Certificate – 12A
Directed by – Matt Reeves
Starring – Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn.
Running Time – 140 Minutes (2 hours 20 minutes)
★★★★½
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| IMAGE VIA 20TH CENTURY FOX |
When they were announced, I wasn’t interested in these Ape-prequels until I saw a trailer for Matt Reeves’ Dawn of The Planet of the Apes. So I went back and within 24 hours I saw Rise (A brilliant film) at home then Dawn (utterly fantastic) in my local independent cinema. From there, my hype for War was matched by the trailers and it pleases me to say War for The Planet of the Apes is the perfect finish to a perfect trilogy.
In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar (Serkis) and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel (Harrelson). After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in the epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.
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This film is superb from beginning to end and as I said above Reeves has finished this trilogy perfectly and will be in the discussions for one of the best trilogies ever alongside the original Star Wars, The Dark Knight and Toy Story.
It has two reasons why. Firstly, Reeves storytelling and direction, he was able to pick up where Rupert Wyatt left it at the end of Rise and continue to tell Caesar’s story about this ape who just wants to protect his fellow ape, while also protecting humans that you can see he still has a strong connection too. But certain events push him down a darkened hole and you can see he’s slowly losing the battle.
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Caesar is basically Batman and this is why Reeves is the perfect person to direct The Batman.
This all leads to War and Reeves has laid on the emotions, who knew I could cry and have these raw emotions towards a CGI Ape.
Also, the Forrest and Winter stuff is shot beautifully and Reeves does a great job with the contrast between the damp, slight darknesses of the Forrest and night shots and the bright white of the snow bouncing onto the screen.
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The other reason for making this a perfect trilogy is down to Serkis as Caesar as you see him becoming more human in every film and the rough, mumble to Caesar’s voice is the effect of the pain he’s been through and truly think this is some of the best acting Serkis has ever done.
War isn’t all depressing and emotional, Reeves does add some humour to lift the film in the form of Steve Zahn’s Bad Ape. He tells this touching story about his name but then he wants to impress Caesar and co because Bad Ape has friends again.
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However, Caesar would be a different person if it wasn’t for Maurice (played beautifully by Karin Konoval) and is there to make sure his friend stays in the light and be the voice of reason. This highlighted when he befriends a young, mute girl (Amiah Miller) and we see these two characters bond and we bond with them yet no one says a word. This is the power of Reeves’ storytelling and what cinema can do.
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This film (like the previous Apes films) because we have to care about all these characters who communicate for the most part with simple looks and silences.
I only have a few negatives and the big one being, don’t see this film in 3D! It’s pointless and doesn’t add anything to the film.
Even though he’s menacing and a bit mental, the Colonel is a bit of an idiot in some cases, I don’t want to mention due to spoilers.
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The last thing at 2 hours and 20 minutes, it is too long and 20 minutes could’ve been cut just to make it tighter.
Besides that this film is fantastic and Michael Giacchino redeems himself from the utterly forgettable and crap score to Spider-Man: Homecoming by producing this unbelievable score that deserves another listen.
Verdict
The perfect way to finish the perfect trilogy about an ape becoming human.
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