THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The 2010s was an impressive decade for 20th Century (Fox) Studios because they proved some franchises have enough gas in the tank to tell more stories that should be shared. Their finest example was Pierre Boule’s Planet of the Apes which got to be explored in a prequel saga. Rise showed the outbreak that wiped out most of the human race. Dawn showed the origin of the rivalry between apes and humans, but it was War that showed how the humans lost their voice.
PLOT
The 2017 film takes place two years after the conflict of evolved apes and devolved humans began thanks to it being caused by a traumatized bonobo Koba (Toby Kebbell), who would be killed by the leading chimpanzee Caesar. Within the past two years, the ruthless Colonel McCullough has been leading an ‘Alpha-Omega’ militia to wipe out the ape colony and every ape that has chosen to help the humans, whether it is still believing in Koba’s actions or being afraid of Caesar, would be branded as `donkeys’. After one platoon assault, the apes are able to repel the outcome and Caesar spares the surviving attackers. One gorilla donkey credited as ‘Red’ is taken in as prisoner, but is able to get away according to an albino gorilla named Winter who tried to escort him into imprisonment. Once the apes regroup, Caesar’s son Blue Eyes (Max Lloyd Jones) and chimp Lieutenant Rocket return from a personal expedition, sharing they found an oasis that would be safer than the forest. However, the Colonel leads a raid overnight intending to kill Caesar. Instead, he kills Blue Eyes and Caesar’s wife Cornelia (Judy Greer) assuming he was assassinating the ape leader. Although his younger son Cornelius (Devyn Dalton) was able to avoid harm, Caesar vows to get revenge by pursuing the Colonel. He leaves Cornelius to be watched over by Blue Eyes’ mate Lake (Sara Canning) as they reach the oasis without him. However, Rocket, Caesar’s orangutan adviser & friend Maurice and gorilla chief commander Luca choose to go with him to help. As the four apes travel together to track down the colonel, they find one militiaman on his own. Caesar would kill him out of self defense, but would end up finding his daughter who has trouble speaking. Out of guilt, Maurice insists to bring her along as there is no one else to protect her. When finding a military camp, they find Winter to have defected as a donkey, confirming he gave away their location to the colonel, believing Red would spare him if he let him go. Before killing him however, the albino shared Colonel’s militia is heading north toward a border. The next day, Caesar’s group would reach snowy mountains and encounter three soldiers get shot for losing their capability to speak like the girl. They then encounter another chimp dubbed ‘Bad Ape’ who originates from Sierra Zoo and learned how to speak by listening to humans. He guides them to Colonel’s hideout in the mountains but when trying to get closer to figure out what’s going on, a human patrol kills Luca. Feeling all the more guilty, he abandons his group and tries going in alone. However, he discovers the rest of his tribe including Cornelius have been captured and learns from a dying ape they’re being forced to build a wall for the humans. When he gets captured, he gets put to work to build the wall as well and learns from an imprisoned Lake none of the apes except the donkeys have been fed since being brought in. This leads to the ape leader standing up to the colonel and demanding his kind to be fed, putting his life at risk. By night, the colonel chooses to confess to him why the wall is being made in the first place: Some humans have started to lose their voice because the Simian Flu has mutated and it started with the colonel’s own son. This alone makes him believe it would be the beginning of humans to become the new primitive animals. Wanting to maintain the outbreak, he would kill all that became infected and burn everything touched by the infected. This led to a disagreement between him and another militia who despite being afraid of apes as well, believe there can be a cure for the virus which would stop them from killing each other. The colonel needs the apes to build the wall to protect his group from the attack he challenged. By morning, the rest of the apes are fed as Caesar requested, in exchange for him being starved. Outside the base, Maurice and the others plan to break out everyone before the fight they’re unaware of starts. They find a tunnel that directs them under the base, hoping to sneak out every ape undetected. As they dig through the tunnels, Maurice names the mute child ‘Nova’ after the titular car word mark given to her by Bad Ape. Nova does decide to tend to Caesar by sneaking in and feeding him, but Rocket would