The rebooted “Planet of the Apes” film series is a truly fascinating case in current cinema, especially in regards to how it defines “success”. While the individual movies never lit the world on fire with their mass appeal or box office returns, the new “Planet of the Apes” saga has stood as one of the most critically beloved franchises in cinema over the last few years for its simultaneous narrative and technical strengths. It’s here that we’ll see just what continues to be the secret to that brand of success.
Tensions between the increasingly intelligent apes and the dwindling humans have only escalated since the events of the last movie as the apes are threatened by attack from the military division known as “Alpha-Omega”. After the apes’ longtime leader, Caesar (played once again by Andy Serkis) is attacked in both a personal and literal sense by the unit’s surprise assault, the formerly peace-seeking chimp sets out on a journey to seek vengeance on the ruthless Colonel who led the charge (played by Woody Harrelson). Joined by a party of his closest comrades and ranked tribe members, Caesar seeks out the Alpha-Omega base camp to find the Colonel and open the path for the apes to find a new home, all while discovering humanity’s desperation for continued survival on Earth, and the source of that desperation and hostility towards the increasingly dominant apes.
More than a few critics have credited the new “Planet of the Apes” films with “bringing wonder back into cinema”, and “War’s” dedication to continuing in that tradition is evident from the simplest of glances at it. The motion-capture effects for the apes is probably the best its ever been, and the combination of the stellar, realistic animations and the performances of the “apes” leave little in the way of artificiality. The motion capture actors in this film continue to amaze with their ability to believably emote and move as apes, and nowhere is it more evident than in Andy Serkis’s long-running performance. If ever there was a film that proved that Serkis deserved an Oscar, this would certainly be the case, as he manages to capture Caesar’s emotional turmoil and staunch determination in ways that make you forget that determined character is a chimpanzee. The film’s greatest strength, though, is how it works as thought-provoking science fiction. Dichotomous as the conflict was in the last two movies, it casts most of the sympathy with the apes’ tribe, and while sympathy is granted to the humans in moments, the humans’ positions of antagonists and threats to their world makes for a refreshing take on the titular war, as do Caesar’s discoveries about humanity’s future (which I won’t dare spoil here). The only regret I might even come close to having about seeing this film is that talking about it simply isn’t enough, and I can only hope that those points will strengthen my argument enough. Just in case, though…
“War for the Planet of the Apes” is brilliant in nearly every way, and you owe it to yourself to see this emotional, thought-provoking masterpiece.
Rich Reviews 