Review 413: War for the Planet of the Apes
War for the Planet of the Apes is a masterful, poignant, emotionally heart-wrenching sci-fi action spectacle and all round one the best conclusions to a trilogy in recent years and on the whole a mind-blowing conclusion to a phenomenal trilogy.
Two years after the events of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his tribe are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans lead by a ruthless colonel (Woody Harrelson). After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and inner demons and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the planet.
The plot is an emotionally draining but also rewarding experience. By this point in the series, the war between the apes and the humans has ravaged the Earth. Humanity is on the brink of extinction as a result of the simian flu mutating with many retreating back to a Stone Age state as a result of loosing their cognitive ability and maybe, their brain intelligence and Caesar and his fellow apes are just trying to survive. As the title implies War for the Planet of the Apes is, at its core, unabashedly a war movie,
There are a lot of biblical themes present throughout War for the Planet of the Apes which are evident in the relationship between Casper and the Colonel as he’s a military leader with pretensions towards godhood. Director Matt Reeves has compared their relationship to the dynamic between
War is also a quest narrative with mythic Western overtones; Once the Colonel strikes a blow to Caesar’s pack, he goes on a journey of revenge to find him, flanked by a posse of close friends that is very reminiscent of Clint Eastwood’s war-weary soldier, Josey Wales in The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Returning Matt Reeves' direction is unobtrusive, the special effects are just tremendous, the score by Michael Giacchino is magnificent, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the grim, desolate landscapes of the Earth. The scenery is breathtaking, the production design is tremendous (the post apocalyptic Earth that the war between the humans and apes have reduced it to is unforgiving, brutal and wasteland that at times evokes imagery from the the original Planet of the Apes.
the costumes are terrifically rugged, the make up is splendid and rich in detail and the ending has a tragic but poignant sense of
The acting is tremendous, Andy Serkis By this point, Caesar has been thrust into circumstances that he never, ever wanted to deal with and was hoping against hope that he could do everything in his power to avoid it. And now he's right in the middle of it. The events in this film test & push him in huge ways. Ways in which his relationship with Koba in the last film haunt him deeply. This film takes him on a profound journey that's going to cement his status as seminal figure in ape history and sort of leads to an almost biblical status, like a mythic ape figure akin to Moses leading his people to a promised land.
Woody Harrelson is simply fantastic as The Colonel, a character who exists in the grey area, he is ruthless and merciless in his crusade for survival but sympathetic in that underneath his brutal exterior, he's a man driven and twisted by fear into devolving into an animal as a result of the Simian Flu, just like everyone else in these circumstances. This has forced him to go to the extreme to kill any humans who show signs of devolving as a result of that virus.
He wants nothing more than to preserve what's left of the human race and humanity in general. The way the Simian Flu is progressing, it's going to send the human race back to the stone age and he wants to prevent that no matter what and from his perspective that's a pure thought.
Steve Zahn is mesmerising as Bad Ape. Once a common chimpanzee who lived in a zoo before the Simian Flu outbreak and has lived in solitude ever since
Ultimately Bad Ape brings much required levity & lighthearted to an otherwise dark and grim film.
Amiah Miller is a true find in this film playing Nova, a mute orphan girl who Caesar, Maurice take under their wing on their travels. She been exposed to the horrors of war, the apocalypse and the collapse of human civilisation that no child should have to witness coupled with the fact that she cannot speak as a result of the Simian Flu mutating.
War for the Planet of the Apes is 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
Returning Matt Reeves' direction is unobtrusive, the special effects are just tremendous, the score by Michael Giacchino is magnificent, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the grim, desolate landscapes of the Earth. The scenery is breathtaking, the production design is tremendous (the post apocalyptic Earth that the war between the humans and apes have reduced it to is unforgiving, brutal and wasteland that at times evokes imagery from the the original Planet of the Apes.
the costumes are terrifically rugged, the make up is splendid and rich in detail and the ending has a tragic but poignant sense of
The acting is tremendous, Andy Serkis By this point, Caesar has been thrust into circumstances that he never, ever wanted to deal with and was hoping against hope that he could do everything in his power to avoid it. And now he's right in the middle of it. The events in this film test & push him in huge ways. Ways in which his relationship with Koba in the last film haunt him deeply. This film takes him on a profound journey that's going to cement his status as seminal figure in ape history and sort of leads to an almost biblical status, like a mythic ape figure akin to Moses leading his people to a promised land.
Woody Harrelson is simply fantastic as The Colonel, a character who exists in the grey area, he is ruthless and merciless in his crusade for survival but sympathetic in that underneath his brutal exterior, he's a man driven and twisted by fear into devolving into an animal as a result of the Simian Flu, just like everyone else in these circumstances. This has forced him to go to the extreme to kill any humans who show signs of devolving as a result of that virus.
He wants nothing more than to preserve what's left of the human race and humanity in general. The way the Simian Flu is progressing, it's going to send the human race back to the stone age and he wants to prevent that no matter what and from his perspective that's a pure thought.
Steve Zahn is mesmerising as Bad Ape. Once a common chimpanzee who lived in a zoo before the Simian Flu outbreak and has lived in solitude ever since
Ultimately Bad Ape brings much required levity & lighthearted to an otherwise dark and grim film.
Amiah Miller is a true find in this film playing Nova, a mute orphan girl who Caesar, Maurice take under their wing on their travels. She been exposed to the horrors of war, the apocalypse and the collapse of human civilisation that no child should have to witness coupled with the fact that she cannot speak as a result of the Simian Flu mutating.
War for the Planet of the Apes is 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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