Friday, July 14, 2017

"War for the Planet of the Apes" review



More Humanity in these Apes then the blockbusters starring actual humans this year.



Set several years after the official start of the Human-Ape war kicked off by 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “War for the Planet of the Apes” not only keeps much of the fictional and metatextual momentum of this film series barreling forward but takes it to heights that I never believed I would have seen again in a blockbuster age where “The Emoji Movie” is going to be a thing.

Reprised by Andy Serkis, Ape Leader Caesar struggles to lead his people to safety in a war that he desperately hopes to end before escalation by showing all sides compassion in the face of adversity and cruelty spurred on by a military colonel played by Woody Harrelson.

The ensuing conflict brings together a film that secures its place as the greatest and most fully realized prequel in cinematic history, an effortless finale to what very well may be a perfect trilogy of films, and a much needed reminder that style and financially backed visual flourishes should exist in service to rich and powerful storytelling.

“War for the Planet of the Apes” is for all intents and purposes a modern science fiction masterpiece.

Using the elements of exaggeration baked into the DNA of the concept, the film utilizes its more ludicrous aspects as a figurative smokescreen to explore philosophical and sociological issues in such a way that strips them down to their very core so effectively, you’re left wondering if any of this could ever have been properly done in a standard human drama with so much impact and weight.

For starters, “War for the Planet of the Apes” may be one of the most effective anti-war films of recent history. Matt Reeves masterfully directs the spectacle and intensity of a human war featuring enhanced nonhuman combatants that would be a thrill to watch purely for entertainment purposes but takes on more meaning when you consider the context of everything at stake.

When certain revelations are brought to light and the Colonel’s motivations are laid out on the table, it becomes more and more clear that despite the possibility of achieving peace and cohabitation existing, our baser instincts will always prevail in a manner counterintuitive to cooperation.

This franchise is ultimately based around the fact that the best thing to ever happen to the Apes as a species catalyzed the fall of humanity and no amount of compassion, aggression, or diplomacy allows these very human characters to escape the opposite ends of the spectrum of fortune that the film’s Simian Flu viral outbreak has landed them on.

As the film’s events set the stage for the world to take on its more iconic state based on the 1968 film that started the series, watching the complexities of Ape society grow proportionally to the raving and radical devolution of the human species attempting to desperately cling to its own decaying familiarity with superiority, this movie more than any of the others hammers home that whatever ending is reached will not be a happy one.

Yet you will find yourself desperately hoping for some defiance of fate to prove you otherwise because you just can’t help but love these characters.

Watching Caesar rise to this point from the orphaned lab experiment of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” offers a payoff in the 6 years that this iteration of the series has been running that even manages to eclipse the 17 year culmination of Hugh Jackman’s final performance as Wolverine in “Logan” earlier this year.

The inevitable reality that Serkis will never receive so much as a nomination for this performance by the Academy should stand as a permanent stain on the worth of their endorsement. He and all of the actors of this movie have created a synchronization between artistic performance and technical mastery with the visual effect and sound crew that are damn near unparalleled in how effectively they feed into one another.

The apes display a range of hurt, love, relief, anger, humor, and sometimes a combination of each and more in a capacity that doesn’t just go beyond the uncanny valley but outright demolishes it.

Ultimately however, if you strip this flick of all of the subtext, emotional complexity, and clever plotting that elevate it so much, you would still have an excellent adventure movie with more than enough visual flair to satisfy, as well as finally figuring out how to frame the human factor of this series, which has always been one of the weaker elements of the last 2 movies, in such a light that garners fascination and tragedy without reaching for unearned sympathy or stretching to the mechanics of the plot.

And it does it all with its head held highly and confidently, refusing to water itself down to reach an audience that probably wouldn’t be interested or stretch itself out for more installments in the name of potential commerce. It completes its story powerfully, without muddying the waters for potential continuation if the studios so chooses to pursue.

“War for the Planet of the Apes” is not a perfect movie; the exaggerations of its premise can lead to a few hokey moments between human and ape interactions while playing on a few tired war story clichés and for the slight dragging that the second act does towards its end, the first hour probably could have done with 5-10 minute trimming that really would have made a noticeable difference.

Yet these flaws, no matter how tangible, as they had even hit me in the movie, never detracted from my unabashed love of the final product, my desire to see it again, and my willingness to have sat though it for another 20 minutes happily had it dared to ask.

“War for the Planet of the Apes” is the kind of rare triumph of a movie that reminds me of why I love film, blockbusters, science fiction, and storytelling in general and my fortune to have witnessed it at a time when Hollywood seems to be in desperate need of a fresh blood transfusion of creative energy and sincerity brought me to near tears as I watched the credits roll.

10 Hammy Charleton Heston Lines out of 10

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