have to get himself captured in order for her to escape. This benefits them in the long run, as this helps Caesar learn the plan to escape. By the next morning, the colonel confiscates Nova’s doll she left behind. Maurice and Bad Ape stop digging when discovering a flood they would seal. All apes are able to sneak out as planned, but Caesar still considers to strike vengeance by killing the colonel. He changes his mind when discovers his enemy to have lost his voice as well for touching Nova’s contagious doll. Rather than shooting him personally, he lets the colonel take his own life. Just as most of the apes sneak out, the opposing military begin their attack. In the midst of the action, the colonel’s army shoot as much escapees as they could. Red would then come to his senses and accept he’s on the wrong side. Caesar would try to wipe out the colonel’s forces by destroying a fuel tank, but gets shot by Preacher, a soldier he spared. Red would do right by Caesar by killing Preacher with a grenade launcher, getting shot by another soldier as well in the process. Caesar would set off the tank in the process and avoid the impact. The explosion would wipe out one militia, whereas an avalanche takes out the other. With both human parties dealt with, the apes reach the oasis as planned. Just upon arrival though, Caesar would succumb to the same crossbow wound caused by Preacher. With Maurice seeing his health declining, he promises his son will grow up knowing what he did for them all. The film would end with Caesar peacefully passing away and Maurice would tragically announce the death of his friend & leader to the colony.
THOUGHTS
Due to enjoying Rise and Dawn so much, expectations were high on how things would come full circle for this specific arc, which only impresses me to see the big payoff. Director Matt Reeves succeeds in making a chapter that raises its suspense at any given chance, while also expressing inevitable hopefulness, proving exactly how unpredictable this setting is. What hasn’t been said before in this franchise is how compelling the scores are. Alexandre Desplat sure made something neat with Rise, but it’s Michael Giacchino that nails the epic tone here that was done here just like he did for Dawn. The motion capture visual effects arguably peak here because the details done to make the apes lifelike are enhanced exponentially. Whether it is a scar, a birthmark, differentiating the hair color or making the hair wet due to the rain, it was incredible to behold. This benefited the action scenes as well due to being eye-glueing to witness. You get hooked with the opening shootout and remain so from each chase to the unexpected avalanche. Scene by scene, the editing & cinematography went hand in hand in incredible fashion. Overall, this film holds up with the rest of the 2010s predecessors because of its way to tell us our morals will test us the older we get and in this case, you must decide if you’re a selfless leader or a soulless dictator. In my opinion, leadership is the better choice because it has our hearts intact and this lesson well executed thanks to a great ensemble. For the last time, Andy Serkis gives his best outing in the role of Caesar who has his will visibly tested on whether or not vengeance is more important than survival. The loss of his family was so sudden and he hated himself for failing to protect them, not wanting to run away in vain of them. Even killing Koba haunted him because he broke his own rule for the greater good and wished he didn’t have to. He was emotionally crippled and felt he’d be healed from it all if he killed the colonel. His will was continuously tested when being a prisoner of war, but he chooses to let the colonel finish himself off because he understood he wouldn’t be better doing to him what he was trying to do first. Caesar’s death was a logical moment to happen because every reign of leadership comes to an end at some point. It was still tragic to get through by the end because he had to die to find peace for himself and his colony. While it wasn’t what any ape had in mind at this point, it was a sacrifice worth making because at the least this specific era get to have peace and it’s up to future generations as shown in Kingdom to decide what they want. Considering what an influence Caesar had towards everyone, it was impressive to see how much of it had towards certain characters. Karin Konoval made Maurice more nurturing than before which was beneficial because someone had to be in the middle where he understood Caesar’s motive but reminded him acting on revenge doesn’t make him different from Koba. This nurturing presence continued when it came to the innocent Nova, well played by the young Amish Miller, because he doesn’t hesitate owning up to consequences