SPOILER FREE
Before going into my review of War For The Planet Of The Apes, let me first give a brief recap on my thoughts on the earlier installments in the series. Like many fans, I enjoyed the Charlton Heston original classic and watched all of it's numerous sequels on VHS while growing up. I enjoyed Tim Burton's remake although I found it to be weird and awkward. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was a breath of fresh air for the Planet Of The Apes universe and was a step in the right direction that would lead to bigger and better things. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes was bigger, darker, and more intense than Rise as it felt like the Empire Strikes Back of the trilogy. With War For The Planet Of The Apes, the trilogy comes full circle while ending it's story arc with a strong emotional chord that makes it the Return Of The King/Return Of The Jedi of the newly rebooted franchise. Three years after the events of the second movie, the story picks up where it left off with Ceasar killing Koba after he initiated a War between the humans and the apes. The humans and apes attempts to coexist proved to be useless thanks to Kobas actions and now the lead ape Ceasar played brilliantly by Andy Serkis, further pushing the envelope with stop motion while opening the debate of whether his style of action can qualify for an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, fights to protect his species from a ruthless and corrupt criminal played brilliantly by Woody Harrelson. War For The Planet Of The Apes essentially feels like like a mixture of the Planet Of The Apes universe combined with Schindler's List and 12 Years A Slave as the film contains a much deeper emotional core than the previous two films along with a powerful message regarding the will to survive and how humanity committing genocide against a sentinet species will not allow the opposite species to survive. The film tackles the conflict of whether it's morally right to imprison and kill off a species that has the ability to communicate with each other and feels emotion. Out of the three Planet Of The Apes films, War is the most powerful as it's main themes regarding prejudice, genocide, survival, and anarchy are beautifully explored and conveyed with such drive and passion behind the story. Woody Harrelsons character feels like Ralph Fiennes from Schindler's List as he expresses no other emotion than intense dislike for the apes. War For The Planet Of The Apes presents a story that's both poignant and powerful with a narrative that has direct parallels to earlier parts of human history where humans mistreated, enslaved, and killed off other humans for their own survival and superiority complex. War takes the series to newer heights while ending it's story on a grand and blockbuster note that compliments all the themes that were well established in the previous film's. Whereas most blockbusters that come out entertain but don't allow the audience to think about its concepts or scenario after the credits roll, War is the rare summer blockbuster that's both genuine and commanding with it's style, presentation, and ultimate message about the wrongs of genocide.
In the end War For The Planet Of The Apes succeeds where most third movies in trilogies fail in which it not only manages to top the first two installments, but provides a stunning and epic conclusion to a worthy trilogy. The film deserves Oscar nomination for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and a Best Actor nomination for Andy Serkis, however because of it's genre and Serkis performance being stop motion effects, the likelihood of any nominations in those major categories is very slim with the odds being it'll secure techmical nominations for sound, visual effects, and the Cinematography which is breathtaking. The snowy atmosphere of the film truly gives the story a Schindler's List type feel as well as emphasizing the mood of the film being a depressing yet emotionally powerful experience. The visual and stop motion effects are at its finest here, and it's amazing to see how much of a progression the character of Ceasar has started since the first movie until now. The moments in the film where Ceasar has visions of Koba and begins to follow a similar behavioral pattern to his old nemesis is deeply compelling as Ceasar is torn between doing the right thing for his people yet feels the rage Koba felt towards humans for how they treated the apes. As far as movie trilogies go, War For The Planet Of The Apes will go down as being one of the best of all time as it set out to successfully reestablish the popular franchise while bringing it's story into modern times while building on it with provocative themes that add weight to it as a summer blockbuster. With the Apes trilogy, director Matt Reeves can be proud of the fact that he not only created a consistent and memorable set of blockbuster movies that makes a great trilogy, but also that it beautifully mirrors human nature with it's themes and character arcs. Rarely has both Andy Serkis and Woody Harrelsen been better than how both are presented here. War For The Planet Of The Apes is a magnificent conclusion to the newer Ape trilogy that will not only please those who are fans of the first two movies, but will make them reflect on the ending of this movie after it's over while feeling the emotion of the climax. For that reason, Reeves and the cast and crew behind War For The Planet Of The Apes deserve a bow.
9 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment