come up in many of my other recent (non-Planet of the Apes) reviews and that thing is cine-literacy. What that essentially means is awareness of other films that exist in a similar tone or concept and often referencing them, implicitly or explicitly. Spider-Man did this, Baby Driver was absolutely full of this and War is no different. Obviously, as part of a franchise that's almost fifty years old now, it owes a debt to the films from before and it acknowledges that. I've described many of them as cheesy and schlocky but this film holds them in much higher regard. Characters are given names of characters from before (Nova and Cornelius being the obvious examples here), themes like all out war are borrowed from Battle with the more personal element of a rebellion clearly being from Conquest and the humans of this film share a faction name with a nuclear bomb from Beneath, not an accident considering their destructive power. More than that, there's tonal references to some of the all time great war films. The aggressively anti-war elements that the film slowly adopts are similar to that of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and a similar tone, with an approach on the darkness of the individual from Apocalypse Now (not to mention Ape-ocalypse Now being scrawled across the landscape as it was in Coppola's film). It's not just cine-literate though as there also seems to be some subtle historical references. Without getting too in depth with it, the origins of the name Caesar are no secret but the references to his legacy seem to echo Julius Caesar's relationship with Octavian, his successor. References don't necessarily make a film smart but when they're as well chosen as they are here, it certainly helps.
I'm not sure if you worked it out but I love this film. It's smart, it's exciting and it's the Planet of the Apes film that we need right now, as little as that phrase means. Having since gone through all of the Planet of the Apes films, I have a daring statement: this may be the best Planet of the Apes film ever made. I feel like there's a chance this film can go up in my estimations even further (only a second rewatch can tell for sure) but for now I feel comfortable saying this is an excellent film and definitely deserves a
Comments
Post a Comment