of war and felt redeemed being the absent parent she needed to have a decent life. Terry Notary & Michael Adamthwaite make an impact as Rocket & Luca respectively in their given time because they both were naturally loyal allies to Caesar who knew he had logical ideas on how to handle their problems. They indeed proved their said loyalty in more surprising ways than one. Rocket proved it when taking a beating from Luca after getting captured, just to alert Caesar the plan to escape, whereas Luca shockingly died protecting him. Going into new characters, Steve Zahn was quite the treat as Bad Ape. He is the exact opposite of the name humans gave him because he’s friendly to all and acts out of feeling anxious. He was rightfully hesitant to direct Caesar to the colonel’s camp because he knew it was a risk. However, he came around because he knew how much he meant well. It was cute how quick the colony accepted him upon rescue because it would’ve not been possible had he not stumbled into the tunnel. While most characters had a clear conscience, some were still conflicted. Aleks Paunovic showed Winter to be one who acted out of fear, but Ty Olsson made Red one who thought acting as manipulative would favor him infinitely. That feeling changed when he saw the casualties and witnessed how his decisions would affect others around him. This alone excuses his redemption where he dies defending Caesar. While Caesar’s motives make the most sense, it is not the only one interesting. Woody Harrelson was downright intimidating as the Colonel because he’s remorseless throughout when choosing to ensure the survival of his race, only to make it more about himself. Maybe he wished he didn’t have to kill his only son to maintain the outbreak, but it won’t affect his decisions when it comes to defining his greater good. Hell, there’s even a deleted scene where he confessed in killing Malcolm, which broke my heart as well. He was against making a cure because he didn’t believe it would be more efficient than his motives. It ends up being a relief for him to be killed because those who refuse to see things another way shouldn’t stick around in an apocalypse. Gabriel Chavarria also surprised me as Preacher because you want to assume he’s conflicted like Red, but every time we see him, he clarifies that he is on the same page as his superior and he sure as hell proved when shooting Caesar, despite being in awe when first meeting him. It’s a relief for him to be taken out as well because he wouldn’t made the same mistakes as the Colonel. This film will hold up just as well as the rest, but there’s still a few things that could’ve done better storywise. For example, I know we need an excuse for the colonel to cripple Caesar emotionally by killing Blue Eyes & Cornelia, but why is Winter sent alone with Red? It makes no sense really because there’s no shortage of apes so there should’ve been a witness on how Red escaped. If I gotta go into continuity errors, I don’t like it how Luca speaks in sign language while Caesar isn’t even looking in sign language. It’s not like he’s telepathic so they should’ve just let Luca speak as much as Maurice would. The same goes with Lake when she tries to speak to everyone around her while carrying a rock. It’s kind of a miracle the apes substitute eating grain provided by the colonel, since they appear to eat anything edible, but why is grain the only thing he can offer? I know he ain’t gonna make soup for everyone, but there should be some fruit/vegetables for them to ration at least. And why the hell would he touch Nova’s doll without wearing a glove? He’s been so cautious on preventing an outbreak yet he doesn’t maintain that mindset when he sees something that should’ve not been on Caesar’s cell. It was pretty funny when Rocket threw poop at a guard to incapacitate him and escape undetected, but what throws me off is how that one guy appears to be the only one on watch. I don't want to root for the bad guys, but they should know damn well more guards to watch the apes would’ve prevented an escape, especially since there wasn’t anyone to keep an eye on Caesar. It also was badass when Caesar sets off the chain reaction when triggering an explosion from the fuel tank, but why does it take so long for it to happen? And I don’t point this out due to Preacher shooting him, but due to all the commotion that was going on between both human groups. I mean that should’ve went off way before Caesar acted on it. Ignore this, then you’ll love this movie as much as I have. In conclusion, War for the Planet of the Apes is a great conclusion to a personal trilogy for being a great send-off for an incredible arc. If you enjoyed the previous two, I promise you’ll love this too.
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