War for the Planet of the Apes

Year: 2017
Genre: Sci-Fi Action
Directed: Matt Reeves
Stars: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval, Amiah Miller, Terry Notary, Ty Olsson, Michael Adamthwaite, Toby Kebbell, Gabriel Chavarria, Judy Greer, Sara Canning
Production: 20th Century Fox

War for the Planet of the Apes and by extension the Planet of the Apes reboot series (2011-Present) is a surprisingly rare breed in today's seemingly never ending cultural centrifuge. It's a remarkably old-fashioned movie - grandiose and exalted in a blockbuster-y way and definately not as happily disposable as some. Every time a few years go by while we're all obsessing over Star Wars (1977-Present), Marvel (2008-Present), X-Men (2000-Present), Harry Potter (2001-Present), DC and whatever the hell they're trying to do with Godzilla; one of these Ape movies lands and practically instructs us on how sci-fi should be done. Then after months of discussion centered around the premise that Andy Serkis should get an Oscar for his motion capture work, the Ape series just seems to vanish from the cultural landscape. It's the equivalent of a dumb political argument being hashed out over Facebook where a third party drops some actual knowledge and gets nothing as far as responses.

The irony of course is Planet of the Apes, from its inception is political allegory told with an almost refreshing amount of pedagoguery. It knows where it stands and dammit, if you're not right there with it, then you may as well be cracking the whip on the backs of its protagonists. Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) and certainly Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) are all impassioned screeds that highlight one form of contemporary injustice or another. And their none-too-shy about expressing it either.

Which brings me to War of the Planet of the Apes which definitely follows in that tradition. I mean, the main villain is an angry, paranoid, borderline fascist, with arrogant notions of racial superiority, preoccupied with the building of a wall that will ultimately do nothing. After said villain (Harrelson) disrupts and devastates the lives of the intelligent apes, the lead ape Caesar (Serkis in beast-mode), resolves to put an end to this newest threat. He's aided of course by his most trusted brothers in arms Rocket (Notary), Luca (Adamthwaite) and Maurice (Konoval) all of whom accompany him on an almost mythic campaign to decide once and for all who will be the dominant species on the planet.

To say more would constitute as spoilers, lest to say that the movie often doesn't go the way you would expect and it is always to the delight of the audience. The film's unexpected twists and turns are bolstered by director Matt Reeves's confident direction, Michael Seresin's masterful DP work and an evocative score by Michael Giacchino. Not satisfied with merely concluding the story, War for the Planet of the Apes injects just enough personal turmoil, moral ambiguities and moments of contemplation into the story to render it more fable-like than its predecessors. Let it be said that out of all the movies, War is the least about the many and more about "the one."

Yet out of this ambition, also comes some of War's worst transgressions. Every emotional coda over the film's nearly two and a half hour run time yields fewer and fewer rewards, becoming noticeably askew sometime around Harrelson's well acted but clunky exposition dump. That problem is then compacted by a high-flying third act climax, that bends our suspension of disbelief with awkward staging, forced character changes and a resolution that feels just a bit too pat.

I mean, talking about this guy winning an Oscar is good too...

There's no denying however, this installment will leave an impression and give audiences renewed appreciation for the series as a whole. I'd still contend that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the best film in the rebooted series, though War will invariably give us all something to really talk and think about. Whether it sticks is ultimately up to you.

Final Grade: B