2017: The Year in Film: "War for the Planet of the Apes" Review

So honestly, kind of out of nowhere the modern Planet of the Apes prequel series has become one of my favorite movie series. Featuring strong characterization, an incredible CGI performance from Andy Serkis, great effects, and unexpectedly thoughtful plotting, War for the Planet of the Apes quietly became maybe my single most anticipated film of the year, even before the reviews started to come out and it wound up with the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of the series.

So if you're out there thinking that these movies look dumb, I encourage you to give them a chance. Rise of the Planet of the Apes follows an exceptional young chimp named Caesar who is raised in secret by a scientist following an incident at his lab. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes shows us a burgeoning ape society as it buts up against the remnants of humanity following the devastating plague set off by the events of Rise. Enter: War. After the events of Dawn, co-existence between human and ape became all but impossible, and the future fate of the planet hangs in the balance.

The Good: this film is the largest in scope of the series, and that's absolutely a good thing. The framing and themes of the entire series to now become crystal clear as Caesar's struggle and arc come to their fateful conclusion. I won't go into too many spoilers but the epic biblical elements of the series really frame the whole endeavor in a brighter light. It's incredibly bold to frame your ape protagonist in messianic/biblical imagery, but it works, and the end result is the single best example of Judeo-Christian allegory in modern film. This flick and this series feels more like the epic films of old than it does its modern sci-fi brethren. None of this would work without the remarkable performance of Andy Serkis (most famously known, of course, as Golem in the Lord of the Rings films). He imbues Caesar with a fundamental humanity and sadness that rises above your typical CGI characters and makes Caesar, for me, one of the most memorable movie characters in any film of the last decade. With a title like War for the Planet of the Apes you know this film will be going to some dark places but writer/director Matt Reeves (his next film is crossfit Batman you guys) really takes this one in some surprising and unexpected directions. I think this film would potentially have been boring if it were nothing but battles and action sequences but its surprisingly subdued and rests on its fundamental "humanity" (insofar as CGI apes have humanity), as all of the films thus far have. Maurice remains the best non-Caesar character going, and Woody Harrelson's villain brings a larger than life menace, an epic foil to the proceedings. Despite the long runtime, this film feels like a great ending to a great series, and a potential jumping-off point to the classic Planet of the Apes scenario of film fame.




The Bad: honestly, I don't have very much to complain about here as I honestly thought this film was front to back great and want Andy Serkis to be nominated for best actor, but the Steve Zahn comic relief character is just... too much. These are dark proceedings, to be sure, with the film not shying away from slavery, war, genocide, bondage, civil rights, and SOME comic relief was surely needed, but his character is preposterous. The long runtime (2 hrs 20 mins) drags in parts as well.

Ultimately, for fans of the series, this is surely the best one. Caesar is simply an incredibly memorable character done in a genre-defying way. The scope, ambition, and execution of this flick make it rise above your typical blockbuster fare in a way that will (hopefully) have you thinking about some big, epic questions. Personally, I loved the allusions, allegory and references to human history done in a clever, compelling way. I don't believe it's hyperbole to state that this modern Apes series takes its place among all-time great film trilogies.

9/10.

2014: The Year in Film: "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" Review

The first latter-day Planet of the Apes flick was one of the more pleasant surprises in recent years. Even with the presence of a whole lot of James Franco, it was still a surprisingly emotionally effective portrait of Caesar, the legendary founder of the ape world referenced in the original Planet of the Apes, and how he came to be so special. Through Andy "Gollum" Serkis' CGI acting, Caesar came to be as fully realized and likable a character as any live human, so the sequel became one of my more highly anticipated movies of the year.

At the close of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we saw that the virus responsible for Caesar and the other apes' cognitive development was also lethal to humans and quickly spreading across the globe.  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens with Caesar and his ape society several years later having built a peaceful society all their own in the forests of Northern California. A chance encounter with some humans scouting a nearby dam sets the human colony and the ape colony on an inevitable collision course.

The Good: First, props goes to everyone involved in bringing the apes to life. Sure they are CGI and don't always look as real as they maybe should - BUT THEY ARE 100% CGI and still look pretty damn great. These are characters who barely speak, if they speak at all, and they are wholly realized, developed, and capable of having emotionally resonant moments with one another and with their human counterparts. Special praise, obviously, goes to Andy Serkis as Caesar, who just might be one of the great characters, CGI or otherwise, in film of the last 10 years, (Not an exaggeration) but Maurice is especially endearing for me and Koba makes a pretty damn great villain. The human cast is strong as well, with the criminally underused Jason Clarke (BIG Jason Clarke fan over here, guys) standing out in a role that sees him interacting at least 50% of the time with CGI apes. Gary Oldman does more with his role than a lesser actor might have, and Keri Russell is more than adequate. The post-apocalyptic cityscape of San Francisco is pretty well done, and reminded me of The Last of Us.  But at its heart, this is a flick that's about humanity and apes battling, when we know that apes are going to win, and it still manages to be emotionally affecting, strangely touching, smart, suspenseful and occasionally Shakespearian. That's no small feat, especially for an effects-driven summer tentpole.



The Bad: some of the human characters were wooden and poorly drawn, which seems odd for a flick that gave so much development to CGI apes. The "bad" human at the heart of the onset of human-ape conflict was a caricature of a movie bad guy who seemed whisked right over from the set of The Walking Dead.  Additionally, Gary Oldman seems largely wasted - it seems odd to have an actor of his caliber in what amounts to a small role. The ape scenes are SO much better and more entertaining than the human scenes that we find ourselves rooting for the apes from the onset - which I'm not sure is exactly the point of the Planet of the Apes series.

In all, this is a surprisingly smart and touching summer blockbuster, one in which the action scenes serve a purpose and don't overwhelm everything else that's going on. At its heart, this is a film about Caesar, one charismatic CGI ape, and the best motion-capture acting happening anywhere right now.  This film has a lot to say, even if it's not QUITE as smart as it thinks it is, and I for one can't wait for the next installment.

8.5/10.