War for the Planet of the Apes Review
My god, look at your eyes. Almost human.
There is a brilliant film lurking somewhere within War for the Planet of the Apes. Sadly, it’s lost in a frustrating experience that tries too hard to squeeze every last drop of emotion out of its audience. The film is a technical masterclass, with the best CGI ever put on screen and a best-ever motion capture performance from Andy Serkis, but these aren’t quite enough to save War for the Planet of the Apes from feeling like a slog.
The heavy-handedness begins immediately. The film opens with title cards explaining the state of the world, telling us how 15 years ago there was a RISE of genetically enhanced apes. After the virus that heightens the apes’ intelligence wiped out most of humanity, there was a DAWN of a new age for humanity (or something). Now, years later, apes and humans are locked in a raging WAR. And in case capitalising and bolding those words wasn’t enough, as the surrounding text of each title cards fades, the corresponding word remains on screen, flashing red. Starting your film with what essentially amounts to a textual ‘Previously on Planet of the Apes…’ isn’t the strongest move at the best of times, but to so forcibly hammer home the point almost disrespects the audience. This is the case throughout the entirety of War for the Planet of the Apes, which is especially disappointing given how good the previous two films were at respecting the audience’s intelligence. The story itself is actually fairly simple. Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his simian buds have set up a secret base in the woods. When the human forces find out where the apes are, they mount an attack led by a fascistic figure known only as The Colonel (but I bet his real name his Kurt Kurtz or something. On second thought, that might be a bit too subtle for this film) which leads to severe losses on Caesar’s side. Driven by vengeance, Caesar sets out on a quest to find The Colonel (Woody Harrelson) and settle the score. The plot is admirably low key and I like the decision to frame the most personal story of the trilogy against the large-scale backdrop of all-out war. Photographed beautifully by Michael Seresin, the film makes repeated use of close-ups, with characters staring straight down the barrel of the lens. Although the magnitude of the situation is much larger, we never forget that this is a personal story of humanity, even if an over-reliance on this technique somewhat blunts its impact as the film goes on.
The issue here isn’t with the story, then, and it certainly doesn’t lie with the film’s technical aspects. The CGI work on display is nothing short of astonishing and full credit goes to the visual effects team. Extended sequences play out without a single flesh-and-bone human character on screen and it never matters. Much of this is of course down to the wonderful motion capture work being done, most notably by Andy Serkis. Reminding us yet again that he’s the biggest name in the field for a reason, his depiction of Caesar sets a new bar of excellence for motion capture performance. The issue, then, lies in the delivery. The first two films in the series have (rightfully) been highly praised as major blockbusters that actually have something to say and I find myself feeling that, of the three, War has the least to say and makes the biggest deal about saying it. The film is emotional, yes, but it also feels emotionally manipulative in a way that its predecessors didn’t. Every impactful moment is drawn out a bit too long and every philosophical idea and allegory is belaboured to the point that you begin to wonder if Matt Reeves thinks he’s cleverer than you. The film is so concerned with making sure everyone knows how smart it is, that it forgets to actually be smart. The rife Vietnam imagery was effective at first, but once it’s reached the point of having ‘Ape-pocalypse Now’ scrawled in huge letters and framed centre screen, it’s become a bit tired. Watching War for the Planet of the Apes starts to feel like Reeves is sitting next to you, jabbing you in the ribs at every visual cue and whispering “look, look, get it? It’s like, a metaphor.”
The film is so concerned with making sure everyone knows how smart it is, that it forgets to actually be smart.
Perhaps War for the Planet of the Apes is a victim of its series’ success. Certainly, it’s a better offering than the majority of summer blockbusters, but looking to its immediate predecessor, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (also helmed by Reeves and which this film is tonally much closer to the the first in the series), it’s hard to find anything this latest instalment does better than that film, with the exception of its visual effects. Dawn was so effective in part because of just how different it was to Rise. War, by comparison, appears to be re-treading old ground and doing so much less effectively. Caesar is the only fleshed out character in the entire film and much of that is only due to our history with him through the other two entries. Woody Harrelson does a fine job as The Colonel, but the character is too thinly drawn to feel any connection to him. Steve Zahn makes an appearance as Bad Ape, a character placed in the film purely for (admittedly, much needed) comic relief. While adding humour isn’t a bad thing, that humour coming exclusively from one character, with that character offering nothing else besides, comes off as a lazy attempt to round out the script. The film essentially plays out over four acts, with the entire third act devoted to a prison camp sequence that goes on far too long and centres around a scene in which Woody Harrelson stands and explains everything the film has already suggested visually. Perhaps if it spent a little less time drawing out emotional notes, it could have found a better way to deliver that exposition and develop The Colonel as a character. Similarly, other ideas are introduced and never fully explored. In the first scene of the film, we see apes dressed in military gear, fighting on the humans’ side. A squad leader forcefully pulls an ape towards him and takes something from the ape’s pack before dismissing him with a shove. When he relays the squad’s situation back to The Colonel, we hear him refer to a “donkey”. This is all well done, subtly but clearly communicating that those apes who fight with the humans are treated as sub-human, used for slavery. Throughout the rest of the film, though, this surface level idea is simply driven home in more and more obvious ways, but the dynamic is never explored any further.
War is the longest Planet of the Apes film yet, but much of its screen time is wasted beating you over the head with the same points. It had the potential to be a lean, thought-provoking drama or a full-scale, powerful epic but it gets caught in the middle, wanting to be both and failing to be either. It is neither as moving nor as smart as it thinks it is.
