DIRECTOR Matt Reeves
STARRING Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve
Zahn, Karin Konoval
PLOT Two years after the events of Dawn, the
human military comes to kill Caesar (Serkis). The
botched assassination leaves the ape’s wife and
son dead and any hope of peaceful coexistence in
tatters. Consumed by rage and grief, Caesar
sends his apes to safety and sets out on
a personal quest for vengeance.
WAR FOR THE
PLANET OF THE APES
OUT NOW
RATED M / 140 MINS
HHHHH
NOMENCLATURE HAS ALWAYS
been an issue for the Planet Of The Apes reboot
series. The Apes’ Rise confusingly preceded their
Dawn, which ended with a war. Meanwhile, this
War, which follows the one in Dawn, contains
little actual warfare but a fair bit of uprising.
Disappointed? Don’t be. After the last film’s
ballistic finale, it would have been easy for Matt
Reeves to sit back and hurl fur and fireballs at
the screen for two hours as the battle between
humans and hominids came to a head. But
Reeves is no Michael Bay, and War is a subtler
beast than its title implies.
The film begins with an arboreal firefight
and a camo-striped hit squad invading the apes’
abode. But Reeves soon shifts down a gear,
placing the emphasis more on internal rather
than external conflicts. Caesar spent Dawn
preaching tolerance to a revenge-obsessed Koba
(Toby Kebbell) but here, plagued by visions of
his former friend, he falls into his own heart of
darkness. Unable to set his grievances aside,
Caesar — accompanied by Rocket (Terry
Notary), Luca (Michael Adamthwaite) and
gentle giant Maurice (Karin Konoval) —
embarks upon a journey ‘upriver’ to kill Woody
Harrelson’s swivel-eyed Colonel.
War is the second angry ape movie to
homage Coppola’s ’Nam epic this year, following
in Skull Island’s significantly larger (though still
Notary-shaped) footsteps. Graffiti in the
Colonel’s compound even spells it out, snatching
the low-hanging pun from lazy journalists with a
hastily scrawled ‘Ape-pocalypse Now’. But as the
small group journeys, on horseback, through the
mountains — picking up a mute human girl
(Amiah Miller) along the way — the film more
closely adopts the feel of a ’50s Western: its five
riders setting forth into a sweeping new frontier.
But while the bristling tree lines and jagged peaks
of the Canadian Rockies make for a stunning
backdrop, even nature’s beauty can’t hold
a candle to Weta’s.
Dawn’s chest-thumping performance boldly
declared the state of the digital art, dropping
photoreal primates into a forest shoot with
seamless precision. War’s chimp collective is no
less impressive, wowing with its verisimilitude
(marvel at the damp digital fur and snowy pixel
pelts) and dazzling with its subtlety. The apes
have never been more expressive, and while
most still sign rather than speak (although
Caesar’s diction has advanced in leaps and
bounds), the emotion conveyed by their
furrowed faces are worth a dozen pages of
dialogue. “My God,” declares the Colonel,
seeing Caesar up close for the first time.
“Look at your eyes. Almost human.”
It’s no surprise at this point that Serkis’ is
a monkey who knows his business. Cementing his
credentials as one of the most gifted (and
overlooked) actors currently working, Serkis not
only captures the chimp physicality perfectly, but
imbues Caesar with both elemental fury and
a hard-edged compassion, further shaping the
evolution that began two films ago. Harrelson,
meanwhile, brings A-grade crazy to the nameless
Colonel, whether ranting — Kurtz-like — about
the human condition, or gazing down at his
troops like a freshly shorn Immortan Joe.
Starting out as a messianic crackpot, he’s lent
both depth and pathos by an ingenious plot pivot
that hints at how this series may one day brush
snouts with the Hestonverse.
Apes initiate Steve Zahn also shines in
a pleasantly comic turn as former zoo resident
‘Bad Ape’. In a goofy body-warmer and
bobble- hat combo, Zahn brings a levity that has
been painfully lacking from the series until now,
and speaks to a far more varied emotional
landscape this time around.
Instead of doubling-down on bleakness
with the apes’ abusive captivity, Reeves opts
instead for the lighter tone of a POW caper
(‘The Great Esc-Ape’ is another slogan likely
daubed on a wall somewhere). The future isn’t all
grimness and genocide — it seems there’s also
room for pratfalls, poo-flinging, and acts of
surprising tenderness.
That this is a more introspective journey
than advertised will frustrate those expecting to
see an army of irate bonobos rain death upon
their human oppressors. That’s not to say there
isn’t excitement, nor that the finale lacks fire and
brimstone, but the war of the title is primarily
one of the soul. Even Caesar’s revenge, when it
comes, is told with poignant restraint. The
conflict here is one of morality, identity and the
boundaries of humanity; all the guns and
napalm, while present, are secondary to War’s
purpose. A misnomer, certainly, but Existential
Ruminations Of The Planet Of The Apes
wouldn’t sell nearly as much popcorn.
JAMES DYERVERDICT Apes together strong. And, thanks
to an evocative story and the most realistic
anthropoids you’ll find outside a zoo, this
third Apes is the strongest yet.